Hey Olly, well done it i been such a great video again. Would be interesting to see a similar video on the development and/or disappearance of the French and German language across the US...
My nonna came from Sicily during WWII to Southern Brazil. She mostly forgot Italian as she got older but it was still awesome to try and talk to her in Italian with a weird mix of Portuguese. She passed away last month. Rest in Peace mi nonna.
I speak Italian and Neapolitan, so it was always beautiful hearing older family members use some of these Italianized versions of English words. I might have to put a whole list together!
Just watched this now. I consider myself Italian-American from New York City. I’m in my late 60’s. My grandparents came from southern Italy in 1900, 1904 and 1930. My father was 4 years old when they came over. My paternal grandparents lived upstairs ( typical). They were more comfortable speaking their Calabrian but could switch to more of the standard Italian if needed. Basically they spoke to us kids in either full on “ Italian” and we would mostly understand and respond in English or occasionally respond in “Italian”. Mostly they used a combination of their regional language, standard, and English. An example: Grandma would say: O’ telephone sta’ ringann’ ( sta ringando/suonando). She never had a phone in Italy. Each family is different of course but we had relatives who would visit from Italy and we figured it out. As one person commented, it was when I started learning Spanish that I decided to teach myself Italian with records, library books, radio programs, etc. My grandmother was so proud and she would then only speak in “ Italian”. I was able to read the letters she still received from Italy and when I visited in 1978 and met relatives in Rome I was able to do ok. I majored in Spanish and Portuguese and kept up with Italian. I do ok now and can have in-depth conversations. ( with mistakes). Again, we used most of the words on the list you showed at the end. The one thing I still do that drives people crazy is say “ open” and “close” the lights. Evidently, some Italian Americans and French Canadians heard it years ago and it has stuck! There is a reason for it, of course. Great video, yes there are more “ Italians” elsewhere. I never pretend to be Italian but am proud of the heritage and have been there many times since the 70’s. When we were younger the standard question among friends was “ What are you? I was forced to say “ Italian” and they “ German, Hungarian, Irish, Polish,etc.) I currently do language exchanges with natives in Italy. Wish we had the Internet in the 50’s and 60’s ( 70’s and 80’s)!!!
Grew up in Chicago and attended community college in the 60’s. My father family is pre colonial and settled in the Carolina’s and was in Tennessee before statehood. The sociology prof asked each of us to describe ourself. All the others used their nationality and when I described myself as American it started a whole conversation about who and what is an American. Quite a few wouldn’t accept my identifying and said there must be a European nationality I must claim. They couldn’t accept someone whose family has been here for over 200 years would not have a strong identity except as American. That was the immigrant world of Chicago then.
Yes--I've had similar experiences--my father often used to comment, complain really, on open and close the lights. "O" as article is Neapolitan. I believe it's 'o because the "L" is dropped. The Sicilian article is "lu" and becomes 'u. My father grew up Neapolitan on the Lower East Side, and my mother was Sicilian, born here, just about. So I was bi-lingual lol.
My mother's side of the family moved from Italy to the United States in the 60s. So I heard a bit of the language growing up but could never really carry on much of a conversation. It was what the grown ups would speak to one another if they didn't want us kids bothering them. Since I studied Spanish in school I can sort of kind of get what my relatives are talking about since there's some similarities between the two languages. Interestingly, my grandfather says that other people from Italy think the way he talks is very strange. He grew up in an area where the dialect borrowed a lot of words from Algerian. Another weird quirk is that some of my late grandmothers mispronunciations made it into family tradition. Every Christmas we bake her recipe for pecondola pie and leave out milk and biscotti for Sandy Claus.
I am italian, how difficult and expensive is to learn Italian in your State? Although, why they did not spoke to you in Italian back then? Just curiosity. thnx :)
@@federicomarcheselli5452 I can’t speak for this commenter’s experience but this was true for many immigrant communities in America back the 1960s and even before that. Here are a few reasons: 1) Because of World War II mentality, many states adopt the “speak American” policies which actively shunned or discouraged the usage of non-English languages in public. It didn’t help that Italy was one of the Axis countries. Remember that the Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during the war. The German speaking communities also experience the same kind of mistreatment (minus the internment camps) and as a result, they Anglicized their names and the German language lost its place as the most sought after foreign language in schools (as it was very popular and used to dominate the Midwest during the 19th century). The French speaking communities in Louisiana and Maine also suffered the same result and many school children were caned when they were caught speaking French in public. 2) Because of the long-term mistreatment that many non-English-speaking immigrant communities faced, they thought that it would be better if their children didn’t know their languages and ended up not passing down the languages. They thought that was what they must do to survive and give their children the better future. The only cultural heritage that they passed down to their children was the cuisine. 3) Some parents were lethargic or didn’t necessarily have time and resources to teach their children about their cultural values and hence, the American culture was what their children only knew. 3) Of course there are those who survived the mistreatment and continued passing down the languages to their children but the number is low (google Texas German, Louisiana French, Michigan Dutch, Michigan Finnish, Wisconsin German, etc.) and these spoken languages are considered outdated and archaic in comparison to modern languages spoken in Europe. P/S: I only gave you an explanation. Many countries are also guilty of suppressing minority languages (Japan essentially killed the Ainu language, France essentially tried to erase the Corsican languages and other langues d'oïl, the Brits actively killed the Irish language, etc.). However, things are changing and I hope that many can proudly learn and pass down their languages to younger generations regardless of their countries of origins.
