Lecture Series: Italiese

Italiese

L’inglese americano in bocca italiana + l’italiano dialettale in bocca americana

Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 7:00pm

With words like api (happy), sangawich (sandwich), agida (stomach acid) and tencsalotto (thanks a lot), every Italian immigrant succeeded in communicating bilingually thanks to italiese. First coined by Gianrenzo Clivio in 1975, italiese (italiano + inglese) was used to describe the mixture of Italian and English spoken by immigrants in North America. It was born on the streets of Little Italies all over the US and Canada as immigrants italianized English words and united under a common identity and a new-born dialect.

Adding more spice to this linguistic concoction, succeeding generations then introduced anglicized Italian words and expressions which are now considered part of our lingua franca. Capeesh? (That is, Capisci?) Explore with Professor Spedaliere how words such as pinaburra (peanut butter) and baccausa (bathroom) allowed Italians to begin to assimilate, and how phrases like ai calla iu becca, paisan (I’ll call you back, fellow countryman) helped them communicate in the New World.

Must register in advance and prepay.

Members $15, Non-Members $25

For more information, please call 914-771-8700, or visit wiccny.org