Euroletto italiano sull’esempio di alcuni articoli della Costituzione europea
Italian EuroLECT: an Analysis Based on Articles of the European Constitution

Summary/Abstract: The following article discusses the linguistic features of legal Italian and the notion of Eurolect; the analysis is based on articles of the European Constitution. The information provided herein aims to demonstrate that legal Italian has a different set of qualities in comparison with those that apply to Eurolect. The author of the article describes the principal characteristics of the Italian language that is used in the institutions of the European Union, a language that is the result of translating the Community legislation, drafted primarily in English or French, and is different from the actual linguistic norms of Italian. It is grammatically correct, yet its quality is not satisfactory for a native speaker. This problem is called attrito linguistico and is a new term in Italian linguistics. Due to this problem, these texts are often criticised for being low-quality translations, but their quality is the result of requirements imposed on translators. The third part of this article then goes into detail about the main features of translated Italian texts and focuses on the analysis of some of the articles present in the European Constitution in order to elaborate on the choices made during the translation and to suggest further solutions.

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