Francesco Vella An Unsung Protagonist of Maltese Language Development
... Karmenu Mifsud, Direttur tar-Registru Pubbliku (plus Sur Saviour Vella) u Dr Simon Mercieca; Tony Mangion, University of Malta Librarian. ... Francesco Vella ……. ... Vella’s Livornese books ……. ... Vella’s philosophy on bilingualism ……. Vella’s pamphlets ……. ... Reactions to Vella’s proposals ……… Il Globo ………. ... Vella’s Publishers ……… Why Livorno? ... Vella’s letters …………. Antonio Mangini ………… A Livornese wife for Vella? ………… Vincenzo Ferdinando Inglott ………… Francesco Vella and Rosa Corsi …………. ... Francesco’s life in Livorno ………… The witnesses to the Vella-Corsi marriage ………… Maltese clues on Vella ……………. ... Concluding Reflections: the three “V”s of Maltese language development …………. ... FRANCESCO VELLA (1793 -1868): AN UNSUNG PROTAGONIST OF MALTESE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT With a rare book written by him Francesco Vella Malta’s recent biographical dictionaries do not mention at all any Francis or Francesco Vella living during the nineteenth century, despite the fact that Vella has been referred to by a number of authors during the times. Therefore, there is no reference to Vella in either Mifsud Bonnici 1960 or Galea 1995. On the other hand, those authors that do make a reference to Vella and his works offer very scanty information on his books and next to nothing about his life. Antonio Schembri was more or less a contemporary of Vella. His bibliography of Maltese authors and translators starts off with the description of the anonymous 1838 Abbecedario ghal Kadi tas Schejel, which he attributes to Francesco Vella: “Si crede generalmente essere il Signor Francesco Vella l’autore di questo abbecedario” (Schembri 1855: 9). ... cioè Vella (Gius. ... This must have been a mistake (in part) by Schembri since Vella Gius. is the author of the famous Libro del Consiglio di Egitto and is not known at all as a scholar of Maltese. Indeed, the Chtieb-il Kari is, later on in the bibliography, correctly listed amongst the publications of Vella Francesco and not amongst those of Giuseppe (Schembri 1855: 75). The anonymous 1839 Inconvenienti di un Alfabeto Arabo-Romano is also attributed by Schembri (1855: 42) to Vella: “Autore di questo opuscoletto è il Sig. Francesco Vella”. Under the name of Francesco Vella, Schembri (1855: 75) also lists two other books, whose authorship is clearly indicated in the publications. These are the “[1831] Maltese Grammar for the use of the English by Francis Vella” and the “[1843] Dizionario portatile delle lingue Maltese, Italiana, Inglese; compilato da F. Vella”. The last work attributed to Vella, and listed by Schembri, is the “Osservazioni sull’Alfabeto Maltese dell’ Ab. ... ” Though not telling us much about Vella’s personality and life history, Schembri’s annotations are important for at least three reasons. First of all, he attributes the first mentioned three anonymous works to Francesco Vella. In second place, he is assimilating the English name Francis Vella to Francesco Vella, thus showing that he considers the two to be one and the same person. Finally, by considering the 1824 publication on the one hand, and the 1838 and 1839 ones on the other to be the fruit of labour of the same author, Schembri is implicitly implying that Vella must have undergone some sort of “alphabetical conversion” at some stage of his life, since the 1824 book (as also his 1826 one) makes use of a mixed alphabet, including three Arabic characters, whilst the later books clearly attack the mixed alphabet, and denounce the linguistic confusion that this orthographic system leads to! After Schembri, various writers, or historians of the language, have referred to one or another of Vella’s works, but nobody has really given any information on his life. Vella’s works are mentioned twice in Bonnici-Cremona 1924, though when reference is made to the Trattat fuk l’Oblighi tal bniedem (1924: xiii), the impression one gets is that the two authors of the Taghrif perceived this 1826 translation to be of unknown author. Vella is openly mentioned a page later, where his Maltese Grammar for the use of the English is described as totally departing from Vassalli’s Grammatica della lingua maltese (1827) and, therefore, not built on orthographic rules which were based on the real characteristics of Maltese lexes (Bonnici-Cremona 1924: xiv). Cassola (1992: xiii-xiv) refers to Vella’s aversion to the mixed alphabet adopted in some Maltese primary schools of the time since this alphabet contributed substantially to discouraging pupils from attending school. Sammut (1992: 6) mentions Vella’s 1839 Inconvenienti-Tfixchil in order to reaffirm his aversion to the mixed Latin-Arabic alphabet utilized by various scholars during the 17th-19th centuries (Cassola 1992: ix-xxi). As already mentioned, in the two books attributed to Vella and published in 1924 and 1926, the author made use of three Arabic letters (rghajn, ghajn and he). ... By 1831 Vella was no longer using these letters, and indeed was totally against the mixed alphabet. ... On the basis of this abrupt change of attitude towards the use of Arabic characters in the Maltese alphabet in such a short span of time, Cachia (1994: 111) suggests that the Francesco Vella who, together with Montebello Pulis, is supposed to be the author of the 1824 Chtieb-il Kari yau Dah1a al Ilsien Malti is not the same Francis Vella author of the 1831 Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English and the other post 1831 publications. Of course, such line of reasoning could be quite a feasible hypothesis, since the name Francesco Vella is quite a common name and it would not be so surprising if two Francesco Vellas were living at the same time. On the other hand, however, it would be quite a coincidence if these two Francesco Vellas were both scholars of the Maltese language and, more far fetched still, if both published their books in the Tuscan maritime city of Livorno. Considering our limited knowledge on Vella, I would tend to agree with Schembri that the pre- and post 1831 Vella are one and the same person. Aquilina (1985: 65; 85; 99) lists the following five books which he attributes to Francesco Vella, sometimes in partnership with G. ... Soave, Livorno, no publisher, 1826 Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English, Leghorn, printed by Glaucus Masi, 1831 Inconvenienti di un Alfabeto Arabo-Romano -Tfixchil tAlfabet Gharbi-Roman, Livorno, Matbagh Volpi, 1839 Dizionario Portatile delle Lingue Maltese, Italiana, Inglese, Livorno, Stamperia degli Artisti Tipografi, 1843. Aquilina considers Francesco Vella to be one and the same person. Aquilina 1985 and Cachia 1994 are to be considered the two contemporary writers with the most updated information regarding Vella and his works. However, both seem to have ignored, at least in part, Giusè Gatt, who gives some new information on Vella in two articles on the earliest printed books in Malta, which were published in The Labour Opinion in 1924. In his first article, of October 1924, he mentions and describes two of Vella’s books, the Chtieb il Kari and the Trattat fuk l’Oblighi tal Bniedem. About the first he writes that the book is 48 pages long, that it is written by Ciccu Vella and Giusè Montebello Pulis, and that it includes teaching on the Maltese language, the numbers in Maltese, moral fables, the duties required of man, geography, historical episodes from the creation of the earth till 1823 and how to write letters. On the second, he states that this is made up of a series of questions and answers for the use of the students at the College in Gozo, together with some words to exercise the pronunciation of the Maltese alphabet. The book is 88 pages long, published in Livorno in 1826 and, judging by the kind of orthographic system used, Gatt believes that the book is by Vella and Montebello Pulis: “Ctieb il Kari, jeu dahla ghal ilsien Malti”. ... in 8vo hu mictub minn Ciccu Vella u Giusè Montebello Pulis, fieh taghlim fuk li Lsien Malti u il ghadd (numri), hrejjef morali, doveri tal bniedem, geografija, epochi ta li Storia mill holkien ta’d-dinja sa l’1823 u chif ticteb l’ittri; [. ... Mill’ortografija li biha hu mictub dan il ctieb, nahsbu li hu ta Ciccu Vella u Giusè Montebello Pulis. ... 