Brian H. Appleton
02-07-2008, 08:52 PM
I always find it amazing that there are so many different dialects in Italy.I remember once traveling in a crowded train from Milano to Rome and getting into a heated discussion of politics in my compartment with a group of Sicilian migrant workers who were headed home to Messina to vote in their local elections. The youth were neo-fascists and the old were communists and they had to translate for me from Sicilian into standard Italian the whole time. We got so caught up in our heated discussion about Mussolini and Ethiopia in WWII that I missed my stop and got off in Naples thinking it was Rome until I heard a "O Bimbo! M'ora si che sei un bel' guaion'" as some passerby blurted out to me after I had combed my hair in the reflection of the train window...
Other dialects I cannot follow are Sardo and Ligurian.
It gets to the point that there are certain words, often explatives, which you don't hear outside of a certain city let alone a province. It must stem back to the time that each one was a seperate city state and the inhabitants take pride in their own colloquialisms and keep them alive.
In Livorno, people say: "Boia d'un' Eva" Eve's executioner? which I have heard nowhere else. Another one I heard a lot in Livorno growing up was "Porca Miseria!"
In Siena they pronounce all the c's like h's as in O haro home stai? They have unique explatives like: "Gazzeloro" and "Shabordito" and "Maremma hane" and they seem to take pride in being the bestemia capitol of the world...the poor Madonna gets called everything in Siena as in:"Madonna Orsa" and "Madonna Impestata" and even God as in: "Dio Gatto!"
In Rome your hear: "Per Baccho!" In Florence you hear expressions like: "Che ganzo", "che forte" or "molto in gamba"
or words like "Angouria" for watermelon which you hear no where else. Angour means grapes in Persian so I wonder how that entered into Florentine as watermelon?
In Sicily there are some villages where they say "Agalmisoo" which still means Va fan'cullo in modern Greek, no doubt kept alive in these Sicilian villages from the time of ancient Magna Grecia.
Another thing I wonder about is why everything in Italy brings luck? If you spill a drink on yourself or if a bird craps on your hair or your windshield it is: "porta fortuna." I even remember one time at a trade show by the Italian chamber of commerce in New York City, my sales assistant at the time leaned too far over a case of jewelry and one of her breasts fell out of her bra into the open...the old geezer manning the booth said: "Porta Fortuna!"
And what does a wolf's mouth have to do with luck or touching iron or touching one's balls? I don't get it...and lastly how come whenever you ask for directions the answer is always: "Sempre Diritto!" Is that because all roads were built by the Romans?
If any of you have driven the ancient Roman road to Hadrian's Wall in the UK, it is straight as an arrow but it goes up and down more times than an inch worm....they say that much of what we regard as characteristically British is a result of the imposition of Roman logic on them. Contrast that with Ireland where they never were able to conquor...
cheers,
Brian H. Appleton
Professore di Nulla II
Other dialects I cannot follow are Sardo and Ligurian.
It gets to the point that there are certain words, often explatives, which you don't hear outside of a certain city let alone a province. It must stem back to the time that each one was a seperate city state and the inhabitants take pride in their own colloquialisms and keep them alive.
In Livorno, people say: "Boia d'un' Eva" Eve's executioner? which I have heard nowhere else. Another one I heard a lot in Livorno growing up was "Porca Miseria!"
In Siena they pronounce all the c's like h's as in O haro home stai? They have unique explatives like: "Gazzeloro" and "Shabordito" and "Maremma hane" and they seem to take pride in being the bestemia capitol of the world...the poor Madonna gets called everything in Siena as in:"Madonna Orsa" and "Madonna Impestata" and even God as in: "Dio Gatto!"
In Rome your hear: "Per Baccho!" In Florence you hear expressions like: "Che ganzo", "che forte" or "molto in gamba"
or words like "Angouria" for watermelon which you hear no where else. Angour means grapes in Persian so I wonder how that entered into Florentine as watermelon?
In Sicily there are some villages where they say "Agalmisoo" which still means Va fan'cullo in modern Greek, no doubt kept alive in these Sicilian villages from the time of ancient Magna Grecia.
Another thing I wonder about is why everything in Italy brings luck? If you spill a drink on yourself or if a bird craps on your hair or your windshield it is: "porta fortuna." I even remember one time at a trade show by the Italian chamber of commerce in New York City, my sales assistant at the time leaned too far over a case of jewelry and one of her breasts fell out of her bra into the open...the old geezer manning the booth said: "Porta Fortuna!"
And what does a wolf's mouth have to do with luck or touching iron or touching one's balls? I don't get it...and lastly how come whenever you ask for directions the answer is always: "Sempre Diritto!" Is that because all roads were built by the Romans?
If any of you have driven the ancient Roman road to Hadrian's Wall in the UK, it is straight as an arrow but it goes up and down more times than an inch worm....they say that much of what we regard as characteristically British is a result of the imposition of Roman logic on them. Contrast that with Ireland where they never were able to conquor...
cheers,
Brian H. Appleton
Professore di Nulla II