Is English or Maltese the de facto official language in postcolonial bilingual Malta?

Abstract

Multilingualism is prevalent worldwide and there are relatively few countries where more than one language has a legal status. In fact, official bilingual countries such as Malta, Cyprus and Canada - to name a few postcolonial countries - deviate from the norm, when compared to the majority of the countries which are officially monolingual and whose governments do not need to spend large sums of money on bilingual education and on the translation of official documents. Moreover, there are other problems associated with officially bilingual countries. Since it is unlikely that both official languages have the same power and prestige, only one of them is the de facto official language of the country in some domains. In fact, Mackey (1977) contends that there is a chasm between the de jure language policy of a country and the de facto implementation and usage. In a post-colonial country like Malta where English is co-official with the indigenous language, Maltese, which one of the two is the de facto official language? Skurnin (2012) contends that in postcolonial countries it is the former coloniser's language which retains its power. [Excerpt]