A historical review of the Maltese language

Abstract

A historical review of Maltese Language, besides being a subject which might interest the ordinary reader concerned in local historical topics, should more particularly interest students of Maltese literature. Now that the study of Maltese has been introduced into all Government elementary and secondary schools, and its literature, though in its youth, including philological studies bearing on its organic and lexical structure, is a subject taught in the Royal Malta University, it is only too obvious that a knowledge of the history of the development of Maltese as a written language should form one of the subject-matters of advanced Maltese studies. This subject, apart from such considerations, should also appeal to the mind of every Maltese student from a literary and a linguistic point of view. The study of the life of local literature is sure to be more appreciated when it is realized that during the last two decades, Maltese literature, with a spelling which has been now officially and scholastically standardized, has increased so much in volume and entity, that it has fully justified the establishment of a Chair of Maltese Literature and Comparative Philoloqy in our University.