My first language crush, as you so well put it, was French. Almost majored in it. I studied so hard I spoke it in my sleep! (A good sign that you are getting it I´ve heard.)
Italian was second, Russian third and now, of course, Portuguese. Which for some reason seems the hardest for me. Or at least as hard as Russian. (That language family orientation is a thing. I so envy my Italian friend, Spanish and Portuguese are so much easier for him.)
And you gotta love the idioms! English is full of them too and I love teaching them to my students.
One of my faves in Portuguese is, não é minha praia. Meaning, it´s not my beach, not my thing.
I knew we landed in the right city when I learned that the people of Porto are famed for their swearing ability! Um besouro, is a beetle but also means a cluster f"#$.
Euro Portuguese is the hardest to understand, especially the Portuenses, (peeps from Porto). Lucky us.
My own fave Italian/English mash-up, awsissimo! For most awesome. ;)
I may have to steal "It's not my beach." Perfect! And how interesting that a beetle carries such meaning (poor thing). Brava for all your language study and ability, at whatever level. You are awsissima!
Jun 14, 2023·edited Jun 14, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola
Love this post. I'm only an infant student of Italian but already i find myself "code switching", which is wonderful especially when talking with miei nipoti who are perfectly Italian-English bilingual, and who don't even notice when my sentences are mixed up.
Code switching is the greatest! Btw, I just fixed an error in the post—it's sapere di, not andare di, when something hints of something else. I was just using the phrase and whoops! Don't want to lead you astray! How wonderful that your nipoti are bilingual; wish we could all have that advantage.
Terrific post. One of my favorite -one words is "vitellone," literally veal that's past its desired age. Applied to people, it means an adult who still acts like a teenager. Felini titled an early film "I Vitelloni" about a bunch of Roman guys who are stuck in adolescence.
Glad to hear it Joanna! Idioms are the best, aren't they? I don't always write about language, but dig around in my archive and you'll find more to read on that topic (and who knows, maybe another!). Thanks for reading and for taking the time to leave a note.
Sometimes "Ciccio" is also short for "Francesco" — my maternal nonno was known as "don Ciccio" in the town he lived, and the same applies to Ciccio Graziani, former footballer (aka soccer player) of our national team, whose name is Francesco as well.
(on the other hand I've never heard of "Ciccia" as short for Francesca... Then again "ciccia" means "meat" in Tuscany... 😅)
Oh yes, I could write for ages about the nicknames for Italian names! I especially like the ones derived from diminutives, like Pino from Giuseppino. And what sometimes happened to them in America is fascinating—for example, Vincenzo > Cenzo > James (because the pronunciation of Cenzo and James are sort of similar). I think you have proved why Ciccia isn't a good nickname for Francesca!
Loved, loved this post and I think you have a whole BOOK in here, Cheryl!!!! I loved your imagination in point 4. It also reminded me of one paragraph I attempted in my book on the English language in India to show just how many Hindi words were part of the English language. Kudos for enlightening us all with your special brand of humor and imagination!
Hi dear, I love when you write about the Italian language! It's so interesting to see my language from your point of view!
About sbandieratori, do not forget that also the word bandiera originates from another word: banda, meaning stripe, a piece of textile which is long and narrow, like a bandiera is.
About the S, I couldn't avoid thinking at some catastrophic consequences of adding the S to an English word. You know youngsters tend to adapt English words related to computers to the Italian language, so they invent terrible words like streammare (to stream) or followare (to follow). Zippare (to zip a file) is very used, but the opposite operation is - guessed? Yes, that's it - SZIPPARE!
Hi Elena, happy to entertain you! That's very interesting about banda and bandiera—thanks for the info! I guess I don't hang out with enough young people because I've never heard those terrible versions of English words (and followare makes no sense since the verb seguire exists!). You are rightfully afraid of what that S can do!
Being Italian, I really love try to achieve a quite good pronunciation of the y as first letter of a word: as you, year, yeast (I love yeast!!!). I like that sound in the throat's deep that's so difficult for me. And when there's something not clear between people, the first word that gets on my mind is misunderstanding, and then I have to translate it with fraintendimento. For some misterious reasons, i think that "misunderstanding" is a better definition!
I agree, yeast is fun to say! Interesting that you like the Y sound, which is similar to but simpler than the Italian "gli." You're right, though; it does come from the back of the throat, as so many English sounds do. (I describe English's vowels as muddy.) I find my Italian pronunciation is always better when I remember to make the sounds in the front of the mouth. Maybe you like "misunderstanding" better than "fraintendimento" because "fra" suggests "among," so it's almost like it means "among possible interpretations." Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about! Thanks for sharing your faves!
Bem dito!
My first language crush, as you so well put it, was French. Almost majored in it. I studied so hard I spoke it in my sleep! (A good sign that you are getting it I´ve heard.)
Italian was second, Russian third and now, of course, Portuguese. Which for some reason seems the hardest for me. Or at least as hard as Russian. (That language family orientation is a thing. I so envy my Italian friend, Spanish and Portuguese are so much easier for him.)
