Alexis Munier - Talk Dirty Italian: Beyond Cazzo: the Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Italiano

BEYOND CAZZO: THE CURSES, SLANG, AND STREET
LINGO YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN YOU SPEAK ITALIANO TALK DIRTY
ITALIAN ALEXIS MUNIER & EMMANUEL TICHELLI Copyright 2008 by Alexis Munier and Emmanuel Tichelli
All rights reserved.
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www.adamsmedia.com ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-769-8
ISBN 10: 1-59869-769-2
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For information, please call 1-800-289-0963. To my nonna Angela, whose kindness, wisdom, and faith always
prevented her from using Dirty Italian
even when she should have. Emmanuel Tichelli
To my Papa Colonel, who hates pasta, loves spaghetti westerns,
and still calls them Eye-talians.

Alexis Munier CONTENTS




















DISCLAIMER All entries come with sample sentences as well as common use and literal translations with the exception of the dirtiest of the dirty. Youll know them by XXX: Too Dirty to Translate. INTRODUCTION Whats the point of speaking Italian slang? Why, to understand what the Italians are actually saying, of course! Movies from cine-citt , the Italian Hollywood, lyrics of a song, lines of a contemporary author, or programs della tiv spazzatura are all made specifically for Italians. While your schoolbook Italian is a good base, without slang youll miss the beauty of Bertoluccis films, Bocellis vocals, and Benignis humor. Rather than parade around Rome with a cheesy phrasebook for common conversations, you are better off with a copy of Talk Dirty : Italian . After all, would you rather bring home the usual souvenirs or the person who sold them to you? We cant claim this book will do the latter, but without it youre almost certain to leave la bella Italia with an awful plastic Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Remember, Italy is not France: attempting to speak the real day-to-day language of Italians will win you big bonus points and impress everyone you meet. While they may laugh at your mistakes, theyll appreciate your bravado, for which you will certainly be rewarded. Acknowledgments A heartfelt thank-you to Mara Cavadini, our reference Italian teacher who, despite a baby in diapers, found the time to get down and dirty for us. Big thanks to Daniele and Stefania Basilico, Massimo Palo, Marco Lorio, the Vanuccis, and the Tichellis, who all helped enormously in writing this book. Special thanks to Domenico Mariani, Erminia Lorio, Giancarlo Ramazzini, as well as the inhabitants of il piccolo mondo antico di Fogazzaro who unknowingly inspired this book with their infamous interjections and slang. CHAPTER ONE Qui non si parla italiano: Whats That Strange Language? The United States of Italy, Regionalism, and Foreign Influences Despite its long history, Italy is more insolent teenager than old fogey. CHAPTER ONE Qui non si parla italiano: Whats That Strange Language? The United States of Italy, Regionalism, and Foreign Influences Despite its long history, Italy is more insolent teenager than old fogey.

In fact, until 1870, there was no proper Italia , just a patchwork of ducati dukedoms, kingdoms (often held by other empires), small republics, and stati pontifici lands held by the Catholic Church. There were separate dialects and peoples like Lombards, Venetians, Romans, and Neapolitans... but no Italians. Italys creation began with the unusual union of the kingdom of Sardegnas army and the Republican army led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. On the way to unify Northern and Southern Italy, territories belonging to the Church that cut lo stivale , the boot, in two, had to be conquered. I due mondi were reunified when the Italian army entered Rome and made it Italys capitale .

The next step involved creating the notion of Italian identity among a patchwork of diverse dialects and cultures. Before independence, much of the country had been ruled by potenze stranieri , foreign powers, who left their distinctive cultural and linguistic marks on these occupied territories. Youll find Albanian, Greek, French, and North African words in the southern dialects, and German and French in the northern ones. As a result, there wasnt una lingua italiana but diversi italiani. To remedy this, litaliano pulito , clean Italian, was the goal of the state. One dialect in particular was promoted above all others, il fiorentino .

This Tuscan dialect was considered the purest and least contaminated. Publications, education, communication, and arts now had to be written or spoken in this new standard Italian. Dialects were considered sporchi , dirty, and their use was banned. As you can imagine, people were not especially keen to drop their native dialects. While standard or textbook Italian is now used on official documents, at school, on TV, and in most publications, youll certainly hear litaliano sporco , dirty Italian, while traveling and you will face some difficulty understanding a simple day-to-day conversation. Dialects never disappeared completely and remain the closest language to peoples feelings and emotions.

Youll find some important or frequent regional expressions in this book to help you along; theyll be marked with their origin in parentheses, e.g., (Roma). Origin of Italian Slang Criminality and Secret Codes The underworld creates its own slang words to separate itself from the general population and to keep its evil deeds under wraps. Furbo , slang for thief, has now transitioned into regular Italian. The meaning has changed, though, and furbo now refers to a clever person or smartass. So you can see the ingrained respect and admiration Italians have (despite their protests) for criminal activity. Criminal slang, il gergo criminale , was once only comprehensible to the Mob.