ABSTRACT

Where a minority culture has retained its own language, the writer who wants or needs to write in another language faces the challenge of conveying the full meaning of the nuances belonging to that minority culture. Through examples from my own creative work, this study explores three main ways, by which the nuances of the Maltese language can be retained when writing short fiction in English, all involving code-switching. By code-switching what is meant is shifting from one language to another, depending on the social context. In this case, since the audience is not just a Maltese one, the intention is to create a realistic linguistic landscape that does not jeopardize a wider audience’s understanding of the text. The argument points to the fact that although there are ways to retain the nuances of the Maltese language, there are many limitations in evincing specific facets of Maltese life in the English language, especially those relating to jokes, politics, or dialect and for this reason, the Maltese culture can never be fully represented in mainstream literature.

KEYWORDS

Code-Switching, discourse, linguistic, landscape, minority, language, major, literature, English, Maltese.