The question “Inti taf bil-Malti?” (Can you speak Maltese?) was put to second generation Maltese-Australians in a survey carried out by the Maltese Community Council of Victoria, Australia.

Results show the common response is “insomma” (so-so).

While 40 per cent of those polled can understand Maltese well or moderately well, only about a quarter said they could speak it ­– and of those only 12 per cent actually do so with family or friends.

The aim of the survey was to determine why Maltese people living permanently in a foreign country bother to keep their mother language alive.

According to Prof. Maurice Cauchi, a community leader in Melbourne who has written extensively on Maltese migration, the reason is “complex” but mainly due emotional links to the original country.

“Certainly those who leave Malta do not cease to be Maltese and being Maltese normally implies an ability to communicate with others of the same background.

“But a more deep and complex reason is the fact a language encapsulates an identity, and loss of language is often associated with loss of culture,” Prof. Cauchi said.

“Many of those who reside overseas still speak their original language because of the emotional links.”

This was evidenced in Melbourne by the popularity of clubs where Maltese could congregate and the language “they learnt from their mother’s mouth”.

He believes that some expressions of emotional needs can only be expressed in the original language.

The survey on language was carried out among second-generation Maltese-Australians.

“These individuals have gone through schooling and have interacted with Australian peers, and have acquired a persona that is almost identical with that of the average, native-born person in Australia, including a native’s range of vocabulary and accent,” explained Prof. Cauchi.

The degree of fluency in Maltese was investigated to check their command of the language, which to most is useful only to communicate with ageing grandparents.

Prof. Cauchi told The Sunday Times of Malta that intermarriage also had a determining effect on language.

Only about 30 per cent of survey respondents were married to a Maltese, while the majority – 66 per cent – had an Australian or foreign spouse.

“It is very difficult to maintain the Maltese language when one’s spouse has a different language... and in such cases English is the common language used.”

As a result of this, 75 per cent of second generation Maltese-Australians never speak to their children in Maltese, and only about three per cent speak it frequently to their children.

The data revealed that maintaining the language for a third generation “will be extremely precarious”.

Efforts are being made by community leaders and other organisations to encourage the teaching of Maltese, to ensure that it remains a viable language, according to Prof. Cauchi.

The Maltese do not seem to have a strong awareness of the benefits of keeping Maltese alive

But according to linguist Alexandra Vella, the mother tongue is unlikely to survive for any longer than two generations if it is not spoken in the country of residence.

“However, there are always surprises and unexpected turns of events,” she said.

Ms Vella currently works closely with the “new Maltese migrants the Maltese communities of Luxembourg and Brussels. While these days the continent of Australia does not beckon, hundreds of Maltese have taken permanent residence in the Benelux area, due to work opportunities within the European institutions.

Although French is the working language of the institutions and English is the lingua franca, for these first-generation migrants, Maltese is still very much alive.

“Little changes in so far as language habits go, apart from the fact that often an effort is made to learn or improve one’s French, German or Flemish so as to be able to better function in the society one is living in,” Ms Vella said.

However, she said, in some cases Maltese-English, rather than Maltese, may be the dominant language at home, “because that may well have been their dominant language prior to their move”.

In cases of families with kids, couples make choices on whether to pass on Maltese to their kids.

“Compared with say, Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, including Catalans, the Maltese do not seem to have a strong awareness of the benefits of keeping Maltese alive – even though it is a source of income for many of them,” she said.

Many would go towards seeking ‘integration’ through a majority language such as English.

A case in point is the European School in Brussels and Luxembourg City, where it is possible for Maltese children to study the language.

“Unfortunately, families do not always make it a point to teach their children Maltese – and sometimes there are fewer takers than there are kids,” she said, adding that this is unfortunate as people have fought hard for this possibility.

“As a linguist, I am convinced of the importance of the ‘native’ language in that it encodes various aspects of our culture and therefore serves to provide some element of rootedness in a context which, I believe, is particularly susceptible to a lack in this area, especially for children.”

Cultural anthropologist Prof. Carmel Cassar said that by keeping up the language Maltese migrants are trying to keep their link with Malta alive.

“They do the same with food that they perceived to be Maltese,” he said.

“This is not a Maltese phenomenon but is common among other migrant groups the world over.”

How many languages can a child learn?

According to linguist Alexandra Vella, there is the misconception that acquiring Maltese alongside English and moving on to learning a first foreign language – French or German – may be too much for the child.

She emphasised that a normal child of preschool age should have “absolutely no problem” learning Maltese while being immersed in an English section and starting to learn French or German with their peers.

Maltese use in Australia

• 40 per cent of second-generation Maltese-Australian understand Maltese.

• 25 per cent can speak it.

• Only 12 per cent out of the 25 per cent who can speak it, actually use it.

• 75 per cent of second generation Maltese-Australians never speak to their children in Maltese.

• Only about three per cent admit speaking Maltese frequently to their children.