]]> http://thefastertimes.com/italianlessons/2012/02/08/let-it-snow-in-the-italian-language/feed/ 0 http://www.thefastertimes.com/italianlessons/2012/01/26/the-most-famous-obscenity-in-the-italian-language/ http://thefastertimes.com/italianlessons/2012/01/26/the-most-famous-obscenity-in-the-italian-language/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:13:25 +0000 Dianne Hales http://thefastertimes.com/italianlessons/?p=1972

La Parolaccia

Bad Language

It has become the oscenità (obscenity) heard round the world. After the shipwreck of a cruise liner (nave da crociera) off the Tuscan coast, an officer of the Italian Coast Guard, angered by the captain’s abbandono (abandoning) of his ship, bluntly ordered him to go back on board. His exact words were: “Vada a bordo, cazzo!”

Reporters and bloggers have translated this phrase into English in a variety of ways, from a mild “Go on board, damn it!” to “Go on board, for %&*#’s sake!” to a much stronger, “Get the *&#!= back on board!” Italians are interpreting the slogan as an impassioned cry to all citizens to stop thinking only about themselves, to face harsh realities and to do what’s best for their country. The phrase has gone viral (si è diffusa viralmente) and appears on banners, tee-shirts, aprons and throw pillows (above).

Obscenities like cazzo “were among the oldest, if not the oldest, words in human history,” Vito Tartamella, author of Parolacce, told me when I interviewed him in Milan as part of my research for LA BELLA LINGUA. ”Civilization couldn’t exist without them. Instead of throwing rocks at each other, men learned to hurl insults and vulgarities.”

“Do Italians curse more than other people?” I asked.

“They curse differently,” said Tartamella, noting that, unlike French, German, or English speakers, Italians express powerful emotions like anger, disgust, surprise and horror with sexual obscenities rather than scatalogical ones.

Cazzo, which dates back to about 1300, may stem from a dialect word for the maschio dell’oca (male goose), slang for the membro virile (masculine member or organ). Other linguists have traced it to an ancient word for “ladle” and to nautical terms associated with the lusty spirit of sailors long at sea.

Sebbene bandita dalla conversazione civile (although banished from polite conversation), cazzo, as my etymological dictionary notes, has remained sempre vitalissima (always very lively). The Italian writer Italo Calvino insisted that no precise equivalent for cazzo exists in any language.

I’ve heard Italians use it as an expression of surprise (cazzo!), praise (cazzuto), boredom (scazzo), anger (incazzato), approximation (a cazzo) or plain and simple contempt (cazzone). Among the “usi di cazzo” (uses of cazzo) at the Urban Dictionary website are col cazzo (never), alla cazzo (at random), non capirci un cazzo (not understand anything) and cazzi miei (my own business). If you read Italian or Neapolitan, Wikipedia offers even more—and more colorful—expressions.

Under Mussolini’s Codice Rocco of 1930, the use of cazzo and other parolacce (dirty words) became a crime. Of course, Italians didn’t stop swearing; they just found new ways to do so. Instead of porca puttana! (damn whore), they said porca vacca! (damn cow) or they substituted figlio di buona donna (son of a good woman) for figlio di puttana.

Cavolo (cabbage) became a nice, green way to avoid the use of the very strong word cazzo. For instance, if you feel the need to ask “What the hell do you want?”, you might say “Che cavolo vuoi? “ without sounding vulgar. And if someone is spouting nonsense, you are better off saying “Non dire cavolate” (Don’t talk bullshit)) than using a harsher word like cazzate.

However, given the circumstances of the cruise liner’s sinking, “Vada a bordo, cavolo!” would never have sufficed.

Words and Expressions

turpiloquio –  foul language

bestemmia — blasphemy

bestemmiare come un turco — to curse or blaspheme like a trooper (Turk)

bestemmiare il francese — to mangle French

non mi importa un cavolo — I don’t give a cabbage (damn)

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

Studiare italiano

Studying Italian

“What  is the most important thing to focus on when learning a new language?” a reader recently wrote. I posted his question on the LA BELLA LINGUA page on Facebook and got some great responses from Italian teachers and students.

