My friend Dwight has
pointed out that President Rajoy's lack of cojones when it comes to
sacking people goes way back to his days as the president of the
Pontevedra provincial government. Which rather questions his rise up
the greasy pole.
Spain's economy will
grow at around an impressive 3% this year, they say. But this macro
achievement isn't yet trickling down to the person in the street.
Least of all to the 24% of the working population which is still
unemployed. The Guardian says that Spain is "still mired in a
period of transition". Which sounds about right. More here.
The last few days have
seen temperatures here in Pontevedra of 30-33 degrees, which is
more than we Gallegos can happily stand. One result has been the
widespread wearing of shorts de tiro alto and shorts vaqueros, or what we'd call 'short
shorts' and 'denim shorts' in English. Another has been the virtual desertion
of the city for the beach over the weekend.
I mentioned that traditional stallholders were losing out to both old and new
(Romanian?) gypsies in our Sunday flea-market. This probably explains
the notice I saw there today, advising that the following were
prohibited from sale:-
- Clothing
- Footwear
- Material
- Lace and the like
- Etc. . . . Plastic toys
- Copies of perfume, cologne and the like
- Any product which, for its origin or any other reason, is not permitted to be sold.
I wonder at whom this
can be directed. Which reminds me . . . Every week, after the market
has wrapped up, the nearby bins are raided for the utter rubbish
which some traders have chucked away. The lowest of the low, I guess.
Or the poorest of the poor. Perhaps this will soon stop, as things go
back to how they were. If they ever do. For there was no indication
that the notices had been posted by anyone other than the traditional
traders. Which would explain why they were ignored today.
Finally . . . It's not
only the French and Spanish Academies which are trying to halt the
invasion of English. As this Times article shows, the Italians are
also at it.
Incidentally, A Greek politician on the British news this
morning showed it's not only the Spanish and the French
who find it impossible to distinguish between 'make' and 'do'. The
culprit, of course, is Latin, where one verb did the work of two.
Italians resist an
English invasion
They have long
complained about the British taking over every inch of the Tuscan
hillsides but Italians may have been distracted from attacks on
another front.
Guardians of the
Italian language, working to update and improve it since 1612, are
convinced that the language of love faces its greatest ever danger.
As right-wing Italian
politicians bemoan the arrival of Eritrean, Syrian and Nigerian
migrants, the sober and suited experts of the Accademia della Crusca
are more concerned about turning back the tide of English words
destroying beautifully constructed sentences. Words like ‘management’
and ‘slot machine’, for example.
“The thing that
really gets me is when Italians on Tripadvisor use the English word
‘location’ to refer to a place,” said Claudio Marazzini, the
head of the academy. “My first reaction is to laugh, my second
thought is to act.”
Mr Marazzini and the
linguistic elite have decided enough is enough. They will tomorrow
hold an emergency summit to halt an invasion they claim threatens the
foundations of culture. “We will set up a quick-response commission
to go after politicians, bureaucrats and journalists who bring
English words into our language, so we can hand them Italian
equivalents to use instead,” said Mr Marazzini. “It’s too late
to do something about ‘car sharing’, but we need to find Italian
words in a hurry for ‘quantitative easing’.”
Experts tracking newly
arrived English words are now struggling to keep up, as Italians
looking for saucy underwear head for “Il sexy shop”, mafia
godfathers are called “il boss”, a football manager is “un
mister”, talent shows are “i talent”, reality shows are “i
reality”, a TV drama is “una fiction”, and people go online to
“twittare”, while politicians gather in parliament for “question
time”.
In a rearguard effort
earlier this year, 70,000 Italians signed a petition demanding an end
to the trend after the Italian navy chose the recruitment slogan “Be
cool and join the navy” and the mayor of Rome launched a new motto,
“Rome and you”, for the city. In Milan, the decision to promote
the city’s Expo with the slogan ‘Very bello’ drew catcalls.
“The success of
English is shocking,” wrote Gilda Rogato, an Italian academic.
“When Julius Caesar landed in Britain around 2,000 years ago,
English did not exist. When the Normans invaded, it became the
dialect of uncouth servants, making way for French. Now it’s the
language of the planet.”
Linguists single out
Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, for helping the invasion
after he named his labour legislation the “Jobs Act” and promoted
his “Spending review”. His spoken English, however, leaves much
to be desired, as shown in last week’s encounter with David
Cameron, when he appeared to say “It’s a really, really, really
pleasure.”
According to Gianluigi
Beccaria, the linguist and author, Italians who struggle in English
but drop English phrases into conversion display a mixture of
“snobbery and provincialism”. “It’s considered fashionable,
but the French and Spanish do it a lot less,” he said.
The phenomenon of
English taking over the Italian language has also been noted by The
Oldie, which this week carries an article from an amused English
expatriate.
“Today a route that
takes you past the Green Life Bio Concept Store, Lele’s barber’s
shop, the farmer’s market, the Tech It Easy gift emporium, a bank
offering personal finance, and a sexy shop offering sexy toys brings
you not to Willesden High Street, as you might expect, but to the
Colosseum,” the article remarked.
Renata Grieco, an
English teacher in Rome, claimed it was a two-way street, blaming the
English for perpetuating the problem with the constant use of Italian
words in everyday sentences. “Why do trendy English people talk
about having a gelato or a biscotto when they could just say ice
cream and biscuits?” she said.
Experts say they are
happy to accept English words when no Italian exists, particularly
high technology and finance, where the Italian equivalent of “holding
company” is the ungainly “financial company that controls more
than one firm”. But English has also invaded the fashion industry —
a bastion of Italian culture — so Italians go looking for a “look”
that is “molto fashion” when they indulge in “lo shopping”.
The familiar words:-
Box — a garage for
one car
Bomber — a football
centre forward
Baby parking — a
crèche
Ticket — a payment
for medicine
Mobbing — workplace
bullying
Smoking — a dinner
jacket
Footing — jogging
The last 3 of these are shared with Spanish. But a Box here is where you wash your car. And a Ticket (tiké) is a receipt.
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