@@federicomarcheselli5452 Italian classes would have been more expensive than learning Spanish or French because my public high school had classes for those. I'm pretty sure my Mom and Grandma just wanted to keep some things secret from us kids when we were little.
Algerian words? Maybe they were Sicilian emigrates in Algeria before coming in the USA. Algeria is very far from Italy. Tunisia is nearer and there were many Sicilians there too. Generally, Europeans were driven out of North Africa in the early 1960s and lost all their possessions
You know the Italian influence is strong when not long ago, the goalie for the Italian Olympic ice hockey team was from a suburb of Boston, Mass. You still hear Italian accents and Italian influences are an integral part of our culture everywhere you go. This is a natural and good thing in my book.
I just volunteered at Olympic Softball. They recruited me for softball, partly because softball was in Fukushima, where I live, and partly because I speak Spanish and Italian and softball had the Italian and Mexican teams. Giant waste of time because all the Italian and Mexican stars were from the US and spoke fluent English. lol
Australia shares a similar story the US. Many Italian immigrants from the south ( and some north- Veneto) also came to Australia . I’m Australian of Italian descent myself and I think Italian food and culture has influenced Australia a lot, particularly Melbourne
Italian immigrants are from North to South America. I thought the video was going to cover the two continents, not just the United States. Maybe, there has to be follow ups. I would be interested especially with Canada, Costa Rica, along with Argentina and Brazil of course.
There is a lot of people here in Brazil that are descendants of Italians, my great grandmother was Italian. And one thing very interesting is that some regional accent are a result of the influence of Italian on portuguese.
@@enzogorlomi3620 I noticed that, when I visited Sao Paulo. I lived in Mooca and realized the Italian accent in Portuguese. Although, I met Argentinians and heard that in their Spanish also.
My ancestors went to both New York and Buenos Aires. I think there are a lot of distant family ties among Italians in Argentina and the US. (And Montreal too!)
I’ve been watching The Sopranos and precisely today I’ve been googling the words they use on the show like “Gabagool” and “Goomah” and found out they are not standard Italian but come from dialects which further developed here in the Northeastern US, and exactly today you put out a video describing in detail this language phenomenon. It’s like you are reading my mind! Lol. Amazing content as usual!
Hi Juan! I was also interested in those Italian-American words and I found a wealth of information in bite-size videos on a small channel that’s just perfect for learning the origin and meaning of those words! I’m in no way affiliated to them, I just know their work and I think they should have more subscribers! ruclips.net/video/w7uHgwY-gq0/видео.html (gagooz) ruclips.net/video/rBhCID9EV78/видео.html (gabagool)
They aren't from "italian dialects", absolutely, they are just an italo-american slang, I'm italian - from Florence - and any Italian who lives in Italy can understand words like "goomah", probably was a word turned by "comare" (in standard italian) or "comà" (a kind of dialect's abbreviation), as the word "Gabagool", is an anglicization of the word "Capocollo" (italian food, a part of pig's meat).
Anthony's boat was named "Stoogoats" which sounds like italiano "Stucaz" which is "Stocazzo", a slang expression used to wrap-up a conversation or replying ot very important questions.
Ahahah I tell you why they can't help you....Gabagool =capu collu is a Sicilian word but the pronunciation is American which means the bone under the neck...Goomah it's Sicilian too but still with the American accent that should be Cumpà that mean Mate
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this video! It brought back so many memories of speaking to my grandparents who were immigrants from Calabria. I visited Italy many years ago when I was around 30, and people would smile at me when I spoke to them in Calabrese. They said I was so young but I spoke like an 80 year-old man. Some words they couldn't understand at all because of course they were English words turned into "Italian" words. By the way, I grew up in Brucculinu. I understood every one of those words! Thanks, and keep up the good work!
3 года назад+9
Thanks for making this video Olly! You did a very good job at explaining what is a very layered topic. I'm planning on talking about Italian American things more soon on my channel. I'll be spreading the word about your video here to give my audience a sneak peak of what's to come!
