Language Question (Malta)
This attempted Anglicization was opposed by many Maltese people, who held on to Italian culture and the Roman Catholic religion, which were distinguishing features compared to their Anglophone and Protestant rulers.
[6] Anglicization was also opposed by other members of Maltese society apart from the church, such as merchants who had strong commercial links with Sicily and mainland Italy.
After attempts to Anglicize the courts had failed, King William IV confirmed the status of Italian as an official language on legal documents in 1833, although Governor Henry Bouverie stated that English law should be introduced "at least in spirit" in 1837.
[9] Initially the Maltese language did not play a prominent role in the linguistic debate on Malta, since it was regarded by many as a vernacular corrupted dialect of Arabic.
In 1822, John Hookham Frere created a chair of Maltese at the University of Malta for Mikiel Anton Vassalli and he suggested that the language (written in both the Arabic and Latin scripts) be taught in primary schools, although little progress was made in this regard.
This movement did not have significant support on the islands, and the majority of Maltese people who opposed Anglicization in the mid-19th century did so for cultural rather than political reasons.
[13] The British authorities felt that intensifying their efforts at anglicization was necessary in order to ensure that the Maltese remained loyal to them rather than to other European powers, which contributed to the escalation of the Language Question by the late 1870s and 1880s.
[15] Penrose Julyan was in favour of introducing English within the administration and courts and phasing out Italian, although he stated that the latter should not be "forcibly restrained" and that Maltese should not be suppressed.
[15] The reports by Julyan and Keenan (along with that by Francis Roswell who had proposed administrative and tax reforms) were regarded as hostile attempts to anglicise Malta at the expense of existing socio-cultural values.
[15] At this point a number of Maltese Anglophiles began to play a leading role in promoting English over Italian, and they organized themselves into the Reform Party under the leadership of Sigismondo Savona.
The party was in favour of the reforms recommended by the Rowsell-Julyan-Keenan Commission, and it saw anglicization as necessary for Maltese workers dependent on the British presence on the islands.
The party regarded Italian as a necessary lingua franca for Malta and it actively promoted the language, although Mizzi also believed that English was important due to the islands' status as a British colony.
Savona and Mizzi collaborated in opposition of Governor Lintorn Simmons and they briefly merged their parties into the Partito Unionista before splitting up again in 1893.
The Church also played a role in politics, with the pro-British Pietro Pace being appointed as Bishop of Malta in the hopes of improving relations between the Maltese and their colonial masters.
The CP won the 1927 election and Stickland became Prime Minister, before self-government was suspended in 1930 due to clashes between Strickland's government and the Catholic Church.
[29] The fascist regime in Italy which was established in 1922 renewed irredentist claims over Malta, and this alarmed the British authorities and led to increased tensions in the Language Question.
They attempted to promote Italian language and culture including fascist propaganda in Malta, and this antagonized the British, leading to the 1921 self-government constitution being revoked in 1933.
Fears of an Italian attack increased when World War II broke out in 1939, and prominent Nationalists including Enrico Mizzi were arrested as a precautionary measure.
[33] Malta was granted self-government once again in 1947, and at this point universal suffrage was introduced which marked the end of the middle-class' hold on political power.
The majority of Malta's population never adopted Italian as their primary language, and although knowledge of English had increased significantly it was not enough to replace Maltese.
Within the educated classes there was a minority which disregarded the new role of Maltese, such as professor J. E. Debono who stated in 1945 that the language can be dropped as its introduction had been a political goal to eliminate Italian and this been accomplished.
[34] The Labour and Nationalist Parties, both of which were founded amidst the language debate, continue to dominate Maltese politics to the present day.