94, 30 October) In the November issue of The Labour Opinion, Gatt lists another two books by Vella: “Abbecedario ghal kadi tas-Schejjel ta taghlim xilxjeni jeu sengha hafifa biex tharreg fil kari it-tfal, b’gemgha ta gharfijiet fisichi fuk il bniedem, ta massimi morali ecc. ... Fil ctieb “Selva di Autori e Traduttori Maltesi” insibu li il chittieb ta dana il ctieb, skond chif jahsbu, hua Ciccu Vella. ... Hu mictub bil Malti u it Taljan, minn Ciccu Vella, u ma igibx hag’ohra hlief ragunar fuk kemm tfixchil igibu dauc li juzau Alfabet inhallat b’ittri rumani u gharbin; (Gatt 1924, n. ... He quotes Schembri 1855 in order to point out that the author of this work is believed to be Francis Vella. Regarding the Tfixchil t’Alfabet Gharbi-Ruman, a 37 page book published in Livorno in 1839 by Vella, Gatt says that this book is all about the confusion that a mixed Latin-Arabic alphabet brings about to all those who make use of it to write the Maltese language. What, however, is of greater importance in Gatt’s contribution is that in his November article he gives the following small footnote: Ciccu Vella uara l’1839 chien stampa daun il cotba: Grammatca tal Malti bl’inglis f’Livornu fl’1831; Diziunariu Malti-Talian-Inglis, fi’Livornu f’1843; Tahdit hafif u morali ghat tfal, f’Livornu, fl’1840; u xi ohrain zaghar. ... 96, 13 November) in which he states that after 1839 Vella had published these other books: the Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English, 1831 (of course, this is a pre-1839 book!), the Dizionario Portatile delle Lingue Maltese-Italiana-Inglese, 1843, and a hitherto unheard of title, Tahdit hafif u morali ghat tfal, Livorno, 1840, together with various other smaller books or pamphlets Strangely enough, apart from Grima (1991) who just mentions, without further investigation, Gatt’s hypothesis, no other scholar during the 20th century expanded on the latter’s revelation. ... 88 Grima lists four publications in Maltese between 1813 and 1827. Two of these are: “Francesco Vella and Giusè Montebello Pulis, Chtieb il Kari, jew dahla ghal ilsien Malti, Leghorn, 1824, 48 pages. ... It is written in question and answer form and, from its style, may have been a translation by the already-mentioned Francesco Vella and G. ... It is 81 pages long and is in Maltese and Italian”. In a footnote he states: “the writer is reputed to have been Francesco Vella”. Then, “Francesco Vella, Tfixkil ta Alfabet Gharbi-Ruman, Volpi Press, Livorno 1839, 37 pages. It is written in Maltese and Italian”. ... Vella include: Dizzjunarju Malti-Taljan-Inglis, Livorno 1843, and Tahdit hafif u morali ghat-tfal, Livorno, 1840” (Grima 1991: 90). It is quite obvious that, at least regarding Vella’s Tahdit hafif, Grima is citing directly from Gatt’s work, without having had the opportunity of perusing the original text. Joseph Aquilina had only listed a total of five books written by Vella. On the other hand, Schembri 1855 had also mentioned an undated seven page booklet by Vella, entitled Osservazioni sull’Alfabeto Maltese dell’Ab. ... Since Cumbo had published his Piano di Pubblica Istruzione in 1839, this could certainly be included amongst Vella’s “other small works” (ohrain zaghar) published after 1839. Another “small work” by Vella, which is not listed by anybody, but a copy of which exists at the University of Malta Library, is an eight page pamphlet written by Vella, and entitled Scoperta di Cinque Nuove Vocali di G. ... Badger published his A Letter on the Eligibility of the Maltese Dialect. Therefore, following Schembri and Gatt’s suggestions, an updated list of Vella’s publications should read something like this: [Anon. ... Francis Vella, Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English, Leghorn, printed by Glaucus Masi, 1831, 350 pp. ... Vella, Tahdit hafif u morali ghat tfal, Livorno, publisher ? ... Vella, Dizionario Portatile delle Lingue Maltese, Italiana, Inglese, Livorno, Stamperia degli Artisti Tipografi, 1843, 167 pp. ... Vella, Scoperta di Cinque Nuove Vocali di G. ... Vella ? ... ] Osservazioni sull’Alfabeto Maltese dell’ Ab. ... Though no copy of the Tahdit hafif u morali ghat tfal and the Osservazioni sull’Alfabeto Maltese dell’ Ab. ... Cumbo seem to have survived to our days and, indeed, only Giusè Gatt and Antonio Schembri must have had the opportunity to peruse them, it would seem that the books and pamphlets written by Francesco/Francis Vella amount to at least nine. Vella’s Livornese books