It is similar here in Australia, although post WWII migration was the main wave. My nonni came from Southern Italy in the 1950s and 60s, so I grew up hearing their dialects but not fully understanding them (I studied standard Italian at school) A lot of people from my generation can speak a few words or phrases of dialect, but in another generation's time we might lose that. My grandparents also incorporated a few English words (with an accent) into their vocabulary. "Garaggiu" (garage), "friggia" (fridge) etc. My 93 year old nonna often calls me "dalinella" which I think is her way of saying "darling" 😂
Oh mg God dalinella Is so cute 🤣 as italian I find this so cute and kind.. my uncle and my mom do the Same when we went in Greece with the greek ahahah It s smthg cute to do ,to italianize smthg ahahah
Often Italian immigrants to America moved back to Italy. My grandparents moved back to Reggio, Calabria and lived there for a number of years before finally coming back to America for good.
Most people aren't saying that immigrant parents shouldn't pass on their mother tongue in the U.S. But, it should be those American-born kids' *second* language. A nation without a first language in common isn't a nation.
My family has, like so many other Italian families from the south, an "overseas branch" of relatives who moved to NY shortly before WWII and who managed to stay in contact. A long time ago, i've seen some old school letters at my late grandmother house, and pieced together a fascinating story noticing how the first letters were NOT written by family, but by professional letter writers(my great great great granparents being completely illiterate) and how in the following years the relatives melded Irpinian dialect(coming from Avellino) and english in ways incomprehensible to us modern italian and how in the later generations the grandchildren switched to english for communication due to both losing fluency in any form of Italian and having new generations who could understand English here. When I was around 20 years old, they came over to visit to help a "cousin"(i have no idea how that family tree branch is distorted and what is the relation actually, everybody just knew the family dad as "uncle Frank from Texas") settle in his new home when he found a new job here in Italy. Dear gods, that first week trying to understand their accent was atrocious, it was way easier to just answer them in standard English.
My father was born in Sicily and came here when he was a year old. His father came first and got a job doing heavy manual labor---he stoked furnaces in a powerhouse. My father was the oldest son, and at 7 he already was delivering the 6 a.m. paper and the 5 p.m. paper six days a week. He also ran errands for the small local market by his family's cold water flat. The family increased to 15 children, and 9 survived to adulthood. My grandmother was illiterate, and she never wanted to learn English----her goal was to return to Sicily and die there. She never got her wish. All the immigrants had large families----birth control was unheard of. Also, having a big family was a sign of a man's masculinity. Ditto for the female---her fertility was never questioned with a boatload of children. The children could be sent out toe work, and the money they earned was used to support the family. The second and third generations of Italians in the US got smart quickly----smaller families meant better success in many cases. My grandfather always told the grandchildren that there was nothing in Sicily for him. He worked as a goat herder and sheep herder. He learned English by taking my father's schoolbooks with him at night to study in the powerhouse. Why my grandmother wanted to go back defies reason. Her father sent her to work in the salt mines when she was 6 yrs old----and she married at 16. There was no future for so many of the poor, uneducated Sicilians. While my grandmother never fit into American life because she was so unhappy here, five of her sons served in the US military during WW2 and the Korean War. They "earned" their family's way here many times over. The family never got any handouts of any kind. Whatever they had in that coldwater flat they worked for----from using empty wooden crates as chairs and end tables to growing their own vegetables in small plots of earth between the sidewalk and the steps. Failure was never an option for the immigrants in town----and they endured shame, humiliation, ridicule, and contempt for being "different." Perhaps the greatest indignity they had to deal with involved the school system counting the Sicilians, Italians, Greeks, French Canadians, Lebanese, and many other immigrants as "Negroes" because some of these groups had darker skin tones. And lest we forget, it was these "dark skinned" immigrants that did the jobs no Americans wanted. The Italians and Sicilians definitely paid their dues in this country, and they worked hard so that their children could experience the American dream.
Long after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother said she didn't know why she left Sicily. My grandfather was the one who wanted to immigrate because he fell into the category you describe, but my grandmother's family owned land and were relatively comfortable. Land is everything there. I got in touch with my relatives and have been to see them many times, and I understand why my grandmother wanted to go back. It's a magical place and the people are welcoming.
@@glittermama Your family was fortunate that they owned land----that's the prize there. You are nothing without a piece of land. My father's family were dirt poor, no land. I have never quite understood why my grandmother wanted to return to Sicily and to a life of acute poverty. She never bothered to learn English; she never tried to fit in with Americans; she never adopted any American customs----ex. Thanksgiving, July 4. She chose to be that alien in an alien land, all by choice.
