On this day: Fascist Italy Banned Foreign Words

Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini with Adolf Hitler

On the 23^rd of July, 1929, Italy’s Fascist government banned foreign words.

This was part of a larger act of the “Italianisation” of minorities in Italy and surrounding territories, as well as the annexation of nearby countries.

Naturally, this policy included banning the teaching of minority languages, even for people who were not ethnic Italians.