The 1824 Chtieb-il Kari yau Dahla al Ilsien Malti is dedicated to Don Luigi Camilleri. According to Cachia (1994: 112), this priest ran a school of Arabic in the southern Maltese town of Zejtun. ... ”, who are taken by scholars to be Vella and Pulis (Montebello). Vella and Montebello Pulis dedicate the book to Camilleri because, according to them, he was the only one, amongst all others (uahdec bis, fost uisk uhrain), who had taken care of and educated poor people, that had been abandoned and forgotten by all (Vella - Montebello Pulis 1824: 3). ... Already in this first publication by Vella, one can notice his vocation to present fables which have a moral ending (hreyef morali). This was a very common feature amongst early writers in Maltese, such as Richard Taylor, G. ... Other sections in this first book treat about: the Maltese alphabet and lexes; the numerals; the duties of human beings; a compendium of geography; historical eras; and examples of letter writing. ... Soave, which does not contain the indication of the author, is a translation into Maltese of Padre F. ... What was Vella’s connection with this college? ... This book, which is again written in a mixed alphabet having the three characters , also contains exercises on the pronunciation of the Maltese alphabet. Vella’s third known book, the 1831 Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English, is preceded by a seven page preface where the author explains why the Maltese vernacular had not achieved any progress to date. According to Vella, much of the fault lay on the shoulders of the colonisers of the island. He starts off his preface with this accusation: “Those nations, which in different epochs, successfully ruled over the Island of Malta, coincided, it seems, in one opinion, namely, in keeping in the state of barbarism the language of the indigenous”. Then, he acknowledges the work of many individuals who tried to counter this neglect: “Many individuals, endowed with philanthropic spirit, cultivated our native language, and Vassalli is one [. ... ]” (Vella 1831: 3). According to Vella, even Vassalli’s endeavours “proved ineffectual to his desired end” and “[Vassalli’s] employing the semi-oriental system has been the principal” root of this lack of success. What was therefore needed, according to Vella, was the “need of a fixed alphabet in our language”. Vella (1831: 5) clearly declares himself against the “oriental system”: “Nothing is more absurd than to maintain, that without the oriental system every effort to render the maltese idiom a literary one will be fruitless”. Basically, Vella is not only criticizing all those scholars who had tried to make use of a mixed orthographic system to reproduce the Maltese language; he is also repudiating his own 1824 and 1826 alphabet, which included the two Arabic characters and the . In the short space of less than five years, Vella was totally converted to the concept of a Maltese orthographic system based on the Italian one. The rest of Vella’s Preface is taken up by arguments to show that the lack of a proper alphabet for the Maltese language had proved detrimental to the well being and progress of the Maltese people, in general. Vella goes on to link four aspects of Maltese contemporary life together: alphabet, education, literature and patriotic sentiments. His line of reasoning is very simple: the inexistence of a proper orthographic system for the Maltese language had prevented the Maltese people from being able to receive real and effective education; without education it had been impossible until then for the Maltese to develop their literature. ... and much more so, not only because it deprives the Maltese of a benefit enjoyed throughout the civilized world, but also because they are deprived of it by the very local authorities of a nation both jealous of her own rights and liberties, and at times, zealously bent towards favouring the improvement of universal civilization” (Vella 1831: 7). Eventually, it was only in 1839 that the British were to abolish censorship and concede freedom of expression to the Maltese Press (Bonello-Fiorentini-Schiavone 1982; Grima 1991; Cassola 1998: 111; Cassola 2000: 187). Of course, not all the British are seen in a bad light by