I enjoy WATCHING Giada speak EYEtalian
This may be true in the larger cities but in the remote villages, the old dialect continues to hold sway. Sourcing the dialect can be quite fascinating. For example, I annually visited a small town in the Molise province, over the span of several decades. They trace certain elements of their dialect to the Etruscans. Here is an example of the distinct differences in language vs dialect for that village, written phoenetically.
Upstairs: Italian: sopra - Dialect: in gup
Downstairs: Italian: sotto - Dialect: bal
Let's go: Italian: andiamo - Dialect: amachee
Boy: Italian: ragazzo - Dialect: oocheetala
Girl: Italian: ragazza - Dialect: aahcheetala
Language can be quite fascinating. I studied French and worked for Air France. One of my coworkers often visited Quebec, to study their French. He said that while French is taught in school, the locals continue to speak the French of the 18th century, brought to Canada by French explorers.
From the time I spent in Roselle, Bradley Beach and Metedeconk, I found the New Jersey accent to be the ugliest in the nation.
“. . .should be familiar to viewers of other New Jersey-based shows like the now-defunct Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, where food often drives conversation.”
Oh, I thought they were just white trash.
OK, so WTF is “capicola?”
I work with a guy from New Jersey who is of Polish descent. He speaks in so many double, triple, quadruple negatives I can barely understand what he’s saying.
Dialects are one explanation. Different regions, different dialects. I can understand most of them.. it’s the Sicilian dialects that can confuse me!
I took Standard Italian in H.S., did well but couldn’t get my teacher to pronounce my Italian name correctly... my ancestors are from Sicily.
Always find it funny how those of us that are 3rd or more generation American born still try to sound Italian. I don’t see this happen as often with other languages. Besides, the ONLY Italian anyone ever needs is the ability to sing ‘Volare’ and ‘That’s Amore’. And if you’re able to sound a little like Dean Martin, you’ll never be lonely.
I grew up using that accent in the Philadelphia area because my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles used it.
After I took an Italian course in college, and I figured, well, this is the real Italian. My family must’ve been speaking some kind of Americanized version of the words.
But now, according to this article, they were speaking an older version of Italian words from a particular region (?). Very interesting.
Another thing we grew up saying was “man-i-gawt” for manicotti.
ping!
Thanks for this - fascinating!
Italian-Americans were somewhat isolated by ethnicity during their first century here, and some old linguistic ways have been carried down.
I had some friends visit me from Italy when I was living in an Italian neighborhood and studying Italian language for an upcoming trip to Italy. My visitors spoke no English, and several of the Italian-American neighbors came around, excited to see visitors from Italy and trying to trot out their Italian words and phrases. After they left, the visitors told me in Italian, "I hope you are not trying to learn Italian from them; their accents are cosi brutti (so terrible)."
I was on Mulberry St a few hours ago. Hardly any Italians living in the neighborhood anymore. Almost all Chinese and Starbucks-type yuppies now. Gotti’s old HQ is now a shoe store.
I enjoy WATCHING Giada speak EYEtalian
I was at an Italian restaurant in the middle of an orange orchard in Ojai, CA and I ordered a sub with prozhut.
An older woman with an FBI (Full Blooded Italian) T-Shirt tried to correct me and said prosciutto.
Turns out she was from Chicago.
So evidently there is not gabagool in Chicago either.
What a shame.
I always understood the difference as between south and north. The different dialect from the modern Florentine is Sicilian which, incidentally, why you’d hear it more in mob run areas.
I am in north central NJ and whenever I hear “somewan tawk like dis”, I immediately think they’re stupid. Luckily where I live, that annoying English butchering accent isn’t too common.
I grew up Irish in dead center Soprano-land of North Jersey. If you didn’t pronounce your deli meats properly (like gabagool) you were regarded as stunad. A mook.
First of all, that "toity toid street" thing is NOT a "NEW YORK" accent...it is an Irish immigrant, first generation Irish-American accent that was heard in NYC, and hyped in the '30s gangster movies ( especially by James Cagney )and wasn't even au corrant in the 1930s, anymore.
The thing about NYC accents, is that they have always been not only fluid, but changed from not only neighborhood to neighborhood ( even from block to block, in some instances ), socio-economic levels, and also from generation to generation.
The second point that isn't correct, is that the author claims that Italian is the ONLY language that got muddled/mangled. Not true! When we moved to Chicago, from Manhattan, I was shocked how mangled Yiddish had become in Chicago! In NYC, everyone knows and uses many Yiddish words ( Italian too ), not just Jews.
Shoot, what’s our NY Italian boxer’s name again? The one with the cat named spaghetti? Love him but I can’t remeber what his freeper name is. Somebody ping that guy!