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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 22 FEBRUARY 2023
NEWS
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"Now that Malta is a republic, the fight
to keep Maltese alive is still on," he added.
Vella said this at the launch of 'Il-Malti:
Il-Mixja sal-Għarfien Uffiċjali', an exhibi-
tion at the National Museum of Archaeol-
ogy in Valletta.
With a joint effort by Heritage Malta
and L-Akkademja tal-Malti, the exhibition
gives an account of the Maltese language's
journey towards proper recognition as an
official language of the European Union.
"We start with the history of Maltese lan-
guage from its Semitic roots until it was
declared Malta's national language in 1964
and one of the European Union's official
languages in 2004," Akkademja tal-Malti
Secretary Joseph Borg explained to Malt-
aToday.
The exhibition dives into Pietro Caxa-
ro's Kantilena, Ignazio Saverio Mifsud's
sermons, works by Agius de Soldanis and
Vassalli, the first newspaper in Maltese
following freedom of the press in 1839, as
well as the translation of the Bible by Pie-
tru Pawl Saydon and Ġużè Aquilina's dic-
tionary.
The exhibition runs until the end of April.
Efforts should be made to prevent Maltese from
becoming a 'relic studied by archaeologists'
