The institutional language “guardian” of Italy has decided that the country’s court system should continue to use traditional language and avoid adopting the “novelty” of gender- neutral terms and symbols in official documents.
Equal opportunities committee the Corte di Cassazione — the highest appeals body in Italy, asked The Accademia della Crusca to provide an official opinion on inclusive language to illustrate a national debate over gender issues and political correctness.
Like many other Latin-based languages, nouns in Italian can use a feminine or masculine form, however the masculine form tends to take precedence with the use of plurals.
Surrounded by controversy, some see this as an expression of a dominant patriarchy and support the introduction of gender-neutral noun endings — most importantly relevant to the LGBTQ+ community and those identifying as non-binary. Gender-neutral terms have previously included the ‘@’ sign, and more currently feature as asterisks or the phonetic term schwa — visually presented as an inverted e.
Proving popular and easiest to define in terms of gender-neutrality, the schwa is easily recognizable as a sound and it has its own plural: the long schwa.
Removing an ending entirely has been proposed as another option. For example a letter to a man or a woman would no longer start with caro or cara (dear), but with the gender neutral car, which would also replace the plural cari.
In response to the Corte di Cassazione, the Accademia della Crusca strongly rejected these changes for legal documents, arguing that they would be false and supported only by minority groups —”however well intentioned”.
In an opinion-based document first reported in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the Academia said “Legal language is not the right place for minority innovative experiments” — adding the Italian masculine plural form remains “the best instrument” to collectively represent “all genders and orientations.” They also acknowledged a wider use of the feminine form for professional titles.
Carissimi!
Were that this the issue that would solve Italy’s monstrous problems. I agree with the Accademia della Crusca, a top-notch group of academic experts on our national language with whom I studied. Their decisions are rooted not in gender issues, but rather in our national poets, starting with Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca.
Italy still has many dialects that nobody will renounce to speak Italian. The two live side by side quite nicely . . . when Italians want to speak Italian as nobody in the boot knows every dialect (Venice’s sestieri or city zones — a word in dialect — change dialect from zone to zone.).
I would find “car” unfinished, impersonal, and neutering the musicality of the Italian language, especially in arias like “O mi bambi car”. Oh boy! Er, oh girl! Er, oh It!
This would also affect the national genetic habit of most Italians adding the superlative suffix — /-issimo/ma/ when addressing close friends. “Car” just doesn’t cut the Parmesan.
Whoever would like to start using “car” etc. is free to do so, and thus would create yet another dialect. There is nothing to stop them. If this language started killing Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Donizzetti etc., you can be sure the unlucky singer would get immediately rudely whistled off the stage and the event would perhaps even cause a riot in Parma.
Linguists know that unprescriptive expressions have caused major shifts as in The Great Vowel Shift in England. And I have sadly told my EFL students in Italy that they can drop the /-s/ on the third person singular present simple, but I will consider it an error. I add that perhaps 200 years from now that pesky /-s/ will migrate from Ebonics to the mainstream, but for now that is the situation.
A presto, amic, see you in Parma,
Please use this version as I had to make a correction. Sorry for any problems.
MG
Carissimi!
Were that this be the issue that would solve Italy’s monstrous problems. I agree with the Accademia della Crusca, a top-notch group of academic experts on our national language with whom I studied. Their decisions are rooted not in gender issues, but rather in our national poets, starting with Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca.
Italy still has many dialects that nobody will renounce to speak Italian. The two live side by side quite nicely . . . when Italians want to speak Italian as nobody in the boot knows every dialect (Venice’s sestieri or city zones — a word in dialect — change dialect from zone to zone.).
I would find “car” unfinished, impersonal, and neutering the musicality of the Italian language, especially in arias like “O mi bambi car”. Oh boy! Er, oh girl! Er, oh It!
This would also affect the national genetic habit of most Italians adding the superlative suffix — /-issimo/ma/ when addressing close friends. “Car” just doesn’t cut the Parmesan.
Whoever would like to start using “car” etc. is free to do so, and thus would create yet another dialect. There is nothing to stop them. If this language started killing Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Donizzetti etc., you can be sure the unlucky singer would get immediately rudely whistled off the stage and the event would perhaps even cause a riot in Parma.
Linguists know that unprescriptive expressions have caused major shifts as in The Great Vowel Shift in England. And I have sadly told my EFL students in Italy that they can drop the /-s/ on the third person singular present simple, but I will consider it an error. I add that perhaps 200 years from now that pesky /-s/ will migrate from Ebonics to the mainstream, but for now that is the situation.
A presto, amic, see you in Parma,