Maltese Italians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maltese Italians are the people of Malta who wanted the unification to Italy of the Maltese islands, following the Italian Irredentism ideals. The Maltese Italians promoted, as official language of Malta, the Italian language, that remained one of the official languages of the Maltese islands until 1934.
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[edit] History
The Romans took Malta in 218 BC, and were followed by the Byzantines in 535 AD. During those long periods of colonization the small population, numbering between 5,000 and 10,000, was fully romanized and spoke Latin.[1]
The Arabs made a violent raid on the islands in 870 and successively occupied the island for two centuries. The real beginning of the actual Maltese language took place in 1048 when the Arabs brought in a new community from Moslem Sicily which absorbed the few survivors of the old one, who did not leave their mark on the new language. Siculo-Arabic was a variety of Arabic that had developed in Sicily and was still spoken in its western parts under the Normans.
Originally Maltese was an Arabic dialect but it was immediately exposed to Latinisation because the Normans conquered the islands in 1090, while Christianisation, which was complete by 1250, cut off the dialect from contact with Classical Arabic. Consequently Maltese developed on its own, slowly but steadily absorbing new words from Sicilian and Italian according to the needs of the developing community.
One major study found that "the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria,"[2]
After the Norman conquest, the population of the Maltese islands kept growing, mainly through immigration from the north (Sicily and Italy), with the exile to Malta of the entire male population of the town of Celano (Italy) in 1223, the stationing of a Norman and Sicilian garrison on Malta in 1240, the settlement in Malta of noble families from Sicily between 1372 and 1450, and the introduction of several thousand Sicilian labourers in 1551 and again in 1566.
The Order of Saint John brought prosperity to the island, raising it to the social levels of a contemporary European town (from 17,000 in 1530 to 96,000 in 1797).
Before the coming of the Knights in 1530, Malta's dominant languages were Latin and Sicilian. The Knights of Malta, although the majority were French or Spanish, chose the Italian language as their local official language. The roots of the Maltese Italians were placed by the Maltese Italian Fortunato Mizzi in those centuries, when Malta was the bastion of Christianity in the Mediterranean attacked by the moslem Ottomans.
Italian enjoyed this official status for most of the British period, that started during Napoleon times. The British Colonial Office declared a policy of Anglicisation as early as 1813, but the Maltese resisted and stuck to Italian and the Catholic faith as the shields of their national identity. In 1842, when only 11% of the total population of Malta was literate, all literate Maltese learned Italian while only 4.5% could read, write and speak English. In 1911, English overtook Italian as the secondary language after Maltese, spoken by 13.1% of the population vs. 11.5%.
At the height of the tensions before World War II which pitted Great Britain against Italy, the Italian language was dropped from official language status in 1934. In these year the Italian Irredentism promoted the unification of Malta to the Kingdom of Italy. Many Maltese Italians participated in fascist-supported organizations (such as the Nationalist Party) with the "Risorgimento" ideal to become Italians. Carmelo Borg Pisani, a prominent proponent for Italian unification, was executed by the British during WWII.
After composing 20% of the Maltese population during WWII, the Maltese Italians were reduced to a small minority by the British policy after the war. Those remaining, such as Sir Giorgio Borg Olivier, helped push Malta towards independence from the British Empire. Malta achieved independence from the British Empire in 1964.
[edit] Italian Irredentism in Malta
The Italian irredentism of the Maltese Italians started after the unification of Italy in 1861. Malta was soon one of the main targets of the Irredentists in the Italian Risorgimento and many Maltese politicians joined the ideals of the Irredentism movement.
In 1880, Fortunato Mizzi founded the Partito Anti-Riformista [Anti-Reform Party - P.A.R.]in reaction to the reforms suggested by the 1878 Royal Commission (Rowsell-Julyan-Keenan Commission). This Commission had championed several reforms in favour of anglicisation, also championed by another new political party led by Sigismondo Savona - the Partito Riformista (Reform Party - P.R.)
At the turn of the century there were many organizations with pro-Italian stance between the Maltese Italians such as Giovine Malta,Malta Letteraria, and Associazione Politica Maltese.
The nationalist movements together with their leaders evolved into a strong political force. Only in 1926 did the movements merge, although they had the same ideals for quite a long time and have been governing together during the first self-government of 1921.The 1921 constitution granted a considerable measure of self-government, but political tensions reemerged (promoted even by the Italian irredentism in Malta), and the constitution, after having twice been suspended, was revoked in 1936. A new constitution in 1939 reinstated Malta as a British crown colony.