@@FlexibleFlyer50 I feel her in my heart. What I believe happened to my grandfather was that Italy promised Sicilian men land if they fought in WWI. My grandfather did that, was wounded and captured by the Germans and spent years in a prison camp. He was never given the land, even after all he suffered, so he decided he would never live in Sicily, and they emigrated. He said he was done with Sicily--I don't blame him. He only had 30$ but within ten years, he had his own small business and a house. (casa,casa,casa--they're obsessed in Sicily). My grandparents married in 1914 and came to America in 1921. He spoke passable English because of his business and business friends, but my grandmother, who stayed home as I suspect your grandmother did, never learned English. The entire neighborhood was Sicilian-speaking, so there was really no need. The poverty today is not like the poverty of the Depression and the Second War and after. I used to visit my grandmother's family about twice a year, and they are comparatively well off with an apartment in town and land in the mountains. Now I understand why my whole family here went to "the country" every summer--"'a compagna." I was introduced to my grandfather's side of the family in Sicily. I can see now that they didn't do as well as my grandmother's family. I wished I had paid more attention; I could have helped them. Before the Euro, $I00 would have helped tremendously. I understand how your grandmother felt. Her pension would have been a good enough amount of money for her. No one is as poor any longer as she remembered from her childhood, and it's just "home." The weather, the sea, the food--even simple food is delicious because it's local and vine-ripened. And everyone speaks Sicilian (especially if they think you don't hear them). If you're ever deprived of your language, you might as well not be here. It's much more important than you know. But I think our immigrant predecessors all went through what we cannot imagine and then were deprived of the relief of being home. Home has a special feeling, no matter where it is. Be well.
I'm from Matera - Basilicata. I didn't expect to read about MATERANO in this video. Such a complete explanation. I've learned a lot. Really a great job!! Thank you!
Some Italian-Americans made some changes to Italian words such as "Germanese" for "Tedesco"; Others only speak a few words of their heritage language or none at all which is why there is an Italian-American newspaper in English.
Would you consider doing a video on how you stay on top of so many languages? I tend to forget a lot of what i learned when I'm not consistenly exposing myself to the language and I can't imagine how you do it with as many languages as you speak? Do you have any special tips?
My approach has always been sequential. In other words - get so good at each language that it’s hard to forget it. The problems come when you try to learn multiple languages together.
I have a degree in French and Spanish and had close to zero contact with either for over a decade. My speech was like when the tap has run out of water. Coming out in bursts. But I could watch tv with no problems. Prior to volunteering at the Olympics, I decided to bring them up to a decent level in case I needed them. Signed up for tutor classes on italki. By my 3rd lesson, I was communicating fluently again. So, like they say, it is like riding a bicycle. PS, Like Olly I also speak 8 languages, although the last 3 leave a lot to be desired. lol. However, I do learn multiple languages at the same time and it hasn't really been a problem for me.
I speak 3 languages, but on my Spanish, I forget it. Yes its like that tap water way, but as soon as I am around Spanish speakers, and I hear it a lot, I am right back on it. What I find interesting is that every language has at least 1 for sure or maybe more that is pronounced the same way but may mean something different, and if written out Romanized is spelled the same way. I find that interesting that there is always a thread of connection which makes me believe in the tower of Babel. Although it was confused which for me is convoluted, there are remnants. It also looks to me, that the mother tongue shapes a person's mouth, because of pronunciation and to toggle between languages learned also gives the accent sound.
My family came from Piedmont in the north of Italy and settled in northern Michigan to mine copper. We were basically the only Italian community up there surrounded by Finns so my great grandfather sent letters to family in Italy to find him a Piedmontese wife.
I also think it’s notable that lots of American English words come from Italian, such as “zucchini” and “arugula” which are “courgette” and “rocket” in the UK respectively.
Funnily enough, "rocket" also comes from the Italian word "rochetta" or "rocchetto" (which are not commonly used anymore). All roads lead to Rome! eyyyyy
Rocket is used here. I have a theory about this word. In Neapolitan, they tend to add "etta" to the end of nouns, so "broccoli" becomes "broccetta." I think it was misheard as "rocket." Just sayin . . .
I'm an Italian American. My paternal grandfather Luca left Messina, Italy on the ferry on Dec. 27th, 1908. On the 28th there was a 7.1 earthquake there which destroyed the city and killed 75-82 thousand people. He was very lucky and always kept those shoes he wore on that day as lucky charms. My grandmother joined him later.
Olly, Shaddap You Face is Australian. Well, sort. I read Joe Dolce's bio. He was born in the US but came out to Oz. However, it was the top-selling Australian song for a number of years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaddap_You_Face You should do a video on Italians in Australia. Look at my name, my Nonno Antonio Tognolini came out in 1878. Also, my dad Vic was an Australian army gunner who was fighting Mussolini's Blackshirts in World War 2. Ciao
By the way, I'm enjoying your French books both the written and audio version, and will start your Italian Uncovered when I pass the French B2 exam in Sydney next year. Your videos are really good and I agree with your definition of a polyglot. Which why I'm going by your Spanish Uncovered with your current discount price.
You hit the nail on the head. My mother spoke one of the regional dialects. It was worthless in Rome but helped when we get to the area her parents were from.
The reason it really started was after slavery, and they needed people in the field, and they allowed Italians to come to America to work the fields and that’s the truth and after Italy unified it was really bad over there so they came over here for work
In Sicily, Sicilian is spoken at home. When I visit my relatives, they tell me that the Sicilian I know is 100 years old and I know words they don't. My grandparents came to America in 1921.
