Italian scholars upset over the creeping use of English

THE guardians of the Italian language have accused the country’s education ministry of packing a new school text with dozens of English words and phrases in the latest row over the hold of English on the language of Boccaccio and Dante.

The Accademia della Crusca, which keeps an ever-watchful eye on the creeping use of English, said it was “deeply concerned” that the text about entrepreneurship was peppered with words and phrases such as “teambuilding”, “start-up”, “case history”, “stakeholder” and “coaching”, while ignoring some perfectly good Italian equivalents.

“The adoption of English phrases and expressions is no longer a one-off but has become institutionalised,” said the academy, which was founded in Florence in 1582.

“Rather than teaching students about entrepreneurship, the text seems to promote the systematic abandonment of the Italian language,” it added.

Meanwhile, the English words can be mangled almost beyond recognition as they mutate or are taken oddly out of context in order to be adapted by Italian speakers. Examples include “mister”, used to denote a football coach, and “baby parking”, meaning crèche.

The education minister rejected the academy’s criticism of the school text. Valeria Fedeli said that her department was committed to promoting Italian but that it was vital for schoolchildren to start learning English from a young age.