‘Avoid novelty of gender-neutral symbols in official documents,’ says Italy’s language watchdog

Rome: The Accademia della Crusca, the institution that acts as the guardian of the Italian language has said that Italy’s courts should stick to tradition and avoid the novelty of gender-neutral symbols in official documents. The Italian language watchdog was asked to weigh in on the matter by the equal opportunities committee of the Corte di Cassazione, Italy’s top appeals body, putting the spotlight on the national debate over gender issues and political correctness in the country. In the Italian language, as in other Latin-based tongues, nouns can take a feminine or masculine form, but the plural masculine form tends to take precedence. For example, the masculine form ‘tutti’ is routinely used for ‘everyone’, rather than the feminine ‘tutte’. A section of people view this as an expression of male dominance and support the introduction of gender-neutral noun endings, such as asterisks or the so-called ‘schwa’, a symbol that looks like an inverted “e”. In an email or a letter for instance, to a man or a woman the narrative would no longer start with “caro” or “cara” (dear), but with the gender neutral “car*”, which would also replace the plural “cari”. The Accademia della Crusca, however in its response to the Cassazione, rejected these changes for legal documents, saying they would be artificial and supported only by minority groups, “however well-intentioned”. “Legal language is not the right place for minoritarian innovative experimentations,” the Accademia said in a six-page statement released on Monday, after the Corriere della Sera newspaper first reported it. The Accademia said the Italian masculine plural form remain “the best instrument” to collectively represent “all genders and orientations”, but also backed the wider use of the feminine form of professional titles. Last year in October, Italy’s first woman prime minister Giorgia Meloni, sparked controversy after saying she preferred her title of “Presidente del Consiglio” to be preceded by the masculine article “il”, rather than the feminine “la”. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.