Vella. ... ] especially to the English resident in our island; and our fond hope will not prove groundless, since we remarked with sensible satisfaction that many of them nourish a desire of learning our language”. In particular, Vella singles out “[. ... The unwearied application of this philantropist is much more remarkable, because he laboured with the view of propagating, by this medium, instruction through the island of Gozzo, where he is entrusted with an eminent charge” (Vella 1831: 8). It is interesting to note that here we find a second reference to the island of Gozo, following Vella’s 1826 translation of Soave’s work. To conclude on this work, it is evident that Vella’s main aim behind it was to improve on what he considered to be the very backward state in which the Maltese written language was at his time. Though fully conscious that his was a most imperfect effort, he was determined to get on with it and to pave the way in order to build a more solid basis for the Maltese language in the future: “But, were we to reflect long on every impediment and difficulty, we should, most certainly be discouraged. Consulting, however, our own inclination only, and renouncing any pretention of reaching a complete perfection, we begin our work in the hope, at least, that it may become an incitement to better cultivated minds to perfect” (Vella 1831: 8). ... Vella published his fourth book in Livorno in 1838. ... The Abbecedario, which had as its major aim the diffusion of the written Maltese language amongst school children, also includes a series of “Massime Morali” and “Nozioni fisiche sull’uomo” in Maltese and Italian bi-lingual text. In this Abbecedario, for the transcription of the Maltese language Vella adopts the same alphabet he had adopted in his 1831 Maltese Grammar, with just one variation. Therefore, one comes across GH with accent on the H to signify the ghajn; GH with dot on the H to denote the rghajn (both have been assimilated into gh in current Maltese); an accented H, which stands for current Maltese ehhe; an H with a dot, to denote the hott (both characters have been assimilated into h in current Maltese); Ç to reproduce the palatal c sound (c in current Maltese) and g with a dot (as in current Maltese g) to reproduce the palatal g sound. ... This orthographic system was to become Vella’s definitive choice for all his books published from 1831 onwards. Vella’s philosophy on bilingualism In his fifth publication in Livorno, the 1839 Inconvenienti di un Alfabeto Arabo-Romano -Tfixchil tAlfabet Gharbi-Roman, Vella comes up with a strong plea in favour of a bilingual (Maltese-Italian) policy in Malta. The title of this book is clear and self explanatory: this work was written with the aim of demonstrating that the mixed Latin-Arabic alphabet was the major cause of the backwardness of the Maltese language: “Tale male [students abandoning schools] non sta nella distanza, ma nell’alfabeto arabo-romano, che ha confusa la mente dei maestri e degli scolari, inutile per imparare la lettura araba, e pieno di difficoltà per imparare l’italiano” (Vella 1839: 4). Vella was firmly convinced that the choice of orthographic system to transcribe the Maltese language could actually determine the progress, or lack of progress, of the whole Maltese educational system: “Dalla scelta dell’alfabeto dipende la coltivazione della nostra lingua, l’istruzione popolare, il progresso, o l’abbandono” (Vella 1839: 6). However, whilst pressing hard to ensure that the Maltese language flourished thanks to the adoption of the right kind of alphabet, Vella was also fully conscious that the vernacular was only limited to local communication, and therefore was not suitable for international communication. In his opinion, Italian ought to have been the international language par excellence of the Maltese people: “Se la lingua maltese è sufficiente per dare una limitata istruzione al popolo non può però bastare perchè questo popolo s’intenda con altre nazioni d’Europa; gli resta perciò il bisogno, e il desiderio d’imparare la lingua italiana, giacchè con questa comunica con tutti i popoli civilizzati, con questa scrive il suo commercio, e la sua marina, con questa parlano il clero, i tribunali, ed il suo Governo” (Vella 1839: 