Tourists and the tourist industry are not going to be happy with this new proposal from the Italian government.....
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/01/europe/italian-government-penalize-english-words-intl/index.html
While this article doesn't mention it, some of the other news items indicate this will also apply to those dealing with foreign tourists.
I wouldn't worry about that because it will be off the table as quickly as it came. One of the weired ideas of the current government that will also quickly disappear again :-)
What does this proposal have to do with tourism? The proposal is aimed at official Italian communications e.g. government documents. It doesn't prohibit the use of English words in Italy e.g. restaurant menus.
I wouldn't worry too much about this. According to the Economist, since WW II, Italy has changed governments on an average of every 13 months. Seventy governments in 77 years.
This proposal hasn't even entered debate. Tourism brings in a lot of money to Italy. I doubt it would help them if police start handing out fines to tourists for mispronouncing "bruschetta."
This legislation is not surprising as the current government is on promoting a far-right, nationalist agenda.
Frank, if you read Andrew's post above yours you could make better jokes.
Talking about "nationalist agendas", the French have a similar law approved in 1984 when Balladur was Prime Minister and a socialist like Mitterrand was President of the French Republic.
Incidentally, the fall of a Government in a parliamentary Republic does not always imply the dissolution of the Parliament. Thus the passing of such a bill would be delayed but not blocked if Mrs. Meloni found a job more suitable to her skills.
This sentence written by the CNN journalist is not just wrong, it is plainly stupid:
This would mean that saying “bru-shetta” instead of “bru-sketta” could be a punishable offense.
Without mentioning that in Italian schools saying brushetta (like writing bru-sketta) is already a "punishable offense", it's punishable with a bad grade.
Frank, if you read Andrew's post above yours you could make better jokes.
I don't joke before 9 AM and two cups of coffee. It's against union rules.
Yeah, no joking or silliness allowed in this forum. /s
Bringing this back on topic, while such legislation may fit someone's agenda, it's not uncommon for groups of people large or small to try and preserve their language in different ways. The use of outside words allow for evolution within a language and can be a good thing, but the emerging worldwide dominance of English and the relative speed at which it is becoming pervasive is enough to consider how it affects one's culture. Like Frank said, I'm not surprised to see this sort of thing. (This post is just my personal take on the subject and not reflective of my position as Webmaster here)
Just look at Quebec, somehow everyone functions in English and/or French regardless of the law
As Dario said, this has been the law in France for a looooong time.
How can most tourists tell ?
If you ever see a big ad -- like say one of the huge posters in the metro --and it has an English word or phrase in it, you'll see an asterisk and then along the bottom somewhere, the French equivalent.
That's it.
I first read about this on April 1 and thought it was a prank!
Could have larger repercussions for the Italian citizens of Val D’Aosta, though they do their government stuff in Italian, IIRC. Similarly, the folks in Alto Adige.
I get the instinct. Protect the Florentine dialect of Italian that was adopted nationally. Because what holy hell will be raised if someone asks for gabagool instead of capicola.
....saying “bru-shetta” instead of “bru-sketta”.....
And there is no "x" in espresso. Just sayin'. :O)
The first thing I learned in Italian class was “brus-ketta”. It drove the teacher crazy when Italian restaurants here in the US said “bru-shetta”. She might support punishment for it. Maybe being forced to eat spaghetti-o’s for a week.
Could have larger repercussions for the Italian citizens of Val D’Aosta, though they do their government stuff in Italian, IIRC. Similarly, the folks in Alto Adige.
They make all government stuff in Italian, French and German and their right to do so is written in the Constitution (and a treaty with Austria)
I vaguely remember the sopranos talking about gabagool, but what the h. is a capicola? A soft drink made of pork juice?
"What does this proposal have to do with tourism? The proposal is aimed at official Italian communications e.g. government documents."
As I mentioned above, one of the articles I read stated that this will also have some provisions for dealing with non-Italian speaking tourists. I tried to find the article today, but couldn't locate it.
Might be time to get back to my Italian studies!
I vaguely remember the sopranos talking about gabagool, but what the h. is a capicola? A soft drink made of pork juice?
Maybe Coppa in your neck of the woods. Also known as Capocollo. And Gabagoul to folks from a particular region of Southern Italy from before the Florentine standardization.
The story of the modern Italian language is so perfectly Italian in so many facets, if it were a building, it would be a cathedral that took 500 years to finish.
It gets at the absurdity of protecting the “language,” as though it’s existed in its current form for more than 60 years. And yet, straight out of Dante’s playbook.
It’s just a law proposal that is probably not going anywhere, in spite of the fact that Mr. Rampelli himself (the Member of Parliament proposing it) said it intended to have a law similar to the French law already existing. 90% of law proposals in Italy are just nonsense by politicians to achieve media exposure.
I instead propose that the Webmaster imposes heavy fines on any poster who writes here Cinque Terra (instead of Terre) or Montepulicciano or Ossobucco (with two C instead of one). It is time we clean up this forum too. Brushetta however should be fined double because it is totally insulting to the ear.
as though it’s existed in its current form for more than 60 years.
Seriously, Florentine was picked as standard Italian because lots of people could understand it even before Dante wrote his Poem. It was the vehicular language of merchants, that thanks to Dante became essential among academics. During the last 80 years the state TV has continued a job whose roots reach the 1200 ce.
As an example, nobody felt the need to translate Saint Francis poems outside Umbria. And The peasants-turned-mercenaries from all over Italy who fought in the same regiments during the Italian wars, did not need to speak latin in the ranks. Just like the Florentine Popes in Rome. Vittoria Colonna did not reply to Michelangelo's letters saying she couldn't understand a word.
I think this is great. Preserving the language of the country is difficult. Note that this is about written, not spoken, English
