“Brusketta” or “Brutschetta”? Draft law wants penalties for incorrect Italian
Quelle: Getty Images
The “Meloni Law” has already been mentioned. And an alleged fine of 100,000 euros for mispronouncing the word “bruschetta”. About a message from Italy that seems like an April Fool’s joke, but behind which there is a concrete plan.
Es read like a belated April Fool’s joke (or was it?): Whoever mispronounces “bruschetta” in Italy – so Bru-Schetta or Brutschetta instead of Cartilage says – according to a draft law, he should pay a fine of up to 100,000 euros in the future. In fact, a deputy from Italy’s ruling party, Fratelli d’Italia, who isn’t even a minister yet, is planning a law that would limit Anglicisms in public administration and make the use of Italian vocabulary compulsory.
Fabio Rampelli, Vice-President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, is serious. The native language is threatened by globalization. Rampelli told the “Corriere della sera” that other Romance countries – such as France, Spain and Portugal – have had similar laws to promote their language for a long time. And no, Ms. Meloni does not yet know anything about his draft law. But he, Rampelli, has the right to introduce such a law.
Since the broadcaster CNN has reported and explained that Rampelli is also planning a committee for the correct pronunciation and intonation of Italian in public places, and since CNN itself derived the example from this that the (apparently notoriously incorrect) pronunciation of “bru-shetta instead of bru-sketta“ could be sanctioned, since then the message from the “Meloni law” has been served in German tabloid media: “100,000 euros for the wrong pronunciation of ‘bruschetta’”, the whole thing garnished with a photo montage of a juicy tomato puree bread and a wild one looking Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
What would we recommend to German journalists now? Italian for beginners instead of copying from America? Only when the last “Kappukino”, the last glass of “Tschianti” and the last plate full of “Gnotschi” have disappeared from our Studiosus holidays will we realize that in Italy we still “puke” (ie mussels, mussels) may order. When it comes to dessert, the “German longing for Italian ordering language” (Florian Illies once wrote very nicely about this in his lifestyle book “Instructions for Innocentness”) still knows x ways to order two simple espressos. espresso? expressos?