Meanwhile the two movements, the Partit Demokratiku Nazzjonalista (Nationalist Democratic Party) led by Dr Enrico Mizzi (son of Fortunato) and the Unione Politica Maltese (Maltese Political Union) led by Ignazio Panzavecchia and Sir Ugo Pasquale Mifsud, were united under one statute which led to the creation of the Partit Nazzjonalista (Nationalist Party).
One of the greatest Nationalist electoral victories occurred in 1932 when the Party got 21 of 32 seats in the Legislative Assembly (Parliament). However, the Nationalists did not last long in government. The British colonial authorities, concerned because of the rise of Mussolini's Italy in the Mediterranean and Africa, suspended the government and the constitution on the pretext that government's measures, to strengthen instruction of the Italian language in schools, violated the Constitution.
_(Emblem).jpg/200px-Partit_Nazzjonalista_(Malta)_(Emblem).jpg)
During the war, the Nationalist Party was deprived of some of its leaders. Dr Enrico Mizzi (who was even the Director of the "Gazzetta Maltese", a newspaper in Italian) and other 49 Maltese Italian supporters were exiled to Uganda by the colonial government on suspicion of pro-Italian leaning.
The other leader, Sir Ugo Mifsud died while defending in the Maltese Parliament the cause of these internees (among them: prof. Giulio Cortis of the University of Malta, father Alberto Pantalleresco, prof. Vincenzo Bonello, Alberto Laferla, Herbert Ganado, Berto Gauci and Alberto Baiona).
Some Maltese Italians decided to fight for the unification of Malta to the Kingdom of Italy and joined the Italian military forces during WWII. [3] Among them, Carmelo Borg Pisani, Antonio Cortis, Paolo Frendo, Ivo Leone Ganado, Roberto Mallia, Manuele Mizzi, Antonio Vassallo, Joe d’Ancona and Carlo Liberto were the most politically renowned in Malta.
Carmelo Borg Pisani paid with his life for this decision: he was executed by the British authorities in 1942. Mussolini called him a Maltese Martyr and created in his honor in Liguria the "Battaglione Borg Pisani" in novembre 1943, where other Maltese irredentists fought.
When the war ended, Dr Enrico Mizzi together with the others Maltese Italians continued to struggle for more political rights for Malta. In 1950, he was appointed Prime Minister. This did not last long, since Dr Mizzi died in office and was succeeded by Dr Giorgio Borg Olivier, another Maltese Italian with links to the Italian irredentism when young (he later promoted and obtained the independence of Malta from the British Empire in 1964).
[edit] The Language Struggle
For over sixty years after 1878, Maltese argued with fellow Maltese as to which language should be dominant in Malta: English or Italian? The Italian language had been the language used in administrative circles since the sixteenth century. Italian, or the Sicilian version of it, was in use in the Island before 1530 when the Crusader Knights of St. John made Malta their home for 268 years.
Malta and Sicily were not only neighbours in the Mediterranean, but they also shared a common heritage in history, culture and religion. Although the Maltese did not speak Italian as their native language, the ruling classes and the Knights had imposed that language as the official idiom of government and culture in 1530. [4] Trouble started when after 1878 the British administration began to enforce the teaching of the English language in State schools at the expense of Italian. The vast majority of the Maltese were illiterate and did not feel involved in the Language struggle. Soon two political positions appeared: "Reformers" and "Anti-Reformers". The "Reformers" insisted on a reform of the educational system making English the language of a British colony. The "Anti-Reformers", who identified themselves with the Italian Irredentism, were determined to oppose any change which would jeopardise the privileged status of the Italian language in an island which considered itself as European, Latin and Catholic.
The Constitution of 1921 had recognised Italian and English as the official languages of Malta, but the preponderance of English was becoming obvious.
The position of the Anti-Reformers became compromised when Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy in 1922. Fascists claimed Malta as part of unredeemed Italy (Italia irredenta). Most Maltese, even those who favoured the language of Italy, did not cherish such claims put forward by the Maltese Fascists.
There was a huge minority in Malta who not only loved Italy's language but also saw Malta as a geographical extension of the Italian mainland. Senator Caruana Gatto in a speech delivered at the Royal Opera House in honour of the celebrated Maltese tenor Calleia, described Malta as "the extreme end of Italian soil". Caruana Gatto represented the nobility in the Senate (his speech was delivered on March 21, 1923).
The Maltese Fascism helped to organize the powerful Nationalist Party, with thousands of Maltese members (Dr. Carlo Mallia was the head of the Maltese Fascist Party and Dr. Enrico Mizzi published the newspaper "Gazzetta Maltese" in Italian).
