Category Archives: Italy

Itlish: English Words in “Common” Use in Italian

Italian, like English and many others, accretes words from other languages. Often these are modern terms which have no easy equivalent in antique Latin or Greek roots.

For example: Ten years ago, Italians didn’t know how to refer to the process of scanning (a page, a photograph) using a scanner.

The correct word – digitalizzare (“digitalize”) – is unwieldy. An Italian speaker might instinctively invent a verb based on the foreign noun. But scannare already has a meaning in Italian: to slaughter! Which seems rather overkill for some poor, innocent document.

The compromise has been to use scannerizzare – “to scannerize”. Or else to say scannare with a wink, to acknowledge that the speaker knows that the usage is not correct.

clubs

There are lots of perfectly good words that one could use in Italian (associazione, circolo) for a group of people who gather to share a common interest, but for some reason the English “club” is also used.

However, for reasons which completely elude me, a short English u often ends up pronounced as eh by Italian speakers. Furthermore, English plurals are often abused by Italian speakers, being added or removed (with or without a superfluous apostrophe) without any consideration for real English usage. Hence the satirical music group Squallor could produce a song entitled Ti ho conosciuto in un clubs, where the final word is singular and is pronounced “clebs”.

stress

There is no good Italian equivalent for the modern use of “stress” in English. You could say sotto tensione to mean “under stress,” but stress is so commonly used that most people would now say sotto stress or stressato/a (stressed) and stressare (to make stressed, to cause stress).

handicap, handicappato

Usually pronounced without the initial h (there is no h in Italian) and, apparently, there is no native word for handicapped.

See also: Italglish, or: Going Footing in Your Smoking

Italian Satirical Poetry

Monument to the poet Trilusso, in Roman dialect. Piazza Trilusso, Rome

For some fun political puns, look here

In the Shade

While I read my usual paper,

Sprawled in the shade of a [tree]

I see a pig and I say to him: “Goodbye, swine!”

I see a donkey and I say to him: “Goodbye, ass!”

Perhaps these beasts won’t understand me

But at least I have the satisfaction

Of saying things as they stand

Without fear of ending up in prison.

Learn Italian in Song: Donne

Recorded by Neri per Caso.

Donne

Women

Donne in cerca di guai Women in search of trouble(s)
Donne a un telefono che non suona mai Women at a telephone that never rings
Donne in mezzo a una via Women in the middle of a street
Donne allo sbando senza compagnia Women out of control without company
Negli occhi hanno dei consigli In their eyes they have advice
E tanta voglia di avventure And much desire for adventure
Se hanno fatto molti sbagli If they have made many mistakes
Sono piene di paura They’re full of fears
Le vedi camminare insieme You see them walking together
Nella pioggia o sotto il sole In the rain or under the sun
Dentro pomeriggi opachi Within opaque afternoons
Senza gioia né dolore Without either joy or pain
Donne pianeti dispersi Women, dispersed [lost] planets
Per tutti gli uomini cosi’ diversi For all men so different
Donne amiche di sempre Women, friends forever
Donne alla moda Fashionable women
Donne contro corrente Women [who go] against the current
Negli occhi hanno gli aereoplani In their eyes they have airplanes
Per volare ad alta quota To fly high
Dove si respira l’aria Where [you can] breathe the air
E la vita non vuota And life is not empty
Le vedi camminare insieme… You see them walking together…

Where Goats Go on Summer Vacation: Alpe Giumello & Valcava

panoramic view from Alpe Giumello, Italy

An expedition to Alpe Giumello and Valcava, just above Lake Como. Full of goats grazing on the rich Alpine summer grass. When cold weather comes, they will be moved to lower pastures, a process called transumanza.