Maranza: a neologism or racism?

A few evenings ago, during a well-known programme on La 7, at one point the former Chief of Police Franco Gabrielli, speaking about the recent legislation passed by the government to hold minors aged 14 and over criminally responsible (the opposite must be proven by them, with the burden of proof reversed) as part of an ‘anti-Maranza’ approach, blurted out: “Maranza is an insult; it’s as if, back in the 1960s and 1970s, they’d passed a law about ‘terroni’ – an ethnic label. In Milanese slang, it means ‘Moroccan mosquito’; that alone would be enough.”

But is this really the origin of the term? We put the question to the president of the Accademia della Crusca, the linguist Paolo D’Achille. The professor says: “In reality, this is not a term that carries an ethnic slur against North Africans, but rather against southerners.” “Its etymology is uncertain,” the linguist continues. “It could derive from a southern Italian term for aubergine, or from a conflation with the words ‘Marrakesk’ or ‘Morocco’ – which, in Milanese youth slang, were used to refer to southerners – and the slang term ‘zanza’, an onomatopoeic dialect word meaning ‘mosquito’ and, figuratively, a ‘con artist’. There is no doubt that the connotation is entirely negative and therefore, if it is used to refer to a specific social group, it is not done so in a neutral way. The reference is different, but that too was a negative one.”

Linguist Andrea De Benedetti, author of the 2022 pamphlet "Così non schwa. Limiti ed eccessi del linguaggio inclusivo" (Not Like That, Schwa. Limits and Excesses of Inclusive Language), who is by no means a do-gooder when it comes to language, agrees with him. “Regardless of etymology,” he says, “the issue is how words are used. I am strongly opposed to the a priori demonisation of a word solely on the basis of sensitivities that feel offended. In this case, however, behind the word lies a classist and racist worldview. A ‘maranza’ is a second-generation North African who engages in activities on the fringes of legality; the underlying assumption is that a second-generation young person born into a North African family, if dressed in a certain way, is undoubtedly a criminal. And this, etymology aside, is undoubtedly racism that risks amplifying a social phenomenon, extending it to an entire generation of young immigrants.”

But how did the word ‘maranza’ come about? “The first recorded instance of the word,” replies D’Achille, president of the Accademia della Crusca, “dates from the late 1980s. We find it in a song by Jovanotti, specifically in the track ‘Il capo della banda’ on the album La mia moto. ‘At the time,’ the professor continues, ‘it was used as a synonym for “coatto” or “tamarro”, associated with the dance music scene. For years it was an almost forgotten word, as is often the case with youth slang, remaining under the radar until 2019, when its meaning shifted following its use on social media to describe a certain type of young person united by the same clothing styles, the same musical tastes, and a language and attitude that are sometimes crude or vulgar. The media then went on to use it to refer to groups of second-generation young North African immigrants. But to describe a social group, it would perhaps be better to use a more neutral term with fewer negative connotations,” continues D’Achille