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Remembering the Mesmerizing Italian Rock-and-Roll Icon
I vividly recall the first time I stumbled upon a captivating black-and-white video from the 1970s featuring Adriano Celentano, the renowned Italian rock-and-roll icon. In the video, he passionately sang a song with the unmistakable nasal vowels and unique rhythm of American English, accompanied by trumpets and drums. As he belted out “I, I, spy,” I strained to decipher the verbal torrent that followed, with the exception of the crystal clear “all right” at the end of each chorus.
Interestingly, Celentano’s hit song, called “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” had no real meaning at all. It was gibberish deliberately created to mimic the sounds of American English to non-English speakers like him.
This memory of Celentano often comes to mind as I observe Italians’ widespread use of English vocabulary in exuberant and puzzling ways.
One example of this is the popular presence of self-bars, which are vending machines found in train stations, offering beverages and snacks. You may not have noticed them if you traveled by Pullman, an intercity bus, or went with autostop, hitchhiking. Perhaps you weren’t even traveling at all and were occupied with a lifting, referring not to a workout but to a facelift.
Linguist Licia Corbolante, who writes about “inglese farlocco” or “fake English,” sees a fun element in the misuse and abuse of English by Italians. She refers to the English words assembled in perplexing ways that baffle native English speakers.
The infatuation with English among Italians began during World War II when American troops liberated the country from the fascists. However, due to the emphasis on classical languages like Latin and Ancient Greek in schools at the time, proficiency in English was limited. Nonetheless, using English had a significant signaling effect.
“By using English, it conveys modernity, coolness, technological progress, and, in a way, status,” says Corbolante. While certain English words, such as “computer,” are adopted by Italians with their original meanings intact, others acquire new meanings. Corbolante explains that they become empty containers that can be filled with any desired meanings.
Staying updated with current events in Italy requires fluency in “inglese farlocco.” There is currently a focus on the establishment of hotspots, which are reception centers for irregular migrants. The LGBT community is protesting against stepchild adoption, Italy’s complex process for gay couples to acquire shared parental rights. Italian employers eagerly anticipate Click Day each year to obtain permits for hiring foreign workers.
Though not everyone appreciates the extent of English infiltration, there has been little support for the right-wing Brothers of Italy’s proposal to ban English in public communications. They argue that this “Anglomania” poses a threat to the collapse of the Italian language. Instead, new English words continue to be embraced by Italians. After her election victory, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni referred to herself as an “underdog,” leading to media explanations of the term. Her government has also appointed a ministry of enterprise and “Made in Italy.”
Lorenzo Pregliasco, founder of the Turin-based polling agency YouTrend, notes that fake English is widely used in northern Italian business circles. Italians combine English words with Italian verb endings to create hybrids like “schedulare” (to schedule a meeting) or “ti brieffo” (I’ll brief you).
During the Covid pandemic, Italians adopted the term “smart working” to refer to working from home, which sometimes becomes Italianized as “lavoro (work) in smart.” Jobs that can be done remotely are described as “smartabile.”
Youth in Italy also coin their own hybrids, such as “boomerata” to describe things stereotypical of the baby boomer generation. Additionally, terms like “cringe” become Italianized into “cringata” (something creepy or awkward), “cringissimo” (the ultimate in cringe), and “cringeometro” (a gauge of cringiness).
While purists may be appalled, Corbolante sees this linguistic dynamism as a characteristic of the vitality of the Italian language. “We take foreign material and adapt it to our needs,” she explains. All right!
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