Nothing more Schwa And asterisks In Italian schools: the Ministry of Education and merit has sent one circular to schools To clarify that in official communications we will no longer have to use graphic signs that do not comply with the rules of the Italian language such as Schwa (ə) El ‘asterisk In order not to compromise the clarity and uniformity of institutional communication. In the Note of the Ministry, issued on March 21, it is reiterated that the graphic symbol of the Schwa being foreign to our language has not been recognized even by theAccademia della Crusca
:
The asterisk is not (…) usable, in our opinion, in legal texts, notices or public communications, where it could cause bewilderment and misunderstanding in many groups of users, nor, much less, in texts that provide for reading aloud. (by phonetic impossibility) The same goes for Schwa (…) “
(…) The legal and bureaucratic language is not suitable for innovative experiments that lead to dysomogeneity and compromise understanding the texts.
What is Schwa, how to pronounce and what languages use it The Schwa(ə ) is a symbol of the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) which represents aindistinct sound not present in the Italian language even if existing in some dialects. Indicates an medium-central vowel, neutral and without emphasis, right in the center ofquadrilateral of vowels
. By pronouncing the other vowels we deform the mouth, but to pronounce the Schwa the mouth is completely relaxed, semiaperta. Although he is not associated with any specific letter of the alphabet, Schwa was chosen to represent the average central vowel
in the IPA: It is the initial sound of Englishabout but also the final one of the Neapolitan
Image This sound is not present in the standard Italian, and the symbol is missing from our alphabet; On the other hand, Schwa, albeit with a slightly different phonetic value, has been part of the Latin alphabet of the azera language and also of thatpan-nigerian
. If you are wondering where its strange name comes from, well, it is of German derivation, but comesof the Hebrew SHVA
. And in other languages? In ancient English all the vowels, just like in Italian, were fully made on a vocal level, therefore the atone vowels were not very used. With the average English it has become increasingly important in terms of pronunciation the toned accent on words (the tonic vowel is the one in which the emphasis of a word falls). Precisely for this reason the syllables of the atone vowels have become less and less marked, finally transforming themselves into Schwa. But this symbol appears on a phonetic level in the English dictionary only from1895: before he defined himself “weak vowel
“.Schwa is very common in modern speeching especially in Atone syllables (without emphasis). Think of the words “sofa“, which if pronounced correctly sees an / ə / in the second syllable (also applies to” banana “, but on the second” a “). But not only: in the English of North America it often happens to pronounce the Schwa, for example in words”room“(The and pronounced disappears) and”chocolate
“(The average vowel becomes a Schwa), making the middle vowels are not pronounced. The symbol also appears in many other languages, such as in French (think of the article “Le”, where the E has a pronounced like Schwa), in German(In the word “besser”, which means “better”, the second “and” is pronounced as a Schwa). Without dwelling too much, even the Dutch and the Danish
They use it (and so other languages), and appears in the phonetic transcriptions of languages such as the Polish, Arabic, or Hindi. However, it remains to be specified that its use as a graphic symbol is more common in those languages that make extensive use of phonetic transcriptions such as IPA.
Because Schwa was chosen by the LGBTQ+ community In recent years this symbol has become the subject of an accessive discussion because the LGBTQ+ community He chose it (together with the astterisk, even if used in a minority way) as a linguistic symbol. This is because the community felt the need for a inclusive language
which is not based on traditional (male/female) binary genre and to change traditional linguistic conventions. But why the Schwa? The symbol It was chosen because it has a neutral sound Which can comfortably replace the grammatical ending of gender (such as -oe -a), therefore perfect for creating words without binary connotations (for example instead of “boy” or “girl”, “guys” is used). Schwa has therefore become a symbol to express the idea thatNot all people identify themselves in one genre
and to give them visibility and recognition. On social networks, some exponents and activists of the LGBTQ+ community negatively commented on the note of Minister Valditara on the cancellation of the Schwa, stating that the holding the linguistic question is actually oneexcuse of the government to sink the community and not to recognize non -binary people
since many right parties believe that the movement is “Woke” and very far from its values.
Because Schwa does not comply with our language Italian is oneflexive language therefore change the words to express grammatical information (verbal time, gender, number, case). However, the grammatical genre It was not born to indicate the biological genre (male or female) but like a morphological categorization of words. To put it more simply, the words were divided into two classes (male and female) forlinguistic and structural reasons not to reflect the biological or social characteristics of the people or objects to which they refer. The function was therefore therefore agree
that of determination of identities. At this point, one could say that in the Latin language there were three genres, of course: but the neutral was used less and less, and mainly for abstract concepts and objects. It could also be said that languages change, which is an undeniable truth: but i linguistic changes (who happened in all the languages of the world and who lasted for a long time before reaching) were given by the need to simplify the language instead of complicating it. From this point of view, Schwa could create textual ambiguities according to some linguists, in addition to the fact that its introduction would meanreview an entire syntactic system which is not a simple thing that is done as if to say. Also, SchwaIt has no phonological value in our language
and people may have difficulty pronounced it fluidly or integrate it into the natural flow of the language: for this reason, its introduction would be a more tiring process at the level of the speech. The grammar of a language can be modified over time, but its change it cannot take place by request or social imposition (although the reasons can be more than noble), But only spontaneously:
He therefore must take root on most of the speakers of a certain idiom, establishing himself for a community need that lasts over time.
