Italian Solons Want English Speakers Fined €100,000

The right-wing party led by Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pushed forward proposed new legislation which will punish the use of English and other foreign words in official communications with fines between €5,000 and €100,000, Giulia Carbonaro reported for Euronews.

Photo Insert: The legislation has received wide condemnation in the country, even by Italy’s most renowned scholars of Italian linguistics and philology, the prestigious Accademia della Crusca.

The goal of the legislation, which has received wide condemnation in the country even by Italy’s most renowned scholars of Italian linguistics and philology, the prestigious Accademia della Crusca, is “to defend and promote the Italian language” and protect the national identity, according to Meloni’s party.

Supported by Meloni, the proposal was introduced by Fabio Rampelli, a member of Italy’s lower chamber of deputies.

According to the latest data, Treccani, the well-respected Italian-language encyclopedia, currently contains 9,000 English words and 800,000 Italian words. Since 2000, the number of English words that have inserted themselves in the Italian language has grown by 773 percent.

The adoption of English words into the Italian language is an object of endless debate in Italy, where opinions are split between protecting the integrity of the national language and accepting that living languages are fluid and constantly evolving.

It is not known if some parliamentarians are also interested in reviving Latin as the official language of Italy, thus bumping off Italian.

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