May Butcher (26 August 1886 in Great Grimsby,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

– 21 December 1950 in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

) was an English-born

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

writer who translated several works from the

Maltese language Maltese (, also or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language derived from Siculo-Arabic, late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance languages, Romance Stratum (linguistics), superstrata. It is the only Semitic languages, Semitic language pred ...

into English. Butcher was the fourth of nine children of Colonel Henry Townsend Butcher and Annie Susan Dalrymple-Hay.Family of Henry Townsend Butcher/Annie Susan Dalrymple-Hay
at FamilySearch.com She translated the words of the Maltese national anthem ( L-Innu Malti), and translated the biography of

Mikiel Anton Vassalli Mikiel Anton Vassalli (5 March 1764 – 12 January 1829) was a Maltese writer, a philosopher, and a linguist who published important Maltese language books, including a Maltese-Italian dictionary, a Maltese grammar book, the first Protestant ...

. One of her most important works is the book ''Elements in Maltese'', published in 1938, which provides details not only on the Semitic aspect of the Maltese language, but also gives importance to the Romantic aspect. A street in Iklin,

bears her name.

References

1886 births 1950 deaths Maltese writers Maltese–English translators 20th-century English translators {{Malta-writer-stub