Tight budgets have already began to impact Italian cultural heritage sites, with private companies stepping in to take over the restoration of public buildings in hopes of preventing another event like the collapse of the House of the Gladiators in Pompeii. Now, Nicoletta Maraschio is warning that funding cuts are putting the entire Italian language at risk.
Maraschio heads the Accademia della Crusca, a language institute that published the first Italian dictionary in 1612. Even with the long-standing history, the Italian government is poised to eliminate the school’s €190,000 in funding as part of new austerity measures.
Maraschio argued: “If we close, Italy loses a crucial point of reference for, and protector of its beautiful language, just when the globalisation of languages means it needs us most.”
The academy employs a staff of 6, as well as a revolving team of 25 researchers. Maraschio sees their job as custodians of the Italian language and insists that the relatively new tongue must be defended from an intrusion of English words that are being readily incorporated into everyday speech.
Culture minister Giancarlo Galan has promised to fight for the funding when the new budget is debated in Parliament but Italy faces huge pressure to continue trimming back government spending.
