Reviewer: Elena Montrasio
Words are important.
They connect us,
they shape our mind.
The words of our language are extraordinary,
they are musical, evocative, rich, full of history, vibrations, emotion,
they are resounding, evocative, they reverberate with our history.
About the beauty of our language,
and about the fact that such beauty is to be defended, preserved, perceived,
anew, I will tell you about.
I will talk to you about the rising tide
of "Italenglish",
the provincial, unjustified, often unclear mixture
of Italian and English words, which,
in the past few years, has become quite common.
But I will take a wide approach,
and will start by showing you some Latin mottos.
The greatest universities in the world bear Latin mottos on their emblems,
and they show them with great pride.
Here we have Australia,
and Hong Kong, with a Latin motto,
and Ghana, Corea, Russia, Sweden,
and the United Kingdom with London's King's College, and Oxford,
and Chicago, in the United States.
Harvard says "Veritas" on its emblem.
It's not just universities taking pride in expressing themselves in Latin,
the city of London bears a Latin motto.
Paris has a Latin motto, Canada has a Latin motto,
Queensland, Australia, has a Latin motto.
Not only that: The U.S. Navy says: "Semper Fidelis",
you certainly heard it in a thousand movies!
The British Navy speaks Latin, and even NASA, an institution
far from being a past aficionado, lends a Latin motto to Apollo missions.
Why am I going on and on with Latin? And why Latin mottos?
Because if there's one place in the world where a Latin motto could make sense,
it's this one. Here. The crib of Latin.
But no! Have you seen the recent touristic brand for Rome,
approved and promoted by the City of Rome?
It's this.
We don't even know how to pronounce it, "Rome, me and you?"
"Rome and you?"
What is this second-rate wink?
What is this contamination, this short-circuit between two languages,
which deprives both of any meaning?
What are those five balls up there?
(Laughter)
(Applause)
One has to wonder, "But, why?"
Why, when we look at all the touristic brands of all the cities in the world,
no one senselessly mangles its own name for self-promotion.
Nowhere. Only in Rome.
Talking of mangling, let's take a look at the touristic portal...
(Applause)
just launched by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage
"VeryBello"? What?
(Laughter)
Not "MoltoBello" or "VeryBeautiful".
Let's make Italian and English collapse senselessly!
We don't like that, the Anglophones don't like that either.
That's the curious thing.
"Du ui still spik italian?"
Do we still speak Italian?
We're talking about Italian.
The most romantic language in the world, speaking of "Rome & You".
The most romantic language in the world, according to 320 Anglo-Saxon linguists.
The fourth most studied language in the world,
and nobody studies Italian for business!
They study it because they love it! For the cuisine, the fashion, the Opera,
the art, the history, for Dante!
That's why they're studying it.
We're talking about the language of angels
said Thomas Mann.
And yet, for example, pizza has conquered the world,
and its name is still "pizza".
Here you can see pizza restaurants in the US compared
with restaurants selling hamburgers or hot-dogs: pizza wins.
If the whole world eats, and says pizza, why do we in Italy drink "wine"?
Look! We eat "food" and drink "wine" in Lucca, Cernobbio, Catania, Milan.
And that's funny, because in New York, when they promote the "Italian wine week",
they say "vino". Because the restaurants in New York,
those fancy restaurants selling food and wine, call it "vino"!
Let's talk about another Italian excellence. Let's leave the food behind
and talk about fashion. Here's what our most important fashion magazine writes:
"Il look curvy-friendly più glam" (The most glam, curvy-friendly look)
"direttamente dalle passerelle (straight from)
della fall-winter" fall-winter catwalks)
Okay, we get that the seasons are no longer what they used to be,
but tell me why I should call a well-shaped woman "curvy"
- like it's a mountain trail up in the Grand Canyon -
instead of "formosa" (shapely), just like our shapely Venuses,
and like the women we see in our Renaissance portraits.
Why? Curvy?! Shame on you, I'm not curvy!
Let's talk about "pubblicità", or "advertàising"
This is a Renault ad in Spain, and the language is Spanish.
This is the same Renault ad in France, and the language is French.
This is the same page in Italy, and the language is English.
There are only two words in Italian: "il primo" (the first).
(Laughter)
(Applause)
What's happening to us if even the Sindacato (Union) says: "Let's go back
to our roots and call ourselves Unions"; Landini [Italian Union leader] said so.
Unions? The roots
of the Italian Sindacato? Are we sure about that?
That's funny because more than half Italians doesn't speak a word of English.
In 2012 it was 60%, today it's about 58%.
We don't know English as a Country, and you can see that!
"Pey Smecker" (Pace maker)
(Laughter)
Let's hope that the medical competences of the woman who filled out
this form are stronger than her linguistic skills.
Yet, every day, either out of laziness, distraction, conformism,
because it sounds modern, because we are provincial,
we make use of a lot of unnecessary English words,
not deeply rooted in our own language, plainly secondary and pointless.
We say "call" instead of "telefonata", we say "location" instead of "posto".
I heard: "Nazareno is the location Renzi chose for the meetings".
The headquarters of a political Party are a location?!
We say "competitors" and "compilation", "customer care" and "day by day".
How can an office say: "Dobbiamo schedulare una conference call
per il fine tuning della customer satisfaction con la business unit"?
