sunnysider

I have long been fascinated/alarmed/appalled by the common use of English phrases in Italian when I find it hard to believe that Italian doesn't have perfectly good and succinct phrases of its own.

I'm all for flexible adaptable languages but I still find the use of phrases like "serial killer" odd.

So can folk give examples of english usage and a reasonable italian valid equivelent (or open the "equivelent" for suggestions).

For starters, this - apparently guard rails as a concept had never occurred to humanity before the Brits came along:


Asse mediano, perde il controllo del furgone e finisce sul guard rail - Casteddu Online

heritagestanley

I've always been amused by references to "privacy", suspecting that there isn't an Italian word because the concept itself is alien....

HADENOUGHPIZZA

idem Fairplay !

37100

And 'customer sevice'.

chris120

007

Garbatellamike

and duffer's favourite:



....Sexy Shop

Pulaski

It works both ways: paparazzi, influenza, vendetta, motto, pergola, veranda, a cappella, and many many others.

There is nothing shameful about absorbing words from other languages, and I believe that not only is English the language that has most freely absorbed words from other languages around the world, it is actually the willingness to absorb words from other languages is one of the key factors that has made English the global language that it is today.

modicasa

I think you answered the question yourself when you said 'succinct'.

HADENOUGHPIZZA

We've given examples of english words being used when there seems to be no adequate italian term but Sunnysider was after example sof english being used when perefctly good italian words exsist like shop windows with signs saying ''SALE ' and not ' SVENDITA' . I regularly sit though '' calls '' or '' meetings'' that are half in one language and half in the other and its not always entrirely necessary

sunnysider

I agree with pretty much everything you say pulaski. As i said i am no purist and one of the best words to have entered english is i think schadenfreude - no way you could express that rather sophisticated psychological concept in english so briefly. It really skewers the concept. But it does still strike me that contemporary italian media speak is going overboard.
Modicasa - you think italian has issues with being succinct?

Edit ,post crossed with hadenough pizza

modicasa

guardrail = barriera spartitraffico - i can see why they plump for guardrail, though I agree that there seems to be a current fashion to use an English word to seem hip and modern, when there is a perfectly adequate Italian equivalent

Lorna at Vicenza

First time I heard an Italian say "guard rail" I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Not helped by the fact that it was pronounced "gardaryel".

ononno

Down our way thre seems to be a sudden burst of schools advertising 'open day'. Never seen them before, must have become fashionable; grandson is going to one today. Also this 'quantative easing'. I'm mother tongue English speaking, and don't know what it means really, imagine the average Italian. Sound about as uncomfortable as a large dose of laxative.
bye bye dicette l'inglese

MarkRD

Like when they started to talk about 'lo spread' in economic terms, when nobody - not even us mother-tongues (sic.) - knew what it meant. I always said it's something you do with butter on your toast!

Contamination from one language to another is nothing new, especially in 'technical' terminology: think about musical terms allegro, andante, timpani etc., plus of course food from Italian, pizza, polenta, pasta, but there does seem to be too much of it sometimes.
Obviously English terms (mostly from American) are more common in finance, IT, and so on becuase that's where it's all coming from, plus the CEB adopting English as its first langauge. The French are notoriously reistant .. ordinateur but that's also admirable in a way.

What I don't get is the obsession in Italy with having to translate everything into usually bad English (or French)..as if it was some kind of official language. Italian is the official language of Italy (save for minority areas) so let's stick to it.

Speaking of bad translations: I expect everyone has seen Renzi's '12 Points' for La Buona Scuola in English ??? https://labuonascuola.gov.it/index_en/

modicasa

Re: BuonaScuola - Who translated that?! - Ive never seen tape being unlatched. Just horrible. But the point of it is what exactly? To tell non Italian speakers that the education system doesn't work?