Showa, the 10 reasons why I promoted the petition against the “mass” vowel

By Massimo Arcangeli *

On February 4th, at the request of my friend Angelo Dorsey, I launched petition against schwaAlmost at the moment, 22000 sites, It was signed by about thirty thinkers, including linguists, writers, historians, philosophers, artists, and writers (from Massimo Cacciari to Alessandro Barbero, from Edith Brooke to Ascanio Celestini, from Cristina Comenseni to Barbara de Rossi, from Luca Siriani to Francesco Sabatini, and from Gian Claudio Beccaria to ).

Here are the ten reasons why I consider it unacceptable to introduce schwa, in its role as the predicate of “totalitarianism”, into the current Italian language.

1. The grave danger of “formalization”. The schwa, simple (ǝ) and “long” (з), was accepted into the six-minute preparation of the National Scientific Qualification Committee for the Posts of University Professor of First and Second Division Division 13/B3 Competition – Business Entrepreneurship. Both signs also appear in collective judgments on candidates, and in those issued individually by the President, the Secretary, and a third member of the Five Commissioners (here, however, in one case, with reference to only one candidate: “Associate Professor”). Importing schwa into a “coded” text – a book, document, or newspaper article – is considered a linguistic aberration.

2. Motivation to Circular (Free). In the six minutes, the five delegates randomly used the Shoas, referring to themselves and the candidates being vetted, as if they all held non-binary identities.

3. The disruptive nature of innovation. schwa is not a simple new term. It is a foreign body that irreparably violates the orthographic and phonological-morphological rules of our language, and its placement in a document issued by a central administration of the public state sets a precedent of unprecedented gravity. authorizes any person, henceforth to craft a general deed in thirteenth century emojis or slang, or perhaps to publish it using kehAnd the xke or qlc1 (instead of who – whichAnd the Why And the someone).

4. Organizational confusion. The schwa “experimenters”, realizing the impossibility of publishing it in a text in a uniform and systematic way, preach “flexible” grammar. In the text of the interview with Corriere della Sera (November 14, 2021) American environmental philosopher Timothy Morton, claimed respect for his identity non-binaryand the gender-appropriate brand, reported by the interviewer in the text as Philosophy *. However, any noun – in Italian – carries with it the necessary grammatical agreements (between articles, prepositions, pronouns, adjectives, and past participles), and can, at the very least, come up with a hypothesis to meet this destabilizing bill: Theə Philosophyə not binaryə Americanə Timothy Morton was at the top of the listə Persistently, he wanted us to turn to himəI how are we.

5. Wrongful claim from a minority. It is one thing to ask the interlocutor to meet us in some way, and the most appropriate and respectable possible forms and words, if we find ourselves bearing an uncertain or fluctuating identity, another thing is to pretend to lay our hand on the grammar of the linguistics of an entire national community because they are subject to the will of a few.

6. The extension of the spoken Italian language. Converting the schwa to speech, due to the restrictions on its use (the final position), would turn the entire peninsula into a middle ground between Abruzzo, Lazio south of Rome and the Calabria region of Cosenza. It would be retaliation from southern and central Italy against the Tuscan-Florence organizational model. Maybe a nice idea, but it’s towering and farcical.

7. Crossing off the woman. If it is the unanimous will of the members of the university committee to grant citizenship, in their transcripts, also to the female gender, and to avoid the excessively masculine, it will suffice to indicate that candidates and on candidateai Authors and on Authorsetc., or you can talk about People And close it there. Universal plural forms such as authorǝ or coauthorzRather than really opposing men Authors And the co-authorsIn fact, they send women to the attic Authors And the co-authors.

8. Exacerbation of nerve disorders. On May 4, 2021, the French Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, sent a circular to central administrators, education supervisors and ministerial staff to ban certain cross-cutting forms that complicate reading and learning the national language.

9. Infringement of the general duties of linguistic transparency. In 2017, another French circular (November 22), issued by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, called on members of the government to abandoncomprehensive écriturein official documents prepared for the public, so as not to jeopardize their clarity and clarity.

10. Increased disturbance caused by uncontrolled breeding of gender brands. The proliferation of vague, generic or anti-public ideas is now out of control: car * connectsAnd the my dear colleagueAnd the car @ fellowAnd the my dear colleagueAnd the my dear colleagueAnd the Carx . connectsAnd the my dear colleagueAnd the Dear colleagueAnd the car connect, etc. in the combination? car *mate*And the carə CollegeəAnd the Curry CollegeAnd the Dear ColleaguesAnd the mass cariesAnd the Kon Shares, etc. There is also karo tutu. Are we all Sardinians, Friulians, descendants of Compass Torredo?

* Linguist and writer, Professor of Italian Linguistics, University of Cagliari