8). For the above reason, and to ensure that the Maltese language was not relegated to a condition of deep isolation, Vella insisted that it should be written in the Latin alphabet. Without a proper alphabet, built on Roman characters, the Maltese language would remain deprived of grammars and dictionaries. This, for Vella, was something preposterous, since the lack of such essential linguistic tools written in the Latin alphabet would not only impede the proper knowledge of Maltese; it would also be detrimental to the acquisition of other foreign languages, such as Italian and Latin: “Infatti, come mai i Maltesi possano giungere a conoscere la propietà e la precisione di una lingua straniera senza l’ajuto di grammatiche, e di dizionarii! ... E’ superfluo trattenersi di vantaggio su questo argomento, quelli che hanno fatto i loro studii nella scuola di Malta sanno al pari nostro quanti ostacoli hanno dovuto sormontare” (Vella 1839: 12-14). The latter part of his publication is basically a criticism of the proposals put forward by different Maltese newspapers ( Lo Spettatore; Il Portafoglio; Il Mediterraneo) on the alphabet question. Vella dismissed all these proposals and came up with what was, according to him, the simplest of solutions: “Che il Governo locale adotti il sistema da noi proposto, che si formino abbecedari, grammatiche, e dizionarii, per uso dei Maltesi, ed il Mediterraneo al ritorno del suo viaggio intorno Malta avanti gli uomini troverà nati più d’un Maestro che insegnano l’italiano, e l’inglese per mezzo della lingua maltese!” (Vella 1839: 24-26). Therefore, a Latin alphabet for the Maltese language, and the Maltese language as the only language through which to teach Italian and English. This was Vella’s recipe to improve the situation of education in Malta. For him it was of extreme importance to adopt the Latin alphabet, as this was the only means of “inalzare il dialetto maltese ad una lingua scritta, […]. In fatti se la lingua maltese debba servire di mezzo per imparare la lingua italiana, deve essere necessariamente scritta, e scrivendola per impararla simultaneamente colla lingua italiana, non possiamo comprendere come si possa essere indifferenti all’alfabeto ed ortografia delle medesime!” (Vella 1839: 30). It is at this point that Vella makes a clear distinction between the written language (“lingua scritta”) and the literary language (“lingua letteraria”). It was certainly not his aim to cultivate the Maltese language because of love for its literature. Neither did he consider the Maltese language to be a means of teaching literature. The one and only motive behind his reasoning was simply an educational one: “per dar una convenevole istruzione al popolo, e per facilitare la strada onde giungere alla perfetta cognizione della lingua italiana” (Vella 1839: 32). In concluding, therefore, he made no qualms about his strong belief that “non può coltivarsi la lingua maltese come un fine ma come un mezzo”. Through the publication of his last book in Livorno, the 1843 Dizionario Portatile delle Lingue Maltese, Italiana, Inglese, Vella puts his words into practice. A common complaint of Vella was that without grammars and dictionaries, the Maltese written language could never progress. So his 1843 Dictionary, which was published with the help (possibly financial) of Giuseppe Montebello Pulis, had the aim of providing the Maltese with a dictionary, written in the Latin alphabet, “[. ... ] l’unico alfabeto che concilia l’ortografia italiana, e maltese mi giovò per scrivere quest’ultima” (Vella 1843: Preface). ... Vella confesses that what spurred him on to produce this dictionary, which was building on the previous works by Vassallo(i), Cardinali and Baretti, was the manifest intention of his “Concittadini” to introduce the written Maltese language (“la nostra lingua scritta”) in public schools. He was also confident that his proposed alphabet built on Latin characters would solve the Maltese alphabet question once and for all, and this would finally make Vassalli’s dream come true: “Se le mie fatiche saranno da voi gradite, cesserà l’interminabile questione alfabetica; la lingua Maltese avrà adito nelle scuole, e l’opera del Vassallo riceverà lo sviluppo che attende da mezzo secolo!” (Vella 