The Times - UK (2022-06-13)

the times | Monday June 13 2022 17

News

It was once the sine qua non of learning,

de rigueur among officialdom. If a for-

mal document needed to prove its bona

fides, the thinking went, it should be

sprinkled with foreign phrases.

No longer. In a sign that such preten-

sions may be déclassé, a government

department has ordered its staff to

abjure the use of foreign phraseology.

The Information Commissioner’s

Office (ICO) has instead called on its

employees to stick to as plain language

as possible in formal communications,

The Mail on Sunday reported.

“English has embraced thousands of

words from other languages, including

bungalow, cliché, graffiti, kiosk and

ombudsman,” the document explained.

“But some words of foreign origin are so

uncommon that they confuse or alien-

ate our readers.”

Ergo, it said, in an implicit mea culpa

for previous publications, Latin in

particular was to be avoided. The ICO

provided 16 examples of Latin phrases

that could no longer be used, among

them quid pro quo. It also threw a cor-

don sanitaire around certain French

phrases, including en route.

A spokesman for the ICO said that

the problem was not with the languages

per se, but rather with ensuring that

documents were as clear to as many

people as possible. “We avoid using for-

eign words in our writing as some words

are uncommon and may alienate our

readers. The purpose of the style guide

is to ensure our written communic-

ations are clear, easy to follow and are

accessible to all ICO audiences.”

Lee Monks, from the Plain English

Campaign, told the paper that this

could only be a good thing. “If any move

has been initiated to replace said terms

with plain English alternatives, we

would obviously welcome it. If any staff

members are perplexed by the use of a

term and feel uneasy adopting it, far

better that they should be able to use

simpler language.”

He added, inter alia, that not all

words were equally confusing. “It’s only

reasonable to point out that terms such

as en route and per se are far less likely

to be problematic than inter alia or

ex officio.”

Britain is among the most monoglot

nations in the world and about two

thirds of Britons say that they are un-

able to hold a conversation in another

language. Between 2003 and 2018 the

proportion of pupils sitting a GCSE in a

foreign language fell by almost half.

English is officially described as a

Germanic language but from the 11th

century onwards it gained a significant

proportion of new words from Norse,

French and then Latin, many of which

are now, for some speakers, an integral

part of the language. Quod erat demon-

strandum, even if the civil service does

not agree.

Bona fide English

is now de rigueur,

civil servants told

Tom Whipple A coup for clarity

Number of uses in legislation,

according to a search of

legislation.gov.uk

Ad infinitum.................................................. 3

Quid pro quo.............................................. 18

Ergo................................................................... 5

Sine qua non.............................................. 28

Coup d’état................................................. 28

Cordon sanitaire......................................... 1

Bona fide............................................... 200+

(starting with the Simony

act of 1688)

De facto.................................................. 200+

En route.................................................. 200+

F

reddie

Mercury’s

childhood

stamp

collection is to

be displayed for the

first time by the Postal

Museum (Nadeem

Badshah writes).

The Queen singer

inherited his father’s

passion for philately

and is believed to have

collected from the ages

of nine to twelve.

He spent his early

life in Zanzibar, where

his father, Bomi

Bulsara, worked for the

Colonial Office.

Georgina Tomlinson,

curator at the museum,

told The Observer that

the album gave a

“surprising insight”

into the early life of

Mercury,

who was

born Farrokh

Bulsara. All

54 pages of

the album will

be available

online and

on public

display at

the

museum in

central

London

Mercury’s

debut album

was filled

with stamps

from July 13 until the

end of October. Gavin

McGuffie, the

museum’s senior

archivist, said: “The

real value of this

collection is not in the

stamps themselves but

in its... connection to

one of the world’s

greatest entertainers.”

Mercury died aged

45 in 1991. His father

auctioned the stamps

in 1993, with the

proceeds going to the

Aids charity set up in

memory of his son.

The display is part of

London’s celebration of

the 50th anniversary of

Pride in Britain.

ROB STOTHARD/GETTY IMAGES; THE POSTAL MUSEUM

Freddie Mercury’s collection, including stamps arranged to form an F, gives an insight into his early life