I'm one of those Italians in America. Unfortunately I don't know any Italian language because my family stopped speaking it before I was born. I hope I can learn it though.
@@tomasbindateplitzky928 okay and I said it the way I did to communicate a point that's relevant to the video. If I came up in here and just said "I'm American with Italian ancestry" it leaves out the point of what I was saying.
My family is from Napoli and we speak Neapolitan. The first time I went to tour Italia my Dad said don't speak you'll be laughed at in many cities...well I did and I got lots of smiles and people saying oh you're from Napoli.
You should check out the Italian community in Montreal, they’ve had a huge impact on the anglophone community here and their distinct way of talking has even spread to other communities and created a sort of accent very particular to Montreal english-speakers.
The French founder of Montreal had been to Monreale, Sicily, a beautiful suburb of Palermo. He named the beautiful place he found in the New World after it. I've been to both . . . worth two trips!!
Just wanted to say I very much enjoyed the Audible version of both your Spanish and Russian short story courses - very well-produced and at a nice speed! (And I consider myself a connoisseur of foreign language courses 😊) AND I also very much enjoyed your video on the Monterrey DLI! (I also make language videos on my channel, though not as successfully) Anyway, hats off to you for the outstanding content, both on and off RUclips!
I went back to my grandparents village back in 2002, when I was a freshman in college. I went to Arellino and I was able to get by between the dialect my grandparents taught me breaking out the standard Italian (Florentine) as needed.
I'm working on obtaining Italian citizenship based on descent through my grandmother, I'm not entirely certain I'd live there but it is something I am entitled to and something I'm going to get. As for communication, I studied Italian in school and am working on it now. I registered for an adult Italian class at the local Italian cultural center.
Besides from the fire cracking it is a funny and interesting video, accuracy in citing the sources and a perfect, I would say delightful, pronunciation. I'll use your video for my lessons, well done!!! Big Thank you
I would like to mention another reason that the Italian language or other dialects fell into disuse by Italian immigrants and their descendants has a lot to do with technology and time zone differences. When my grandparents, dad and uncles immigrated to Chicago in 1972, it was very expensive to call my other aunts and uncles in Italy. To send a package or a letter was a nightmare because it cost an arm and a leg and was always at the risk of being lost by the awful Italian post office. For us in Chicago, it is a 7 hour difference from Italy, so when you do call, you have to make sure your schedules line up. And to fly to Italy, it is 9 to 11 hour flight that costs at least $800. In comparison to Mexican immigrants in the US, they do not face many of the same problems. Cell services between the US and Mexico are very well developed with no International fees. They are either on the same time zone, or a hour or two off. And you can drive or fly into Mexico at a cheap price. This is one of the reason they have been able to keep their language while Italian immigrants have not. My favorite Italglese word that I’d like to think my nonna coined is basciamento (basement). The concept of a basement is strongly tied to the way American homes are built, and cantina or seminterrato don’t really call to mind the right imagines.
There are lots of Italian descendants in Latin America. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil, for instance, locals speak with some Italian accent due to the Italian influence (besides lots of people with Italian looks and surnames).
I have never had any contact with American relatives (although I have some), but I remember my grandmother telling me in the 1960s that a descendant of cousins who had emigrated to Newark in the late 19th century had come to visit her village in Puglia a decade earlier. This lady was a doctor, but she did not speak standard Italian, more like she used a kind of 19th century regional dialect. When she would walk into shops and start talking, my grandmother's sisters would shush her, because the shop assistants would laugh. I think it happened to everyone like that. It seems normal to me.
Really interesting video, thanks Olly. My ancestors moved over before WWI, spoke Ciociaro and Neapolitan. They switched exclusively to English by the early 1920’s and today no one speaks any form of Italian, yet even for the Millennial generation the ethnic identity dies hard. Some of my relatives have been back and they’re just your regular English-speaking. Americans who blend in until they open their mouths. To this day I feel like we had something robbed from us in the urging to “not speak the enemy’s language.”
From what I understand my maternal great grandparents came for two reasons. One was an engineer in Italy, so the Delaware and Hudson RR needed someone who could help design and build rail in the North East. They set him up nicely in Pennsylvania with a house and a the authority to hire and fire employees. The other great grandfather went to Argentina and was working there for a period of time. He was going to move to either Argentina or Brazil, but there were wars going on and it didn't seem safe so reluctantly, he came to the US. He spoke only Italian, but the kids and his wife who was American could speak English. They only used Italian in the home influenced by the English, Irish, and Welsh who lived near them. My grandmother had almost a brogue when she pronounced words like "bottle". She sounded almost Northern English and had no Italian accent only the local accent from the NE Midlands.
