Wanted in Rome
12 May, 2021
By Martin Bennett
In these days of problematic foreign travel, one could take an alternative pleasure (or horror?) tour along the frontiers where English and Italian meet. And without having to move a centimetre.
Take
backuppato: Using the same term, a friend from Verona stopped my ever-shaky Italian comprehension in its tracks. “Scusami, un inutile anglicismo,” he explained, recalling an italicised category that peppered his father’s 1930s
Palazzi dictionary. “Ah, backed up,” the penny dropped.
cliccatore,
followare,
zoomando.
Back in the 1930s the main objection to the use of foreign words derived from the fascist regime’s disapproval of things mainly American. A decree went as far as banning anglicisms in shop signs and adverts; transgressors risked six months imprisonment.
Last modified on Tue 27 Apr 2021 11.17 EDT
Should we be worried for the English language when companies drop their vowels to appear more modern? No, say leading linguists, but a company rebranding is wrong because it is ill-judged, confusing and is definitely not the zeitgeist. It stnks.
Standard Life Aberdeen announced on Monday a name change to Abrdn, joining brands such as Flickr, Scribd, Grindr and Tumblr in dropping vowels from their names. The move was met with bafflement and scorn from linguists, who wondered if the name was now pronounced Aburden, Abradon or Aberdeen.
“To me it just smacks of old people trying to use youth language, or wanting to speak like teenagers, which is always a mistake,” said Rob Drummond, a reader in linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University and an expert in the language of young people. “It looks like older people desperately trying to sound cool.”
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