L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS W riting in English is m y j o b , s o i t g o e s without saying I love this language. I like the way it alliterates easily and its prag- matic nature, which is so differ- ent from the Baroque concate- nation of subordinates that usu- a l l y m a k e s u p w r i t i n g a n d speaking in Italian. However, I like to keep my English and my Italian separat- ed, finding it slightly annoying when people choose an English word over a perfectly usable and common Italian one and, apparently, I am not the only one to have such a pet peeve. Linguists, of course, are far from happy about the uncon- trolled use we Italians make of English words in our everyday c o n v e r s a t i o n s : " r i u n i o n i " b e c a m e m e e t i n g s , " c e n t r i benessere" wellness centres, "fard" turned into blush and when you are after a "posto" where to do something specific, y o u a r e s e e k i n g a l o c a t i o n . Mind, English words have been p a r t o f o u r c o m m u n i c a t i v e w a y s f o r d e c a d e s , b u t w e r e once limited to specific sectors and items for which we did not have an Italian translation. This is why computers are "comput- ers," marketing is "marketing" a n d , a l a s , r o c k a n d r o l l a n d punk are "rock and roll" and "punk" in Italy, too. Yet, things FRANCESCA BEZZONE have gone awry in the past few y e a r s , w i t h m o r e a n d m o r e English terms entering the aver- age vocabulary in substitution of common Italian words, still perfectly usable. Last year Federlingue, the Italian association for linguistic services, found out that the use of English words increased of 773% in 8 years: crucially, such an increase is not mirrored by a better knowledge of English, as we Italians, let us face it, are bad at languages. Linguists' dis- like for the trend has been made popular by the #dilloinitaliano (say it in Italian) hashtag creat- ed by Bocconi University lec- turer and publicist Annamaria Testa, champion of the Italian language and of the appropriate use of English in the Bel Paese. Testa started her more recent project two years ago, when she a s k e d d i r e c t s u p p o r t f o r h e r campaign from the Accademia della Crusca, the institutional cradle of the Italian language, which took her plea seriously and offered to begin monitoring the rise of anglicismi incipienti (incipient anglicisms), that is, of all those unnecessary English words introduced in our daily language. A c c o r d i n g t o T e s t a , t h e increased – and often inappro- priate – use of English is not caused by a sudden improve- ment of the average Italian's linguistic knowledge, but sim- ply by laziness and bad habits. Interviewed by La Nazione's Letizia Cini about a year ago, she declared that the abuse of English originates in "provin- c i a l i s m , c o n f o r m i s m a n d a n overall poor knowledge of for- eign languages, often used by many as a sort of 'abracadabra' s o l u t i o n t o a p p e a r d i f f e r e n t from what they are." And in the horrible knowledge of our own l a n g u a g e , t o o , I d a r e a d d myself. Is there a solution to such an ongoing issue? According to Testa there is, and it is simple: Italy must start appreciating its language more. Italian has an incredibly rich lexicon and it is really down to speakers to make the conscious effort to pick a native word over a foreign. Academics and linguists can help by, Testa says, "finding r e a l i s t i c a l t e r n a t i v e s t o t h e superfluous use of foreign lexi- con" and proposing them to the w i d e r p u b l i c . S o m e s u g g e s - tions? Well, we should start using again "pubblico" instead of audience, "austerità" instead of austerity, "rete" instead of web and "assistenza sociale" instead of welfare: in the end, if they have been good enough for all these centuries, why should they be discarded today? In fact, Testa has made a list with more than 300 abused English terms w h i c h s h o u l d b e s u b s t i t u t e d with Italians'. The ultimate issue with using t o o m a n y f o r e i g n l o a n s i n Italian, or in any language for that matter, is that it can cause its irreversible impoverishment, as well as create the illusion among people to master a for- eign language, when they actu- ally do not: linguists are right, it is detrimental to the borrowed and the borrower. Far from thinking any for- eign inflection and influence upon a language is negative, it should be however controlled and limited to when it is truly necessary: in the end, language is a people's first sign of unity and if it is true we are becoming more and more international, keeping our feet well rooted into our own culture is essential to maintain our own identity and, crucially, to understand and appreciate that of others. "Italianglo" should go: why Italians should stop using and abusing English words Last year Federlingue, the Italian association for linguistic services, found out that the use of English words increased of 773% in 8 years

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