When it would suffice to say, "Let's call Pippo, Franco, Gennaro
to fix the matter". Because you know that the business unit
is always Pippo, Franco and Gennaro.
(Laughter and Applause)
Italenglish is now spoken not only by companies, also by the media,
public administrations, the government. We have a State law named "Jobs Act",
and let me assure you, its name, Jobs Act, didn't make it any nicer.
In fact, it forced TV spokesmen to say "Giobbàt", which is something
you won't find in nature.
We are going to have a new Tax with an English name, which will not be nicer
because of its English name.
A couple of months ago, after the launch of the Roman brand,
I told myself I had to do something. Communication is what I do,
I know of some effective tools, and I thought, with my colleagues,
to set up a project online to sensitise people
on the matter. It was free, we didn't spend a cent.
All it took was a little competence, office communication and vitality.
This petition, which invited public administrations, the government,
companies, media, to "Say It in Italian", was addressed
firstly to the Academia della Crusca,
asking it to become the protagonist of this sensitising campaign.
We expected a decent response, certainly not a turn out like this.
In less than a month, with their names, surnames, address,
70.000 people signed it,
It was signed by the young, the old, polyglots and non-English speakers,
deans and students, translators, English and Italian teachers,
renowned professionals and retired people alike.
Italians living abroad signed, asking: "What are you doing to our language?"
and foreigners in Italy, as well.
People signed from all over the world. From Singapore, Jerusalem, Peru,
South Africa, North Africa, Canada, Australia; it was touching.
I spent hours watching the signatures growing and reading the comments.
And I'd like to read you some of them.
Italian is a right, but also a duty; We are in a 'hot air' overload;
If we think wrong we also talk wrong. I work in the PA. Help!;
I sign because I did Classical studies, but now I work with economists.
I work in fashion. They sent me a 'press release' for a 'happening'
of 'preview' into 'trends', I don't think I'm gonna go.
(Laughter)
Excellent Italian and a decent English are much better than a poor Italenglish.
Shish! -- And we know what he means. (ironic reference to PM Renzi)
This is one of the most amazing:
I have a foreign name, but I speak Italian, says Chung Wei Fu from Rome.
I'm signing because I'm missing the iridescence of our language;
Because I'd never want to hear: 'What a great 'location' at my funeral!
(Laughter)
(Applause)
I'm signing For Dante, Montale, Caproni, Pavese, Biangiardi, Gadda...;
I'm sick of lecturers who can't say 'The book is on the table', and yet
fill their mouths with 'company profile'. That's what happens.
I'm signing because I don't think those who say 'cool' are cool;
Because I've heard college professors
say 'displayato' instead of ''visualizzato';
I'm signing because I don't speak English
(Applause)
I'm signing because I want to understand what politicians say,
since they're asking for my vote;
It was about time someone did this. I am 85. Thanks to the promoters.
We had an extraordinary, transversal feedback,
because the mass media took this costless, online initiative,
and they amplified it.
And it was published on more than 130 Italian newspaper articles,
with an astounding transversal consensus.
Italian journalists Gramellini and Serra, on La Stampa and LaRepubblica,
and it was also acclaimed
by Il Secolo d'Italia and L'Avvenire.
Wired and Vanity Fair, talked about it,
and so did Famiglia Cristiana, and the Touring monthly magazine.
The gossip magazine Oggi published an editorial by the editor.
It was so transversal that it extended to the whole constitutional arc, and more
and it went from the most niche, and cultural publications
to the most popular ones.
And it revealed a strong desire to take back our language
with pride and awareness.
This went out to the newscasts --I had to powder my face and go talk in the news--
it went out on the radio, I was interviewed by an Australian radio,
and then by an Irish one.
You see, this is what we need.
All of this arises from our own awareness, because language is something we build
in every instance of our speaking, thinking, writing; every single day.
So my to plea to you all is, let's hold on to our Italian language.
In conclusion, let me remind you of a few reasons why.
Italian words help you to be easily understood by all,
and that's democracy, because being understood is democracy.
There's no need for rules, there's no need for bans. We need good examples
and we need to ask all institutions to be good examples.
Moreover, our language is valuable, it's a means to promote ourselves.
We need to sell it, spend it, take it out into the world,
because it represents us.
Knowing more languages -- let's make this clear -- is beautiful!
Knowing more than one language, even protects the brain,
but those who do, speak them one at a time.
In Italenglish, and we saw that, it's easy to talk nonsense,
and so, "Those who speak like they eat", speak better.
Leonardo was quoted in today's first talk.
Leonardo used to call himself "Homo sanza litterae"
because he wrote in Vulgar language, that is to say, in Italian.
The structure, form, and iridescence of Italian language have always helped
us to express our creativity. If we give up expressing
ourselves in our language, we give up one of the peculiarities, the gracefulness,
the magnificent potentials of our unique Italian creativity,
which takes root in its mother tongue.
If our linguistic texture is strong and solid, of course we can welcome
a few foreign words; but we must do it within a texture that is not shattered
and worn out by the loss of meaning,
caused by an excess of misused foreign words.
Why am I telling you this?
Because the Italian language is us, Italians,
with our identity, our roots, our history, our openness to the world
which comes through our words. Thank you.
(Applause)