‘Itanglish’: The backlash against the increasing use of English in Italy

So many English words are now in everyday usage in Italy that some have called it a ‘tsunami anglicus’. Sofia Barbarani reports from Rome on the backlash by those who want to ‘save Italian’

Rome’s historical Piazza Navona square (AP)

When Peter Doubt’s elderly aunt called him from Italy to ask for his help translating, the British-Italian linguist was shocked to find that a letter issued by a public Italian hospital was peppered with the English words “screening” and “breast unit”.

Like millions of other Italians who don’t speak the English language, Mr Doubt’s 81-year-old aunt was left wondering why she was being summoned by her local hospital.

“Imagine, an older person, with a very serious illness, in a vulnerable situation, and they also have to worry whether they understand exactly what it is,” says Mr Doubt.

This is just one among a growing number of examples to illustrate the ways in which the world’s most widely spoken language has encroached on and often replaced Italian.

In the 2021 Zingarelli dictionary of the Italian language 2,927 out of 145,000 entries are English – the real number however is likely to be much higher. So high in fact that the late linguist Tullio de Mauro in 2016 called it a tsunami anglicus – an English tsunami.

On any given day the average Italian is guaranteed to encounter a multitude of anglicisms. From hospitals or ministries, to politicians’ speeches, the media, banks, and gyms.

Terms like “lost and found” and “customer care” in airports, “outfit” in fashion, “food and beverage” in the hospitality industry, and even “jobs act” and “question time” in politics are just some of the daily uses of English in Italy.

Locals and visitors are hard-pressed to find a component of Italian society that over the past couple of decades hasn’t replaced an Italian word with its English counterpart, despite Italy ranking among the lowest countries in Europe when it comes to proficiency in English.

This in turn has created much confusion among the many non-English speaking Italians and indignation among linguists.

“There are millions of Italian people who don’t speak English, they pay tax, they’re in Italy, and they have to worry about whether they understand correctly where they’re going,” Mr Doubt tells The Independent.

Such was his frustration that in October 2021 Mr Doubt co-founded the “Campagna per Salvare l’italiano” – campaign to save Italian – a movement intent on raising awareness and a platform for people to debate the issue.

Linguists, writers, journalists and others have gathered behind Mr Doubt’s project to lend their expertise on the topic, document instances of unnecessary anglicisms and carry out comparative analyses to better illustrate the problem.

Mr Doubt says there is no single explanation for the often-aggressive intrusion of the English language in Italy. There are, however, several theories.

One thesis points to Italy’s infatuation with all things American – a vestige of the post-war presence of US troops on the peninsula and the Marshall Plan, a financial aid programme that helped Italy bounce back after the war.

There are millions of Italian people who don’t speak English, they pay tax, they’re in Italy, and they have to worry about whether they understand correctly where they’re going

Peter Doubt

Another possibility, suggests journalist Giorgio Comaschi, is simply Italians’ need to feel cool.

“We [Italians] want to be “in”, we don’t want to be “out” – and so if I use this [English] term I feel reassured,” Mr Comaschi said in an interview with Campaign to Save Italian. “it’s a huge declaration of inferiority and insecurity.”

A third theory, says Mr Doubt, is a knee-jerk reaction to the prohibition of foreign words under Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime.

Laws were enforced in the late 1930s that led to the renaming of towns and cities that had non-Italian names, particularly in the areas bordering Switzerland and Austria. Non-Italian family names were Italianised, bilingual schools were closed and guidelines were sent to the press and publishing houses to ensure they steered clear of using foreign words.

An article published in 1938 by the Mussolini-founded newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia urged Italians to quit using “foreign customs” and revert to Italian traditions.  

“We must renounce, reject the various fashions of Paris, or London, or America. If anything, let other people look at us, as they looked at Rome or at Renaissance Italy.”

After the end of the war and the fall of Mussolini “the pendulum swung the other way,” explains Mr Doubt. This in turn has resulted in accusations of fascism being directed at those campaigning for the survival of the Italian language.

Some linguists have brushed aside the growing use of English by arguing that languages are in continuous evolution and that in the late 19th and early 20th century the French language had similarly burrowed its way into Italian society.

However, the absence of the internet and globalisation meant that French didn’t leave its mark in the same way that English is doing through today’s means of communication.

In an article, Italy-based My English School argues that “the complaints of Italian linguists and purists are of no avail: anglicisms are now part of our daily life and it is necessary to know them and know how to use them well”.

But it’s not just a case of anglicisms, writes author Gabriele Valle, it’s becoming a language in itself – “itanglish”.

The problem, says Mr Doubt, is that the use of anglicisms has gone beyond terms like computer, internet, or software – “it’s everywhere”.

So much so that in 2015 an online petition by journalist Annamaria Testa called on members of the government, public employees and the media to speak in Italian.

Tourists take a selfie in front of Rome’s Trevi Fountain (AP)

“The Italian language is the fourth most studied in the world. Today, Italian words carry with them the spirit of our country, our cuisine, our music, our design, our culture,” Ms Testa writes. The petition ran under the hashtag #dilloinitaliano – say it in Italian – and received more than 68,000 signatures.

In an attempt to showcase the importance of Italian last week the city of Florence – where modern Italian is thought to have developed – inaugurated Mundi, the country’s first major museum dedicated to the history and evolution of the Italian language.

Included are tenth century legal documents, thought to be some of the earliest signs of written vulgar Italian, through to the “father” of the Italian language Dante Alighieri all the way to Pellegrino Artusi, a beloved 19th century cookbook writer.

A small step in the face of the so-called tsunami anglicus, say linguists, but a hopeless one if Italians don’t begin to view and celebrate their language as a cultural asset.

“Italians are very proud of their food, their architecture, their art, their literature,” says Mr Doubt. “But the language itself is seen as a thing that can be dismissed at any moment.”