“When learning a language like Italian, I feel the most important thing to focus on is the WHY,” says Christina Ball, director of the Speak! Language Center.  “Why are you learning Italian? What do you absolutely love about the language? Maybe it’s the way it makes you feel when you speak it, the thought of all the people you’ll be able to connect with when next in Italy (or in your Italian class at home!), the musicality, perhaps — in the case of those with Italian heritage — the way it makes you feel closer to your family, to your roots.”

As Christina wisely observes, “Learning a language is like any relationship. You’ll experience ups and downs, but remembering why you’re so committed will help you through those challenging moments so that you can enjoy the journey itself.”

“There is no one way or one golden method that you learn from,” observes Melissa Muldoon, the “crazy student” (studentessa matta) with a terrific blog in English and Italian, “You have to read, write, listen and speak the language and build your vocabulary every day. I at first concentrated primarily on grammar, learning conjugations and tenses. Then I began to branch out and found native speakers to converse with  on the internet. If you set aside time every day to create your own experience of immersion, you will get past the proverbial wall that all language learners hit at a certain point.”

Here are some other useful tips:

*Especially in the beginning, focus more on simply expressing yourself and carrying on meaningful conversations vs. perfecting pronunciation and grammar. “Perfectionism can be a true obstacle,” Christina Ball notes, “not only to progress, but also to true enjoyment of another language/culture and your personal experience of it.”

*Don’t worry about your vocabulary; it will grow naturally. Instead, learn the basic verb conjugations. Find Italian newspapers, which generally (but not completely) stick to the simpler conjugations, online, and read stories out loud.

*Immerse yourself. Listen to Italian CDs; watch Italian TV and DVDs; stream Italian music and news stations daily. You can find native speakers to Skype at  sites such as livemocha and mylanguageexchange.  They offer both free and paid programs.

*Talk to yourself in Italian. One student pronounces Italian phrases in front of the mirror every morning. Another practiced rolling her r’s while sitting on her scooter at stop signs in Italy.

*Stick with it. ”Surround yourself with Italian in every aspect — listening, reading, speaking, and watching — and don’t stop for as many years as it takes you to learn the language,” urges Italian teacher Carolina Gengo di Domenico of Piazza di Carolina.

*Enjoy yourself. “The most fun way for me to learn was marrying an Italian,” wrote one student, “but the verbs help!” (Unfortunately, as I replied to her, verbs don’t hug back.)

*Savor your successes,” another reader urges. “And downplay your everyday mistakes. Your listeners will, I can assure you.”

Denaro e Bellezza

Money and Beauty

“Do you know the most beautiful thing Florence ever created?” a historian asked during my recent stay. As I began to list the obvious candidates, he interrupted. “No,” he said firmly. “Il fiorino.”

The city first coined “Messer Fiorino,” with the image of its patron saint, John the Baptist, on one side and the Florentine lily on the other, in 1252. Containing precisely 3.53 grams of 24-carat gold, the tiny coin quickly became the currency of Europe. The founding families of the Florentine banks, which loaned millions of florins to popes and princes, turned into medieval Midases.

Their fortunes funded the greatest flowering of art that Western Civilization has ever known. A dazzling exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi — Denaro e Bellezza: I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo della vanità (Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities) — weaves together Florence’s financial and creative evolution.  The bottom line: No bankers, no Renaissance.

Items such as ledgers, strongboxes, coffers, keys, purses and an abacus (an ancestor of the computer) convey the history of commercial trade (la storia degli scambi commerciali) and the birth of the banking system (la nascita del sistema bancario). For money lenders and exchangers, money  provided luxury and pleasure for life on earth. However,  it also threatened their souls with eternal damnation for sins such as as avarice and usury (avarizia e usura).

“Wealth was seen as bringing with it immorality, greed and degeneration,” says art historian Ludovica Sebregondi, the exhibit’s co-curator (with author Tim Parks). No such stigma attached when money was transformed into beauty. And so rich Florentines invested in works of art (opere d’arte) by Botticelli, Beato Angelico and other masters of the Renaissance.

Assembled from major museums and private collections from around the world, the hundred or so paintings and sculptures provide a true picture of the life and of the European economy (una vera fotografia della vita e dell’economia europea) from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

The show spans the period from the mid-thirteenth century, when the florin was first coined, to the emergence of Savonarola, the monk who denounced those with “homes full of vanities, dishonest images and wicked books.” His influence on the artist Sandro Botticelli is seen in a series of works that range from radiant Madonnas to an alluring nude Venus to the stunning allegorical painting “The Calumny of Apelles” (In the poster above). Sebregondi describes it as “somewhat of a farewell to the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent.”

