A letter on the eligibility of the Maltese dialect as a written medium of instruction in the government primary schools : addressed to his excellency Sir H. F. Bouverie

Abstract

A sincere desire for the welfare of the Maltese, not unmingled with personal interest in the subject, leads me to beg the favour of Your Excellency's consideration to the few following remarks. It is of importance to myself, and not unimportant to the public, in order to secure the general utility of a work which it is my intention shortly to publish, viz. an Anglo-Maltese Vocabulary, that it should be written on some popular and authorized plan, and especially if it is designed to reintroduce the Maltese dialect into the Primary Schools at any future period, ought it to be written on that method which shall be sanctioned by the Local Authorities. But as no fixed alphabet of the Maltese at present exists, permit me to lay before you a specimen of that mode of writing the dialect which I judge, under existing circumstances, would be best adapted to the Government plan of Primary Education, and most in accordance with the predilections of the Maltese people. My aim is to obtain your Excellency's sanction either to this method as it is, or modified and corrected as may be judged convenient, in order that once for all, the alphabet of the dialect being established, it may be rendered useful, either as a medium whereby the native children may acquire foreign languages at school, or in any other way in which a written language can be made serviceable to the people whose mother tongue it is.