‘Baby parking’ and Italian word wars

ROME • 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 everwatchful eye on the creeping use of English, said it was “deeply concerned” that the text about entrepreneurship was peppered with words such as “team-building,” “startup” and “stakeholder” while ignoring perfectly good Italian equivalents.

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

Meanwhile, the English words can be mangled almost beyond recognition as they mutate or are taken oddly out of context. Examples include “mister,” used to denote a soccer coach, and “baby parking,” meaning creche.

Education Minister Valeria Fedeli said her department was committed to promoting Italian but that it was vital for schoolchildren to start learning English early.