Comments on: Il degrado della lingua italiana

By: valeria kondratiev

valeria kondratiev — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:59:49 +0000

This article doesn’t even mention the two words that bug me the most in the Italian press: “partner” and “killer”. What about “amante” and “assassino”? They can’t say that Americans invented those concepts after all.

By: Alessandro

Alessandro — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:48:26 +0000

So sad.

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:20:48 +0000

Perhaps ‘prima donna’ is a better translation of ‘first lady.’

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:55:19 +0000

Che peccato – definitely tragic. And ironic considering how historically influential Italy used to be.

By: Hoija

Hoija — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:40:56 +0000

If you think Italian newspapers got bad, you should check out Korean newspapers and compare them throughout the decades.

By: Giuseppe

Giuseppe — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:47:32 +0000

I think we must remember that the influence of popular American culture and hence American English (rather than British English) has much to do with America as the liberating power.

By: Mountolive

Mountolive — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:13:21 +0000

‘Englishisms’ plaguing the Italian language is so grave that it might (or should) have become already one of the most used pickup lines in, say, the library gild.

There are few things so jejune and defacing than saying (let alone writing) in Italian “il killer” instead of “il assassino” or “il sicario”. I really dont get it.

Reversely, a close language like Spanish (from Spain) seems to be quite resilient to this banale trend. Unfortunately, that doesnt mean that Spanish (in Spain) is not impoverished. It definitely is. Whereas in America Spanish is plagued by anglicisms but with occasional delightful flashes (typically, Iberian archaisms otherwise kept alive and kicking), in Spain itself it is just a plain, dull, language.

But at least we still say “Primera Dama”, dont we?.