Aldo Cazzullo (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
UA reader writes to me: why did you write “Sofia and Federica” instead of Goggia and Brignone in the title of your response to readers, speaking of our greatest female skiers?
It’s true. Sometimes it is natural for us men to call women by first name rather than by surname. It is wrong, it is not done, we should say “doctor X”, “professor Y”, or simply call them by surname. We will be more careful.
By the way: for inveterate use, when the surname of a woman is mentioned, the article “la” is prefixed, precisely to make it clear that it is a womaneven when it would be useless: everyone knows that “Merkel” is a woman, as everyone knew that “Tatcher” was.
It doesn’t seem like a scandal to me, but when I wrote it on the Corriere della Sera a woman engaged in politics, much less known than Merkel and Tatcher, unleashed me against the social horde (Italy is perhaps the only country in the world where politicians criticize journalists and not vice versa).
What to say? I will not do it again. Merkel, Tatcher, without article. And, of course, Goggia and Brignone, not Sofia and Federica. One fact remains: aren’t queens called by name, as are kings?
Is there something offensive about pronouncing a person’s name, strictly paired with her and not you? Maybe I have a funny surname (in Piedmontese it means “ladle”, but explaining it makes things worse), which attracts me ironies and puns since I was in kindergarten (generally by people who have no other arguments ), but I prefer without comparison to be called by first name rather than surname.
Perhaps the best thing is to get people to choose what they want to be called. It also applies to functions: director or director? Lawyer or attorney? Minister or minister? Mayor or mayor? Without forgetting that the criterion of the language is the use, and the changes are always gradual.
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