The brothers of my paternal grandmother (Giuseppina Cattani) was settled in Chicago area, they was from northern italian region Emilia-Romagna (province of Bologna), i met in Italy her nephew Luigi in 1982, in my house in province of Florence (i was 18 and he was about 70)
Would love for you to do a video about the unique linguistic landscapes of Canada! There are many indigenous languages, various French dialects and English accents (especially in the Atlantic provinces), Gaelic was spoken for a while, and in addition it is the most multi-cultural country in the world with many non-official languages such as Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Italian to name but a few with many hundreds of thousands of speakers …
Greeks of the diaspora also tend to use more idiomatic phrases and often times a more "Demotic" language. Modern Standard Greek has actually been influenced by Katharevousa, the "correct" ancient-like language that was official until the 80s. But because Greek immigrants retained the spoken and not official language, there are some differences in vocabulary
Hello, polyglot here. I have watched a lot of videos by well-known polyglots, but your videos are very practical. I have known about you for a while, but never really got into the content of your videos. All I have to say is keep it up. We all need information that actually helps us in a very real way, not just talk or theories about language learning. Your exposé on the military language institute in Monterrey, California is just one example.
Just about all that came to the USA were southern Italians. My maternal grandfather was one of six brothers and there were no jobs for the youngest 3 in their town of Matera. He and his two brothers came here to NYC with their wives in 1920, after having fought for Italy in the 1st World War.
It’s pretty sad how in the us the government forced people to Speak English, it would be so cool if there were a bunch of German norwigen Italian and polish speakers that of course also knew English and maybe Spanish.
It's "cool" but stupid. There are many times when YOU have to be able to communicate with someone to solve a problem, imagine if you had to learn 15 languages to have a smooth & orderly society. Try thinking a little bit, samo.
It is. Though ultimately there's nothing unique about the US in that regard. My own grandparents were prohibited from speaking Breton in public, and whipped by their teachers when they did. To this day French authorities are squeamish when it comes to regional languages. Linguistic diversity is a victim of our impoverished political thinking and inability to articulate political systems that don't require razing diversity to function. While not the only reason, that certainly contributes to the fact that languages are dying off at such a dizzying rate. If you average it out, one language dies about every 14 days. By the end of the century, expectations are that there will be less than half of the amount of languages spoken today. So goes it.
In Germany the sons and daughters of immigrants can take free classes of their parents language. The Germans encourage and value the culture of origin of the new Germans while in America it was the opposite.
Nice video! I wish my grandfather’s parents (from the hills near Matera) had kept the language alive in our family. I’m not even sure if the dialect is still common or if it has been overtaken by standard Italian in Basilicata. Common words in our family: scungil (squid/octopus), brazhol (braciole), mozzadell’ (mozzarella), pasta fazul (pasta e fagiole), and a local pastry called laganedd’ (lagane).
I know some people in Basilicata and they also speak the dialects so don't worry, the traditions are still alive! Also virtually everyone in the south has some knowledge of the local dialects (or local languages)
What I remember about Matera is that there are caves, sassi, locally. Also, it was as hot as hell. We visited there many years ago. We hired a young man to take us around. The caves are on two sides of a ravine--in my memory. There are some paintings on the walls in the caves. It's unique.
Most of these words come from Sicily. As Italian I can barely understand them. As you said at that time there was nothing in this country. 12mln of Italians landed just in Argentina. Then Usa, Brasil, Uruguay, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Libia, Eritrea and Somalia.
Many European countries after the war were impoverished and poverty stricken. That’s part of the reason my Italian grandpa and my Eastern European grandpa ended up in Canada. I think it wasn’t until the 1970’s counties started to rebuild there infrastructures.
I think you need to be a bit more educated about history lol Eastern Europe btw covers an insane area, remember, all of Europe is larger than the US, from Iceland, the Azores to The Mountains in Russia down to Caucasus bordering Asia. After ww2, most of Europe were destroyed, correct, but rebuilding started May 6 1945, from the 1950s and onwards the west grew quickly and became rich and prosperous. Lots of money came internationally to. Heard about the “Wirtschaftswunder”? The forming of the EU in the 1950s? The eastern block was also quickly rebuilt. The countries that wasn’t destroyed like Sweden, Switzerland and some others, took off quicker and became among the richest nations in earth. Europe started to build metros, commuter train lines, trams in the 19th century and more were built after ww2. Seen the spectacular metro stations in for instance Stockholm and Moscow? Europeans had monthly long payed holidays implemented in the 20th century. Yes, poverty was a problem in parts of Europe but poverty looks different from an North American outlook, poverty were mostly tied to conflict areas like Northern Ireland, Spain/Greece when they were not democratic countries, or slow inefficient parts like Southern Italy with the Maffia, those type of situations. Lots of peace work (that’s how the EU started; it was a peace effort) improved the continent. Not sure where you get the idea that Europe still wasn’t rebuilt in the 1970s.