And you gotta love the idioms! English is full of them too and I love teaching them to my students.
One of my faves in Portuguese is, não é minha praia. Meaning, it´s not my beach, not my thing.
I knew we landed in the right city when I learned that the people of Porto are famed for their swearing ability! Um besouro, is a beetle but also means a cluster f"#$.
Euro Portuguese is the hardest to understand, especially the Portuenses, (peeps from Porto). Lucky us.
My own fave Italian/English mash-up, awsissimo! For most awesome. ;)
I may have to steal "It's not my beach." Perfect! And how interesting that a beetle carries such meaning (poor thing). Brava for all your language study and ability, at whatever level. You are awsissima!
Feel free! Thx, as are you, awsissima!
This is whimsical and clever and entertaining and informative - nice combo!! :)
Thank you, Ellen, your comments are always so kind!
Love this post. I'm only an infant student of Italian but already i find myself "code switching", which is wonderful especially when talking with miei nipoti who are perfectly Italian-English bilingual, and who don't even notice when my sentences are mixed up.
Code switching is the greatest! Btw, I just fixed an error in the post—it's sapere di, not andare di, when something hints of something else. I was just using the phrase and whoops! Don't want to lead you astray! How wonderful that your nipoti are bilingual; wish we could all have that advantage.
And code switching is something Indians do regularly....across Indian languages and between English and a regional language. It's crazy.
Terrific post. One of my favorite -one words is "vitellone," literally veal that's past its desired age. Applied to people, it means an adult who still acts like a teenager. Felini titled an early film "I Vitelloni" about a bunch of Roman guys who are stuck in adolescence.
I can't think of a better word for overgrown adolescents than vitelloni. Time to brush up on my Fellini. Thanks, Anthony!
Oh how I love this. I am a total language nerd. Spanish is my 2nd language and trying to learn Italian. Love your idioms that you shared.
I think I'm in the right company if this is the essay theme!!! Keep sharing fun italian phrases!!
Glad to hear it Joanna! Idioms are the best, aren't they? I don't always write about language, but dig around in my archive and you'll find more to read on that topic (and who knows, maybe another!). Thanks for reading and for taking the time to leave a note.
Sometimes "Ciccio" is also short for "Francesco" — my maternal nonno was known as "don Ciccio" in the town he lived, and the same applies to Ciccio Graziani, former footballer (aka soccer player) of our national team, whose name is Francesco as well.
(on the other hand I've never heard of "Ciccia" as short for Francesca... Then again "ciccia" means "meat" in Tuscany... 😅)
Oh yes, I could write for ages about the nicknames for Italian names! I especially like the ones derived from diminutives, like Pino from Giuseppino. And what sometimes happened to them in America is fascinating—for example, Vincenzo > Cenzo > James (because the pronunciation of Cenzo and James are sort of similar). I think you have proved why Ciccia isn't a good nickname for Francesca!
Loved, loved this post and I think you have a whole BOOK in here, Cheryl!!!! I loved your imagination in point 4. It also reminded me of one paragraph I attempted in my book on the English language in India to show just how many Hindi words were part of the English language. Kudos for enlightening us all with your special brand of humor and imagination!
Thanks, Kalpana! But now you have to tell me some of those Hindi words that made it into English! As for a book, hmmmm.
Hi dear, I love when you write about the Italian language! It's so interesting to see my language from your point of view!
About sbandieratori, do not forget that also the word bandiera originates from another word: banda, meaning stripe, a piece of textile which is long and narrow, like a bandiera is.
About the S, I couldn't avoid thinking at some catastrophic consequences of adding the S to an English word. You know youngsters tend to adapt English words related to computers to the Italian language, so they invent terrible words like streammare (to stream) or followare (to follow). Zippare (to zip a file) is very used, but the opposite operation is - guessed? Yes, that's it - SZIPPARE!
😁😁😁
Hi Elena, happy to entertain you! That's very interesting about banda and bandiera—thanks for the info! I guess I don't hang out with enough young people because I've never heard those terrible versions of English words (and followare makes no sense since the verb seguire exists!). You are rightfully afraid of what that S can do!
Being Italian, I really love try to achieve a quite good pronunciation of the y as first letter of a word: as you, year, yeast (I love yeast!!!). I like that sound in the throat's deep that's so difficult for me. And when there's something not clear between people, the first word that gets on my mind is misunderstanding, and then I have to translate it with fraintendimento. For some misterious reasons, i think that "misunderstanding" is a better definition!
I agree, yeast is fun to say! Interesting that you like the Y sound, which is similar to but simpler than the Italian "gli." You're right, though; it does come from the back of the throat, as so many English sounds do. (I describe English's vowels as muddy.) I find my Italian pronunciation is always better when I remember to make the sounds in the front of the mouth. Maybe you like "misunderstanding" better than "fraintendimento" because "fra" suggests "among," so it's almost like it means "among possible interpretations." Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about! Thanks for sharing your faves!