Andrea Camilleri is a literary celebrity in Italy. And he's best known abroad for his novels featuring his brilliant fictional creation, the Sicilian detective, Inspector Montalbano. But the author is worried about the health of the language in which he works. Speaking earlier this week he took issue with the country's politicians for peppering their speeches with English words and phrases. Terms like "welfare", "governance", "devolution", and even "election day". The author said that Prime Minister Mario Monti was a leading offender. And it's true that Mr Monti does indeed frequently reach for English terminology. Here's an example from his first speech to Parliament. Listen to how he just drops in the English phrase "best practices". And in the very next breath, he's at it again, sliding in that grim English term "spending review". Mr Camilleri said Mr Monti's habit was just part of what he called an "awful tradition" in Italian public life. Not enough, he said, was being done to take care of the national language. And he gave a classic example. He said that when he served on a jury for a prize given by the Italian state broadcaster at the Venice Film Festival he was dismayed to find that the official language of the judging would be English.


Andrea Camilleri是意大利的一位文学巨匠。他最为人所知的，是享誉世界的精彩小说角色，西西里的侦探，Montalbano探长。 然而，这位作家却为意大利的母语——意大利语的前景表示担忧。本周早些时候，他已经因为本国政客在发言时频繁使用英文单词以及短语表示过强烈不满。涉及到的术语涵盖了“福利”“管理”“权力下放”，甚至“选举日”。 作家的矛头直指意大利首相Mario Monti，事实也正是如此，Monti先生确实在英文术语方面经常涉猎。下面一段话来自首相先生第一次对议会发表的演讲，来听听他是如何将英语信手拈来，付之实战。 （意大利语略）而紧接着，他又如法炮制，接连使用晦涩的英文术语。（意大利语略） Camilleri先生认为，Monti先生泛用英文的习惯仅仅是意大利日常生活中“陋习”的冰山一角。他还认为，对于保护本国的母语，工作做的还远远不够。 于是他给出一个典型的例子。Camilleri先生曾经在威尼斯电影节出席评委，而他沮丧地发觉，即时奖项的发放是由意大利本国的播音员宣读的，也不得不使用评审团官方的语言——英语。