I hope there would be more italian that immigrate into the US instead of amerindians spanish speaking like guatemalan, Salvadoran,mexican,and Dominican
@@francoisdaureville323 i' m just being honest and thinking for good sake of the US. Amerindian central Americans and blk immigrants into the US change demographics of country
I recognized the first word in the list. It the bathroom, the "house in the back" the out house. We used that when I was a boy. I worked in the Bronx for a couple of years. It was an Italian section but I couldn't pick up what they were saying. I asked my grandfather who spoke Calabrese. I imitated the sound and he said it was people from the northernmost part of Italy near Germany. We had a lot of Yugoslavians living there who spoke Italian from working as migrants in Italy. The New York Subway System was built by Italians working as laborers. Most were unskilled labor was all they could do. The union contract between New York Telephone years ago and the Communications Workers Of America had a section for the Empire City Subway Company. This company owned all of the duct ways under the streets of New York and every employee was Italian.
I have cousins who live in Torino with whom we are very close. When I ask them about dialect words from my Nona from the same family, they don’t know the words. They no longer speak or know the old family dialect.
Im Italian American from Staten Island.. never been to Italy. Growing up the Island was probably around 75% Italian. Very few of us spoke Italian, only the more recent immigrants did. But we used alot of bastardized Sicilian & Napulitan slang words when we speak. The best example of the way we speak would be from the show "The Soprano's"
@@lucianomezzetta4332 During WW2 when Italy was alligned with Germany Italians in America stopped teaching their kids the language to show that their allegiance was to the US over Italy. My grandmother said the teachers would beat them in school if they were caught speaking Italian to eachother. The language was literally robbed from us. Its actually a miracle that we kept the slang up to modern day being how bigoted Americans are toward other languages.
The Portuguese spoken in Brazil is more similar to what was spoken in Portugal in the 16th century than the accent that the Portuguese speak today, because in the 19th century with the Napoleonic invasion a large part of the population of Portugal was forced to immigrate to Brazil and france exerted a great influence on portugal, similarly the history of spanish spoken on the equator today is more similar to that spoken in spain in its 16th century.
What you have "discovered" is true of all the American countries and of Australia, and New Zealand. The mother tongue undergoes change in the mother country. In the immigrant countries, the language remains basically the language spoken by the immigrants.
To all my people of Italian ancestry, Its fascinating to hear all your stories! I live in Milan now, and if any one of you want to come revisit your ancestry, you are welcome at my place
Here in Canada the cummunity next to the one I grew up in, there is a smelter that recruited workers from Italy before ww2. They built homes in the mountainsides with cheap loans the company offered. Their descendants are still there and many still have an accent.
I was surprised to find out that MySwedish LTR from.Sweden could understand some of my Italian words for instance. He understood me perfectly when I set a pan of cinnamon rolls out to cool, but one fell to the ground, out the window. Well,he understood the words perfectly well
USA, east coast. can’t compare “speaking English” many years ago to now. Now, you have to know Spanish in order to be hired just to work in a store. Everything is in Spanish now such as applications for a job to buying a house and using the phone.
In Brazil we learn that there is only one continent of America. North, South and Central are just geographical regions, like for example Eastern Europe is still Europe. And also I researched this the other day and found out there are many countries that consider it like this too. Not just Brazil.
Yes, this is very fair, and something I’ve been aware of for a while. Problem is, US people refer to themselves as “American” which makes it very cumbersome to use other terms
@@storylearning It's fine I wasn't correcting you on the video title. It's just that you mentioned the continent division at the beginning of the video. So I thought I would add the comment.
@@storylearning There is an historical explanation for this. While it is true that all residents of the North and South American continents from Canada to Chile are Americans just as French, Italians, Russians and Germans are Europeans, the United States is unique in that America is also the name of its country. The United States of America was the first colony to declare independence from its home. Most Central and South American colonies did not declare independence until almost fifty years later in 1821, or later. Many, such as Mexico, also declared themselves to be the united states, i.e., Estados Unidos Mexicanos. In Mexico and a few other countries they circumvent this issue by referring to Americans from the US as Estadounidenses or the unflattering Gringos, although technically a native of Mexico - the United States of Mexico - is also a Estadounidense. It's just an issue that we all have to live with.
@@storylearning @italo My husband is Brazilian and this has been a big conversation in our house. I constantly refer to myself as American and he corrects me. I see where he's coming from but I've been referring to myself as American for 33 years. It's really hard to let that go, and I also didn't learn that the continents were taught differently until I met him.
'U.S citizens' can usually work, but yes, it is cumbersome. How about Estadoonies from Spanish? As a U.S. citizen, I am sure most of my fellow citizens will hate it, Latin Americans might appreciate it and the rest of the planet will not care at all.
I find it very interesting how the descendants of immigrants end up preserving the old dialect of their countries more than the local inhabitants who stayed in the country.
I don't know if it is fact because I only read or heard it somewhere on the internet but as far as I have understood, American English is more similar to the English Shakespeare was using than nowadays British English. I guess this is simply what happens if you separate a group of language speakers from another. One developes one way back in the home country with all the influence there (war, political changes, new immigrants, pandemics, printed media, etc.) and the other group adapts in a new country to a new culture, living conditions and a new language. And suddenly we have an old Italian dialect mixed with English expressions.
