British English, Maltese English or American English? Attitudes, perceptions and lexical choices among Malta’s bilingual population

Abstract

Though it is generally assumed that British English and Maltese English are spoken in Malta, a former British colony, American English seems to be gaining popularity on account of its presence on TV and on social media platforms. This paper reports on a survey among 500 Maltese, aged 18 years and over. The findings of this study reveal that attitudes towards British English are more positive than those in respect of Maltese English and American English, even though there is a wide recognition among the respondents that the Maltese English variety is profusely used in the Maltese media, and also by teachers of the English language. These attitudes are also reflected in the participants’ choice of sixteen pairs of lexical variants (British English and American English). The British English variants are mostly used, even though this study detects a shift towards American English use for some words. After nearly six decades of independence from the British, the Maltese still consider the standard variety of their last coloniser as a desideratum.