Such irredentist claims were ignored by many Maltese. When sustained efforts by the British authorities were made to educate the masses in the 1930s, many Maltese wanted to study their own Maltese language. They also preferred to learn English because it was the language used by most Maltese emigrants and it had an international status.
Even if the Maltese Italians won the elections of 1932 with the Nationalistic Party of Enrico Mizzi, Italian was dropped from official status in Malta in 1934 and its place was taken by the Maltese dialect (promoted to the level of language by the British government). When the Kingdom of Italy and Great Britain found themselves at war, Italian bombers began dropping their bombs on Maltese towns and villages: the Second World War buried the "Language struggle" about the use of the Italian or English in Malta.
[edit] Language
One of the main characteristics of the Maltese Italians is their support and use of the Italian language.
In 1995 the inhabitants of Malta declared that 37% of them knew Italian. An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary shows that 52.46% are from Sicilian and Italian.
Italian was the official language of Malta from 1530 to 1921, when the English language was added. Only in 1934 did Italian cease to be an official language, due to political problems of the British authorities with Mussolini and his irredentism toward the unification of Malta with Italy.
The influence of the Italian of the Maltese Italians can be seen in Malta even in the local Maltese language. Maltese (that is written with Latin alphabet) can be spoken using either the Semitic or the Romance forms.[5] A case in point is the English sentence The temple is situated opposite the village plaza:
- Romance form: It-tempju sitwat oppost il-pjazza tal-villaġġ.
(Italian: Il tempio è situato opposto alla piazza del villaggio.)
- Semitic form: Il-maqdes jinsab biswit il-misraħ tar-raħal.
Both sentences are in Maltese and have exactly the same meaning. Generally though, no one form is ever spoken exclusively, and sentences are usually made up of words from both influences.
Academic Maltese language frequently adopts a large number of Romance words, which is becoming the norm, a trend which is making the Maltese language more Europeanized. Maltese Grammar is mainly Arabic, although drastically simplified, but syntax, possibly through the influence of schooling, is more akin to Italian, and vocabulary is nearly 55% from Italian language and Sicilian dialect.
For many centuries, Maltese was the language of the kitchen and the workshop, while Italian was the language of learning, literature, the arts, law and commerce.[6] Hence, until the early 20th century, the vast majority of literary works in Malta were written in Italian.
According to Prof. Oliver Friggieri:
Maltese writers developed an uninterrupted local "Italian" literary movement which went on up to about four decades ago, whereas Maltese as a literary idiom started to coexist on a wide scale in the last decades of the 19th century. Whilst Maltese has the historical priority on the level of the spoken language, Italian has the priority of being the almost exclusive written medium, for the socio-cultural affairs, for the longest period.[7]
[edit] Influences from Sicily and Italy
Located just 60 miles to the north, Sicily has provided Malta with a virtually continuous exchange of knowledge, ideas, customs and beliefs throughout recorded history. Many modern Maltese families trace their origins to various parts of Sicily and Southern Italy. The geographic proximity has facilitated a considerable amount of intermarriage, cross-migration, and trade between the two groups of islands.
The Sicilian influence on Maltese culture is extensive, and is especially evident in the local cuisine, with its emphasis on olive oil, pasta, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables (especially the tomato), traditional appetizers such as caponata (Maltese: "kapunata") and rice balls (arancini), speciality dishes such as rice timbale (Maltese: "ross fil-forn"), and sweets such as the cassata and cannoli.
Sicilian influence is also evident in many of the local superstitions, in simple children's nursery rhymes, and in the devotion to certain saints, especially St. Agatha. Centuries of dependence on the Diocese of Palermo brought many Sicilian religious traditions to Malta, including the Christmas crib (Maltese: "il-presepju"), the ritual visiting of several Altars of Repose on Good Friday (Maltese: "is-sepulkri"), and the graphic, grim realism of traditional Maltese religious images and sculpture.
Despite Malta's rapid transformation into a strategic naval base during the British period, the influence of Italian culture on Malta strengthened considerably throughout the 19th century. This was due in part to increasing levels of literacy among the Maltese, the increased availability of Italian newspapers, and an influx of Italian intelligentsia to Malta.
Several leaders of the Italian Risorgimento movement were exiled in Malta by the Bourbon monarchs during this period, including Luigi Pirandello, Francesco Crispi, and Ruggiero Settimo. There was even the emigration to Malta of 891 Italian exiles during the Risorgimento in 1849.
