Gwida prattika ghall-kitba tal-Malti

Abstract

Maltese orthography presents a hard nut to students and teachers of Maltese alike. The perusal of a normal grammar of Maltese presents the teacher of Maltese who is not specialized in the subject with a number of difficulties. In practice, these can be overcome or at least put aside as irrelevant at a primary level. Such a guide can be found in the booklet L-Ortografija Moderna by Edward Fenech O.S.A., Malta, 1983. Here, a group of 82 rules governing the most common Maltese mistakes are discussed and presented in a threefold manner. In Section I, enumerated practical rules governing such mistakes are given: most of the rules are built on pattern-form, others follow some form of association of ideas, while others are simply presented in their correct form quite often in conjunction with other homophones; in Section II, exercises are given on one or more closely related rules in the same order of presentation as in Section I; in Section III, finally, an alphabetic list of 250 words or particles mentioned in the discussion of the rules in Section I is given for easy reference; every word or particle presented here is followed by the number of the rule under which it is discussed in Section I for easy reference. The booklet contains also an analytical index of all the practical rules in Section I, and a general index.