With Italy in the midst of an economic crisis that threatens the future of the euro, created to unite European currencies as the florin once did, the timely topic has attracted a great deal of international attention and acclaim.  The  exhibit continues until January 22, 2012.

Buon Viaggio!
Have a Good Trip!

On my first trip to Italy, I knew only one sentence in the Italian language: Mi dispiace ma non parlo l’italiano. I practically wore it out the very first day when my suitcase went missing on the way to Milan. Now before I even begin to fare i miei bagagli (make, or pack, my suitcases), I brush up on some essential Italian travel phrases.

In order to prenotare un volo (reserve a flight), I check the orario (schedule) online to find un volo diretto (a direct flight). I look for posti disponibili (seats available) in classe turistica. (economy class), business class (same in Italian), or prima classe (first class). I usually buy un volo di andata e ritorno (a round–trip flight) rather than un volo di sola andata (one-way ticket). I prefer un posto vicino al finestrino (window seat); my very tall husband, un posto vicino al corridoio (aisle seat). In these uncertain times I hope I don’t have to annullare o cambiare il mio volo (cancel or change my flight).

As the date of my partenza (departure) approaches, I double-check the franchigia del bagaglio (luggage allowance), il mio passaporto (my passport), and the orario di partenza (time of departure). The Italian phrase for check-in time is l’orario per le procedure d’accettazione, but, understandably, even native speakers say “check-in.”

I like to arrive early, with my biglietto elettronico (e-ticket) or carta d’imbarco (boarding pass) and my bagaglio a mano (hand luggage). I stay in the sala d’attesa (waiting room) until it’s time to go to the cancello di imbarco (departure gate).
I’m relieved to hear the announcement that the plane is imbarco immediato ( boarding now). I always worry about a ritardo (delay), especially if there’s a sciopero (strike)– whether of i controllori di volo (air traffic controllers), gli assistenti di volo (flight attendants), il personale di terra (ground crew) or i piloti (pilots).

On board I know I must allacciare la cintura di sicurezza (fasten my seatbelt) before decollo (take-off). The assistente di volo (flight attendant) offers a cuscino (pillow), coperta (blanket), and cuffie auricolari (headset)  so I can listen to music or watch a movie. However, since it’s a long flight, I prefer to schiacciare un pisolino (take a little nap).

After atterraggio (landing) at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport (better known as Fiumicino for the nearby town named for a little river or fiume), I take a shuttle to the main terminal. I feel that I have truly arrived in Italy when I hear the announcement, “La navetta sta per arrivare.” (“The shuttle—literally little ship—is about to arrive.”)

In the ritiro bagagli (baggage claim) area, I look for a sign indicating my flight number and the luggage carousel. Usually I rent a carrello (cart) to help with my bags. Once I waited, and waited, and waited but la mia valigia non è mai arrivata a destinazione (my suitcase never came). That’s when I learned another essential travel phrase: La mia valigia è stata smarrita. (My suitcase has been lost.)

It turned up eventually, and I reminded myself that the rewards of travel outweigh its hassles. As Sant’Agostino (St. Augustine) observed very long ago, “Il mondo è un libro e quelli che non viaggiano ne leggono solo una pagina.” (“The world is like a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page of it.”)
Words and Expressions
agenzia di viaggio — travel agency
viaggiare col cavollo di San Francesco — to go on foot (on the horse of St. Frances)
viaggiare in un baule – to travel in a trunk, that is, without seeing anything
fare un viaggio e due servizi — to make one trip and two services or to kill two birds with one stone

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

Numeri

Numbers

“Uno, due, tre.” What could be simpler than one, two, three? Two plus two (due più due) equals four (fa quattro) in any language, but i numeri (the numbers) and la numerazione (numbering) don’t always add up in the same ways.

Numbers in Italian, as in English, can be even (pari) or odd (dispari), whole (numeri interi) or fractions (frazioni), such as a half (un mezzo), a third (un terzo) or a quarter (un quarto). Percentages might range from one percent (uno per cento) to 100 percent (cento per cento).

