The Future of Our Native Tongue Hangs in the Balance

There's a question that's been weighing on the minds of language experts across Malta, and it's one that cuts right to the heart of our cultural identity: will Maltese endure like water, adapting and flowing through the years, or will it become brittle and crack like stone?

According to Jacqueline Zammit, the answer depends entirely on one thing — whether young people choose to make Maltese part of their digital, creative and imaginative lives. "If Maltese does not enter the digital, creative and imaginative lives of children, it will not be chosen, and if it is not chosen, it will not survive," Zammit warns [1].

The Digital Divide

It's a sobering reality for anyone who cares about keeping Maltese alive. Our language doesn't exist in a vacuum — it exists in the everyday choices our children make about which languages they use online, which books they read, which games they play, and which stories they tell their friends.

The message is clear: the survival of Maltese isn't guaranteed by laws or curricula alone. It will survive only if the next generation actively chooses to use it, to create with it, and to imagine with it. That means having vibrant digital spaces, engaging creative content, and genuine reasons for young Maltese speakers to reach for their native language instead of gravitating toward English or other languages.

Like water finding its way through cracks in stone, Maltese needs to flow naturally through the lives of our young people — not as an obligation, but as something they genuinely want to use and enjoy [1].