Dr Joe Zammit Ciantar has been awarded the Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika in Monday’s Republic Day honours.

He was born on the 8th of May 1942, in Sannat, Gozo. Joe Zammit Ciantar is Teacher by profession with the Education Department. He was appointed as Master of Maltese, Head of Department, Education Officer, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer with the University of Malta Junior College.

Zammit Ciantar has also organised several exhibitions on Maltese books and Maltese authors, a course on Maltese literature, and he also taught Maltese to adults and foreigners. He is also President of Grupp Awturi and Vice-President of Akkademja tal-Malti.

He is a member of the International Committee of Onomastic Sciences (ICOS), the Editorial Board of Atlas Linguarum Europae (ALE), organizing a meeting in Malta 1999, and the International Society for Dialectology and Geolinguistics (SIDG). He has also represented the Maltese Government on the Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Regional or Minority Languages in Europe, of the Council of Europe.

Apart from having published several poems, researched articles in local and foreign journals, and delivered papers in international conferences in Copenhagen, Dublin, Belfast, Pisa, and Boston (USA), he has also co-edited magazines like Grufan, Saghtar, Hyphen and Il-Malti and edited others like Eku, Delitti u Misteri, Fora Melitensia, and Symposia Melitensia.

Zammit Ciantar is a regular contributor with articles in The Malta Independent on Sunday, Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta. He has also published several books among them Merhba; Sirenella u Stejjer Ohra; Il-Hajja ta’ Duminku Savio; A Benedictine’s Notes on Seventeenth-Century MALTA; Life in Ghar il-Kbir; The Placenames of the Coast of Gozo (Malta); Il-Priedki bil-Malti ta’ Ignazio Saverio Mifsud; The Holy Eucharist and the Hymn ‘T’Adoriam Ostia Divina’ [with Hector Xerri]; and The false domes of the Gozo Cathedral and other churches.

On Republic Day each year, the President, on behalf of the government and people of Malta, pays public tribute to a number of Maltese citizens who distinguish themselves in different fields of endeavour, by appointing them to The National Order of Merit or to the Xirka gieh ir-Repubblika, or by awarding them the Midalja ghall-Qlubija or the Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika.

This year’s Investiture Ceremony again took place at The Palace, Valletta, immediately following the customary Ceremonial Parade held at the Palace Square

During the ceremony, President George Vella appointed fifteen members, including one organisation, to The National Order of Merit. Two individuals were awarded the Midalja ghall-Qlubija and eleven others were awarded the Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika.

Nationals of other countries may be conferred with honorary membership of the Order or of the Xirka or awarded the Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika on an honorary basis.

The Award winners can be found by clicking here.

Photo: DOI/Jeremy Wonnacott

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