For decimals (decimali), Italian uses a comma (virgola) rather than a period (punto) so 95.5 in English becomes 95,5 in Italian. Numbers higher than 999 take a punto rather than a virgola, so you write $1,500 but 1.500 euro.

Dates also look and sound different. Christmas (Natale) falls on December 25 in English but on il 25 dicembre in Italian. If you are asked for your anno di nascita (birth year), the numerals are the same—1960 or 1985, for instance—but when speaking, don’t translate them as “nineteen sixty” or “nineteen eighty-five.” In Italian, they are millenovecentosessanta (one thousand nine hundred sixty) or millenovecentoottantacinque (one thousand nine hundred eighty five).   For 21st-century dates such as 2005, say duemilacinque or duemila e cinque. 2011 translates, not as twenty-eleven, but as  duemilaundici or duemila e undici.

Basic math involves adding (sommare), subtracting (sottrarre), multiplying (moltiplicare) and dividing (dividere). Three plus three makes six. (Tre più tre fa sei.) Three times three makes nine. (Tre per tre fa nove.) Six minus three equals three. (Sei meno tre fa tre). Six divided by three is two. (Sei diviso due fa tre.) For anything more complicated, I use a calculator (calcolatrice).

When counting by tens, I think of what an Italian friend once told me about the decades. After age 30 (trenta), Italians enter the “anta” years: quaranta (40), cinquanta (50), sessanta (60), settanta (70), ottanta (80) and novanta (90). But on every birthday, they wish for cento (100) or cent’anni (100 years).

Cento never changes, whether you’re counting to 200 (duecento) or 900 (novecento). However, mille (a thousand) becomes mila in the plural, as in 3,000 (tremila) or 10,000 (diecimila). Some people are worth un milione di dollari (a million dollars); the rich may have tens of millions (decine di milioni) or even a billion (un miliardo) dollars.

Numeri can be more than mere numbers in Italian. Dare i numeri (literally to give the numbers) means to lose it or go berserk. Someone who’s not very bright may be described as avere pochi numeri (having few numbers), unlike someone who has what it takes–or has the numbers (avere i numeri). A fast car has plenty of numero di cavalli (horse power). In order to vote, a committee needs a numero legale (quorum). But my favorite numerical saying is one of Italian’s many euphemisms for dying: passare nel numero dei più (to pass into or join the great majority).

Words and Expressions

numero uno — number one

numero verde -– toll free (green) number

numero di scarpe -– shoe size

posto numerato –- numbered seat

numero di cellulare –- cell phone number

giocare un numero al lotto –- to play or bet on a number in the lottery

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

La Passeggiata
The Evening Stroll

As day softens into dusk in Italy, something in the air seems to tug people from their homes and workplaces to participate in one of the enduring traditions of Italian life: fare la passegiata (taking a walk). The evening promenade  generally takes place between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m on the main streets or in the piazze of virtually every town, village or big city in Italy. But this “cultural performance,” as sociologists describe it, involves so much more than strolling to and fro.

During the week, the passeggiata marks the end of the workday and offers a moment of sociability before the family dinner. On Saturday and Sunday, the passeggiata often becomes the main social event of the day, when entire families take to the streets.

Children scamper after each other or lick cones of gelato. Men typically relax in sidewalk cafes or bars or gather in front of the neighborhood tabaccaio (a store that sells cigarettes, among other things) to talk politics and soccer. Women walk back and forth  arm in arm with their friends. The anziani (very old) set up chairs on the edge of the piazza and watch the street show.

The most important thing is simply seeing and being seen. In some cities, people clearly dress to impress or at least to show how well life has been treating them. Certainly everyone looks as if they’d taken time di dare un buon sguardo (give themselves a good looking over) before stepping into the piazza. Shirts are pressed; jeans are stylish.

If you’re out and about in the early evening, you may become part of a passeggiata whether you intend to or not. You’ll feel like less of an outsider if you don’t dress like an American tourist (no baseball caps, baggy shorts or gym wear). Don’t rush past people. Walk slowly. Join the locals for an aperitivo. And don’t be surprised if, after a while, you start feeling that you too belong.

Here are three of my favorite places to passeggiare:

Rome

Young tourists tend to mull about the Piazza di Spagna or find a perch on the Spanish Steps to watch the parade. Window-shoppers gravitate to the Via del Corso, a pedestrian street lined with shops, cafes and churches. The lively Piazza Navona, with its open-art art vendors, mimes and musicians, may be the most entertaining place for a passeggiata.

