Re: CHAT: The EU expands (was Re: THEORY/CHAT: Talmy,

Livi Ruffle wrote:

> Jean-François Colson wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Malta is a bilingual state. Do everyone in Malta speaks English
>> fluently? (I
>> don't know precisely the linguistic situation of that island.)
>>
>
> Yes. Well, their English is certainly pretty damn good. I was on a choir
> tour to Malta and Gozo about three years ago and had no problems
> communicating...which was probably just as well, because Maltese has a
> lot of Arabic influence in it, which makes attempting the language a bit
> tricky for an IE family speaker like me :)

Ok, to turn the question around, what's the status of Maltese? Obviously
it's official, but is it the main language of communication between almost
everyone, and the main language of public & political discourse, or is it,
like Irish in Ireland, officially the main language, but not in practice?

s.

----
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of      Stephen Mulraney
matter at or near the earth's surface relative to       http://ataltane.net
other matter; second, telling other people            ataltane@ataltane.net
to do so.         --  Bertrand Russell     http://livejournal.com/~ataltane

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