1843: Preface). Time has proven Vella totally right in his prophecy! Vella’s pamphlets Apart from the books published in Leghorn, Vella is also the author of at least another two pamphlets. These are the Osservazioni sull’Alfabeto Maltese dell’ Ab. ... Salvatore Cumbo had published his Piano di Pubblica Istruzione in 1839 and, therefore, it is quite possible that Vella put to print his response in the same year or the year after. In his pamphlet, Cumbo seems to be very much on the same wavelength as Vella. First of all, in primary schools Cumbo wanted to limit the teaching of languages to two basic ones, Italian and Maltese: “Nelle Scuole Normali si deve insegnar ai ragazzi leggere e scrivere ed intendere la lingua italiana. ... […] Ma appena in tali scuole un ragazzo è in grado di leggere e scrivere il maltese, deve subito passar allo studio della lingua italiana. ... In second place, Cumbo agreed with Vella on a practical way of teaching languages. This was therefore to be done through lively Italo-Maltese bilingual texts rather than arid grammatical rules: “La lingua in queste scuole non si dovrebbe insegnare per grammatiche, ma piuttosto per mezzo di libri colla traduzione interlineare, e molto più per mezzo della viva voce tenendo sempre in italiano i discorsi famigliari. Le traduzioni interlineari devono essere in lingua maltese scritta coi caratteri italiani” (Cumbo 1839: 3-4). Finally, as already seen, Cumbo also agreed with Vella that the orthographic system chosen to write the Maltese language should be based on Roman characters, whilst Arabic letters were to be totally excluded: “Ciocchè sia della questione sul modo migliore di scrivere la lingua maltese; per facilitar l’istruzione, ed aprire l’adito alla lingua italiana, lingua la più necessaria per gli studii in quest’isola, l’idioma maltese dovrebbbe scriversi coll’alfabeto italiano; nè a questo devono aggiungersi lettere prese dall’arabo, perchè queste di loro natura sono incompatibili colle italiane” (Cumbo 1839: 4). It is therefore to be presumed that Vella’s observations on Cumbo’s work should have been quite positive ones, since the only criticism he could possibly have levelled at the latter was that Cumbo had chosen different diacritical marks for the Italian letters denoting Arabic sounds. As already seen, Vella’s Scoperta di Cinque Nuove Vocali di G. ... Badger addressed his A Letter on the Eligibility of the Maltese Dialect to Governor Bouverie exactly on 30th January of that year and a report of Vella’s answer to Badger exists in the 17th March 1841 issue of the newspaper Il Globo. Badger seems to disagree with both Vella and Cumbo on a number of points: first of all, he is against the viva voce method of teaching languages to school children and privileges, instead, the teaching of the written language: “I am fully aware that notwithstanding the positive evidence of its failure in this island, there are still many, both Maltese and English, who persist in maintaining that the system of instructing Maltese children in a foreign language, without any other than a viva-voce medium, is the best that can be adopted, and who therefore consider every attempt to cultivate the native dialect, or to introduce it as a written medium into the Government Primary Schools, as extravagant and absurd” (Badger 1841: 4). Despite this, Badger comes to the same conclusion as Vella that the Maltese language should only serve as a means, and therefore constitutes no end, in language teaching: “Here, however, I beg Your Excellency [Governor Bouverie] to observe, that I have not advocated for the Maltese dialect, in the schools, anything beyond its employment as a medium” (Badger 1841: 6). What could have made Vella see red, was the fact that Badger, without mentioning it explicitly by name, criticized “the only book prepared for the Schools” and which had been adopted as a text book in Maltese primary schools. Whilst reaffirming the utility of Maltese as a written medium, Badger goes on to state that this only textbook chosen was totally inadequate: “It was doubtless such a view of the case which led the Government, about two years ago, to introduce the written Maltese into the Primary Schools. ... In the only book prepared for the Schools, the