Florence

Many people weave their way to the Piazza della Repubblica, with its choice of cafes and bars for an espresso or aperitivo. I prefer a different route: a climb above the crowds to the Piazzale Michelangelo or even higher to the church of San Miniato, where locals sit in the shade and couples wrap their arms around each other as they watch the sun turn the Arno to gold.

Siena

After the tourist buses leave in the late afternoon, the Sienese reclaim their town by making their way up the steep, winding streets to Il Campo, the shell-shaped main piazza. You can circle the piazza or venture into the tiny side streets. Or you can climb  the 400 steps to the top of the Torre del Mangia (roughly the Tower of Eating) for a bird’s eye view. As you gaze down at the townspeople below and out at the distant hills, you’ll feel—as Italians do at the end of a passeggiata—that all’s right with the world. Tutto a posto!

Words and Exprssions

passeggiare a cavallo — go for a ride (on a horse)
passeggio – public walk, promenade
passeggiatore — someone taking a walk
passeggiare in carozza — go for a drive (literally in a carriage)

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

Posso presentarmi?
May I introduce myself?

The most entertaining presentazione (introduction) I ever heard came when the distinguished chairman of psychiatry introduced my husband at the medical school of the University of Pisa. Although they had met before, he had obviously never read Bob’s curriculum vitae.

“Dottor Hales,” he began in Italian, graduated from West Point, the United States Military Academy in 1970.  He paused and reflected, “at the time of the Vietnam war.” He then observed that my husband had trained as an Army paracadutista (parachutist). As he skimmed ahead, his face suddenly lit up. “Dottor Hales,” he announced dramatically, parachuted into Vietnam and won the highest military honors and many medals for his bravery.

“Che eroe!” (What a hero!) a young doctor behind me murmured in admiration. Not comprehending a word, my husband, whose only military assignment outside the continental United States was Hawaii, nodded as if in modest recognition. I struggled not to giggle (ridacchiare).

Italians take introductions seriously. Putting two people in contact with each other for the first time, according to Il Galateo (an Italian etiquette book), is “un momento affascinante della vita di ognuno “(a fascinating moment in everyone’s life). “Due interi universi—la vita di due individui—convergono per integrarsi.” (Two entire universes—the life of two individuals—meet to make a whole.)

That’s why knowing how to presentare qualcuno a qualcun altro (introduce someone to someone else) is important. Whom do you introduce to whom? A child to an adult (un ragazzo a un adulto), a younger adult to an older one (un adulto più giovane a quello più anziano), a man to a woman (un uomo a una donna), a less recognized personality (una personalità  mediamente conosciuta) to a well-known person (una persona molto nota).

So what if you aren’t sure who is older or more distinguished? “Usate una formula interrogativa neutra” (Use a neutral formula), say linguists Valeria della Valle and Giuseppe Patota in Le parole giuste (The Correct Words). Phrases such as “Non vi conoscete?” (Don’t you know each other?), “Vi hanno già presentato?” (Have you already been introduced?) or “Posso presentarvi?” (May I introduce you to each other?) work equally well in Italian or English.

Avoid overblown descriptions and titles of whatever type (titoli di qualsiasi tipo). Give the person’s first and last name (nome e cognome), as in “Le presento Giorgio Valli” (I introduce/present Giorgio Valli to you.) You also can simply give both names: “Giorgio Valli, Mauro Conti.”  When introducing yourself to a stranger, give your first and last name, accompanied con un sorriso e una stretta di mano (with a smile and a handshake).

“Piacere “ (pleasure–to meet you) is the standard response when introduced. According to Il Galateo, you should avoid gli inchini (bows) and il baciamano (hand-kissing), which it dismisses as “ottocentesca abitudine démodé” (outdated 19th-century habits). Never out-of-date is a man’s gently carrying a woman’s hand toward his lips. Every time an Italian gentleman has introduced himself in this way, I have been utterly charmed.

Words and Expressions
lettera di presentazione – letter of introduction or cover letter
presentarsi bene –- to present oneself well, to have a good appearance
presentare un amico –- to introduce a friend
presentazione ufficiale —  officially introduced

Dianne Hales is author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.