Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/635436
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 FEbruArY 2016 James Debono While the Maltese used by can- didates sitting for their MATSeC exam is "ref lecting the living lan- guage used in our bilingual soci- ety," it is also showing that many candidates are using the first word or expression that comes to their mind – resulting in what an examiners' report describes as language "heresies" and Maca- ronic (hotch potch) language. Macaronic refers to text using a mixture of languages particularly bilingual puns. A rough equiva- lent in spoken language is code- switching, a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or dialect within the same conversation. The word macaronic comes from the New latin macaronicus which is from the italian macca- rone – a term that obviously has derogatory overtones. Among the examples cited were "in-nisa kienu jigu treated differ- enti" (women were treated differ- ently); "Marija kienet hard work- ing ħafna" (Marija was very hard working); "il-genituri ta' Zahra kienu overprotective" (Zahra's parents were over protective). The exam report recommends that students should be discour- aged from expressing themselves in this way. On various occasions the report notes that candidates used eng- lish words unnecessarily simply because they find it difficult to express themselves in Maltese. "Wherever they stumbled they resorted to english." examples cited in the report include "Mark Antonin għandhu heart kbir" (Mark Antonin is gen- erous); "Għajneja kienu blu ta sea"; (My eyes are blue like the sea), "il- kelb kellu jigi putdown" (the dog had to be put down); Geraldine "kellha xagħarha blond" (Geral- dine had blond hair). english inf luence was also not- ed in some of the idioms used like "waqgħu f l-imħabba" (they fell in love); "saqsew għaz-zwieg" (they asked to be married); "qegħdin fuq ħarga" (they are on an out- ing"). Some students even invented new words derived from english and italian including: ħosbital, kurrenzija, disvantaggi, polluz- joni, eskludi, nipplanjaw, espec- jalment, protettat, jadmiraw. The word relattivi derived from "relative" was used instead of "qraba". Other crude hotch potch words included nikrea (cre- ate) isstressati (stressed), eventi (events), jispredja news (dissemi- nate news), l-isola (the island), jinvita (invites), tittravilja (trav- elled), privizij (privacy), tarag spi- ralliku (spiral staircase), allegra (happy), poverta (poverty), klikkja moħħna (realized), kkavrat (cov- ered), trappolat (trapped), imper- donabbli (unforgivable), portabbli (portable), bla ħesil (without has- sle). When assessing the literature component of the exam the ex- aminers described the state of Maltese orthography as "very bad," noting the situation is de- teriorating from year to year with the general level being described as mediocre. "Candidates are using Maltese without thinking. They are writ- ing the first word which comes to mind. This is leading to a number of linguistic heresies." News maTseC examiners denounce 'macaronic' maltese