interlinear translation purporting to be Maltese, was expressed in terms so foreign to the dialect, that not more than one half was intelligible to the mass of the people; insomuch that the intended popular medium required first to be made intelligible to the masters themselves. ... Badger attacks this text book on three counts: the faulty alphabet adopted; what he calls “the vicious choice” of lexes; and the unintelligible interlinear translation which, according to Badger, had very little to do with the Maltese language! Now, what is certainly known to us of Vella’s first book, the 1824 Chtieb-il Kari, is that it was adopted as an elementary school text book on the recommendation of the Royal Commission of 1836 (Aquilina 1985: 85; Marshall 1971: 4). Could it be that Badger’s strong criticism was in fact referring to Vella’s book? Certainly, Vella’s book was based on a “faulty” mixed alphabet and also made use of many Italianite words, which were probably quite alien to the daily and current vocabulary of the normal population. On the other hand, however, this book is written directly in Maltese and does not have any interlinear translation at all. Whatever the case, this criticism was too much to stomach for Vella, who had to retaliate against it, even more so because Badger was proposing as a means to transcribe the Maltese language his own alphabetic system which, though based on the Italian one, was full of innovative diacritical marks (Badger 1841: 10-12). Vella attacked Badger quite openly and accused him of having a conflict of interest. According to Vella, Badger was trying to obtain the authorities’ support for his proposed alphabet because he intended publishing shortly an Anglo-Maltese Vocabulary: “[…] un vocabolarista in fieri ne improvvisava un altro [alfabeto] […]. ... Per meglio garantire il suo privato interesse lo confonde con l’utilità pubblica, e per non dimostrare la sua audacia nel sopprimere due suoni conservati dal Vassalli e tutt’ora esistenti nella pura pronunzia del dialetto Maltese, finge di volere inalzare la di lui memoria!” (Vella [1841]: 1-2). But, of course, the main target of Vella was Badger’s creation of five “lettere inutili”. ... ” (Vella [1841]: 4). Vella’s obvious conclusion is that the Maltese language is best written “[…] con l’ortografia da noi praticata fin da dieci anni” (Vella [1841]: 4). Reactions to Vella’s proposals Vella’s contribution to Maltese culture in general and to solving the alphabetic question in particular provoked quite a number of reactions in the Maltese newspapers of his times. Lo Spettatore Imparziale, which was edited by Fortunato Panzavecchia, a gifted grammarian and author of a dictionary of the Maltese language (Kontzi 1999), in collaboration with Giuseppe Zammit (Brighella), welcomed quite warmly, though not mentioning Vella by name, the publication of the 1838 Abbecedario. “Abbecedario Maltese - Ci si fecero pervenire alcune riflessioni dirette a discepoli delle scuole normali di Malta, e nello stile dell’anonimo non abbiamo potuto mancare di riconoscere qual buon partriotta, che ha tanto finora contribuito alla coltivazione della lingua maltese, Noi speriamo ch’ei continuerà a trattare l’argomento, e che i maltesi si determineranno finalmente ad addottare un alfabeto, senza più mantenersi in questa velleità, che ritardò finora l’avanzo dell’istruzione in Malta” (Lo Spettatore Maltese, 23rd July 1838, nr. ... The author of the Abbecedario, ergo Vella, is actually defined a patriot by Panzavecchia. ... 18) reproduced two short stanzas by Vella, without mentioning his name: “Ci è stata favorita da un nostro concittadino residente in Livorno, una Lettera diretta ai Ragazzi Maltesi con una Strofetta in poesia Maltese, noi non avendo spazio in questo numero, inseriamo soltanto l’ultima, lasciando la lettera per il susseguente. ... ” Il Mediterraneo, which was run by two Italian exiles in Malta, Carlo Cicognani and Tommaso Zauli Sajani, printed Vella’s explanatory letter, signed ABBECEDARIO MALTESE-ITALIANO, in the following issue of 22 August 1838 (nr. ... Vella’s obvious one and only intention was to insist on the use of the Latin alphabet as the only possible alternative since “l’alfabeto romano aggiungeva al bello, anche l’utile”.