Maltese Recordings

In a new departure for CIALL a fresh suite of recordings in Maltese, complete with Clilstore back-up for learners and a seasonal twist, has been created in the Island Voices "Extensions" style by Sharon Pisani, from St Andrews University Open Virtual Worlds group.

Sharon Pisani writes:

“Christmas is a celebration that holds a special place in my heart. Since moving from Malta to Scotland, I’ve sought to bring the light and joy of Maltese traditions into Scotland’s short, dark December days. When I was back home planning and filming the documentary, I looked into Malta’s unique customs and discovered others that have faded over time, such as the use of capon as the traditional Christmas lunch meat. My goal was to capture the essence of the Christmases I cherish — through food, decorations, and the sense of community.

In today’s era of content creation, documenting this felt natural, but it was also deeply meaningful to explore Malta’s festive roots and to interview Carmel Cauchi, an author whose books shaped my childhood. The poetry readings selected by Cauchi reflect a contemporary world, where harsh realities co-exist with the jovial celebrations of Christmas. Just as Christmas traditions and lifestyles evolve, so too does language and the way we produce and consume content in that language. This is especially true for Maltese – and other island languages – in this digital age.

I hope this collection of videos, which can be explored in Maltese, English, and Gaelic, alongside other languages through YouTube’s translation tools, resonates with you.”

The recordings feature natural unscripted speech and carefully crafted verse from the poet Carmel Cauchi alongside Sharon’s documentary narrative – which, of course, allows ready translation into other languages, such as English or Gaelic - with Carmel offering some thoughtful reflections on apparent encroachment on Maltese domains of use in education which may sound familiar to speakers of Gaelic. The videos are subtitled on YouTube in Maltese – which also enables auto-translation into a wide range of other languages through the settings wheel. To access any of these videos just click on the live links in either of these landscape or portrait formats.

The Clilstore units with one-click dictionary look-up are available here:

Documentary: Tradizzjonijiet tal-Milied f’Malta
Poetry: Carmel G. Cauchi – Qari ta’ Poeżiji
Conversation: Carmel G. Cauchi Jitkellem fuq il-Milied