Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/97211
Title: The meltdown of Maltese - a language perspective
Other Titles: Comparative studies in bilingualism and bilingual education
Authors: Vassallo, Mario
Sciriha, Lydia
Keywords: Maltese language -- Social aspects
National characteristics
Maltese -- Ethnic identity
Anthropological linguistics -- Malta
Issue Date: 2020
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Citation: Vassallo, M., & Sciriha L. (2020). The meltdown of Maltese - a language perspective. In L. Sciriha (Ed.), Comparative studies in bilingualism and bilingual education (pp. 27-50). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Abstract: When Malta, a minuscule island located at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, was governed by a string of foreign powers, be they the French, the Spanish or the British, two important surrogates propped up Maltese national identity: religion and language (Vassallo 2015a). The religion of the Maltese was the Roman Catholic religion. Although Catholicism is essentially an import with roots in the Middle East and for centuries with its control power centred in Rome, in Malta it grew deep roots at the national and local levels, acquiring dominance both at the macro and micro levels. The Church, typically in sociological terms, had become coterminous with society, imparting to the islanders their value system; its leaders were acknowledged as the de facto political leaders of the population even during periods when they did not actually occupy positions of formal power in the country’s political institutions (Vassallo 2020). Before the advent of modern times the Church, through frequent donations of land and money by the Maltese, had also acquired extensive economic power in what was essentially a feudal society. All the Maltese practised Catholic devotions and most participated in supra-national celebrations, such as the annual feast of Christ the King, the centenary celebrations of St Paul’s Shipwreck in 1960, the Eucharistic Congress in 1917, that at one time or other, provided the occasion for macro-societal celebrations of the indigenous population. At the micro-level, religion was omni-present. Geo-physically, the treasure of the micro communities organised juridically in parishes, radiated from the central square. This treasure was the parish church, owned and continuously embellished by the parishioners. The parish priest known in Maltese as il-kappillan, was, even in name (derived from the Italian capo, head), effectively the head of the community, assisted by a number of priests who served the same parish. Service was however, not restricted to the liturgy; the priest was the confidant, the legal advisor, the counsellor and the social worker for all the parishioners. The deputy-parish priest was the one who was closest to the sick, often spending days on end with them as they lingered on in their death bed. The Church provided the value-system. It provided recreation through its feasts, especially on the occasion of the annual village festa in honour of the patron saint, and through the sacred music on these occasions gave a taste of cultured society to the humble farmers who lived in the parish. In his novel The Kappillan of Malta, set in the Maltese context, Nicholas Monsarrat (1975) beautifully captures the distinctive way of life in a parish. The daily routine was closely dependant on the parish church bells, which woke up parishioners very early in the morning with the Pater Noster at 04:00 and with special peals for each mass which also rang special moti (peals) to mark the day’s passage and put all the parishioners to bed with the Ave Maria at sunset and with tal-Imwiet (of the Dead) as night fell. Church bells marked the calls to the liturgical celebrations on each day of the week. They marked the celebrations of rites of passage, from the birth of the new-born to the death knell of the departed. Liturgical ritual of course, accompanied all this and added colour as it provided a unique system of meaning, a symbolic universe that made sense to the otherwise impenetrable questions on the ultimate meaning of life and death.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/97211
ISBN: 1527555941
Appears in Collections:Scholarly Works - FacArtEng

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