Malta was also the proposed destination of Giuseppe Garibaldi when he was ordered into exile, but this never came to happen. However, the political writings of Garibaldi and his colleague, Giuseppe Mazzini - who believed that Malta was, at heart, part of the emerging Italian nation - resonated among many of Malta's upper and middle classes. This created the fertile ground on which the Irredentism of the Maltese Italians developed during the last century, mainly during the Fascism decades.[8]
[edit] Main Maltese Italians
Small list of renowned Maltese Italians:
- Enrico Mizzi, Prime minister and Director of the Gazzetta Maltese
- Carmelo Borg Pisani, the martyr of the Maltese Irredentism
- Ugo Pasquale Mifsud, Prime minister
- Giorgio Borg Olivier, Prime minister and promotor of the Independence of Malta in 1964
- Fortunato Mizzi, founder of the Nationalist Party
- Arturo Mercieca, Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal of Malta
- Ignazio Panzavecchia, Leader of the UPM Party.
- Carlo Mallia, Head of the Maltese Fascist Party
- Ivo Leone Ganado, Maltese irredentist and lieutenant of Mussolini's Milizia Fascista.
- Caruana Gatto, Senator and Noble Maltese
[edit] Revival
The process of unification of the Italian people that started as a consequence of the ideals from the French Revolution, did not materialize in some areas of the Italian region. This was the case of Malta. The Irredentism movement of the Italian Risorgimento was hindered in the Maltese islands by the presence of the Great Britain's huge empire.
Even with this colonial presence the Maltese Italians were able to organize a powerful movement around the Nationalist Party and other Italian organizations of Malta, that nearly fulfilled this ideal in the 1920s and early 1930s, thanks even to the support of fascist Italy.[9]
The war between the Kingdom of Italy and the British empire helped remove sympathy for a juncture with Italy. Malta was one of the few regions claimed by the Italian Irredentism that was not occupied by Mussolini during WWII. The Maltese Italians were reduced to a small minority in Malta after the war, and their post-war leaders dedicated their energies towards the independence of Malta from the British empire. That 37% of the Maltese people know Italian 50 years after the war's vicissitudes is confirmation of the cultural and linguistic influence of their northern neighbor through the spread of media from geographic proximity. Italian TV can be viewed with simple terrestrial reception from Malta, with many Maltese learning the Italian language through this means.
In the past decade there has been a revival of the Italian and culture in Malta. Even the "difficult" case of the execution of the fascist Maltese Italian Carmelo Borg Pisani (who was the last person to receive the Death Penalty in Malta) is being reconsidered in a sympathetic way by the Maltese.[1]
[edit] See also
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[edit] External links
- Maltese Italians and the Malta migrations
- Site of the Knights "Order of Malta"
- Carmelo Borg Pisani and other Maltese Irredentists (in Italian)
- Influences of the Italian culture in the movement for maltese independence
[edit] References
- ^ Toynbee, Arnold. The Provinces of the Roman Empire. pag 79
- ^ C. Capelli, N. Redhead, N. Novelletto, L. Terrenato, P. Malaspina, Z. Poulli, G. Lefranc, A. Megarbane, V. Delague, V. Romano, F. Cali, V.F. Pascali, M. Fellous, A.E. Felice, and D.B. Goldstein; "Population Structure in the Mediterranean Basin: A Y Chromosome Perspective," Annals of Human Genetics, 69, 1-20, 2005.
- ^ Mack Smith, Denis. Mussolini's Roman Empire. pag 147
- ^ Cassola, Arnold. L'Italiano di Malta. Malta University Press
- ^ Tagliavini, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine. pag 94
- ^ Lawrence Attard Bezzina, "Maltese and Hebrew: Two Cases of Cultural Survival"
- ^ Prof. Oliver Friggieri, "Main Trends in the History of Maltese Literature"
- ^ Lamb, Richard. Mussolini as Diplomat pag 280
- ^ Seton-Watson, Christopher. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 1870-1925 pag 134-5
[edit] Bibliography
- Attard, Joseph. Britain and Malta. PEG Ltd. Malta, 1988.
- Fabei, Stefano. Carmelo Borg Pisani (1915-1942) – eroe o traditore?. Lo Scarabeo Ed. Bologna, 2006
- Cassola, Arnold. L'Italiano di Malta. Malta University Press. Malta, 1998
- Durant, Will. The Renaissance. MJK Books. New York, 1981.
- Lamb, Richard. Mussolini as Diplomat. Fromm International Edition. New York, 1999 ISBN 088064244-0
- Mack Smith, Denis. Mussolini's Roman Empire. Fromm Ed. London, 1976.
- Seton-Watson, Christopher. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 1870-1925, John Murray Publishers. London, 1967.
- Stephenson, Charles. The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945. Osprey Publishing London, 2004.
- Tagliavini, Carlo. Le origini delle lingue neolatine. Patron Ed. Bologna 1982.