*Let's not forget that ITALY is the mother of Europe.* Besides the Latin root of so many Western European languages, there's also things like LAW, ROADS, CITIES, that actually come from the ROMAN EMPIRE. Imagine orderly & efficient Germany without Laws & roads (you couldn't even have the famous Autoban in Germany!!).
Laws taken from us inspired in the laws of our city-states, roads we taught how to do it including any kind of infraestructure Italics themselves couldn't do anything, cities most important cities during the Roman Empire were founded by us, most important monuments designed and architected by us. The most efficient roads in Germany were built recently. Latin.. 40% derivation from Greek.. so who's the mother of Europe, Europa is Hellas.
This is who: Wiki:”Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Magna Graecia, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the European integration. During its history, the nation gave birth to an enormous number of notable people. Both the internal and external faces of Western culture were born on the Italian peninsula, whether one looks at the history of the Christian faith, civil institutions (such as the Senate), philosophy, law, art, science, or social customs and culture. Italy was home to many well known and influential civilizations, including the Etruscans, Samnites and the Romans,” Greeks were conquered by the Romans. @@hellenicnationalism7608
Romans conquered south Germany BUD, learn history, and which was greater, Roman or Greek Empire? Wiki:”Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Magna Graecia, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the European integration. During its history, the nation gave birth to an enormous number of notable people. Both the internal and external faces of Western culture were born on the Italian peninsula, whether one looks at the history of the Christian faith, civil institutions (such as the Senate), philosophy, law, art, science, or social customs and culture. Italy was home to many well known and influential civilizations, including the Etruscans, Samnites and the Romans,” @@MW_Asura
My grandfather came from Nicosia in Sicily where they speak a distinct gallo-italic dialect that derives from where the Normans settled. Someone at work told me it's called Nicoshutta (?).
the reason is because there was a large influx of imigrants from Piedmont region to Nicosia and they influenced the language. I had many of my friends from other parts of Sicily who could not understand my grandparents it was so different.
I remember hearing many years ago that the Southern Dialect and the Northern Dialect are barely comprehensible to each other. In this day and age of Television News Coverage, where presumably a standard dialect would be achieved (or at least attempted), I wonder if that is still true. In England, the Scots dialect is very difficult to understand, though it is mostly the vocalized brogue rather than dialectical differences. Sort of like American Northern "accent" and American Southern "accent."
For some reason these different languages have become known as dialects in Italy (ie, as if they were different forms of Standard Italian) when it fact they are different languages that evolved from Latin. It's not like American Northern and Southern accents or like the different ways English or Spanish are spoken around the world. Like Italian and Spanish are different languages derived from Latin, so are Neapolitan, Sardinian, Apulian and so on.
America, the continent, was named after an Italian, sure. And there are more Italians per capita in the southernmost part of America: in Argentina (50ish%) and Uruguay (40ish%) versus 6% in the USA.
I thin Italians in Argentina is more relevant where more that 50% of the population have Italian ancestry, or in Brazil where is the largest Italian population outside of Italy
I hope there would be more italian that immigrate into the US instead of amerindians spanish speaking like guatemalan, Salvadoran,mexican,and Dominican
My Italian ancestry came to the U.S. in the 2nd wave. So the peasants. Yeah originally from Rhode Island. The place my ancestor came from was a town called Fondi. It's between Rome and Naples.
i've wondered about this for many years. unlike most other nationalities, Italians have myriad last names. i think every day i hear a new Italian last name. and i grew up with and was immersed in NE USA Italian culture and this is still the case.
Also another reason why Italians don’t speak the same Italian anymore is because America stuck Italians in detainment camps as foreign enimies. They didn’t want us here. We were not allowed to keep the language going.
My dad’s side is Sicilian welsh French Canadian polish and English and my mom’s side is Canadian and Irish and Scottish and Norwegian and Native American and Spanish and French
It would appear the Italian spoken in America has a lot of parallels with AAVE. The immigrants speaking different dialects and languages from Italy blending with each other, then being almost forced to speak English to be able to make a living is not unlike enslaved peoples speaking different West African languages being made to speak English. Elements from both people’s languages blend through into the English dialects both cultures speak today.
What about south america? Brazil is the country with the largest italian population outside italy, and argentina is the third, but more than half of Argentina population are italians
Wow Donald Trump demanding people to speak English (8:56) clearly forgot that he is the descendant of non-native English speakers who got married twice to women from former Soviet States (who had no English language traing) who had to study English from scratch. Fun Fact: His mother Mary Anne MacLeod (Scottish) only knew how to speak Gallic and some broken English prior to her arrival in the US. His paternal grandfather Friedrich Trump (German) spoke broken English and his paternal grandmother Friedrich Trump (German) had a REAL hard time mastering the English language....but don't speak Spanish in the US!!! Maybe Trump should study the Navajo, Iroquois or Apache language in...
It shouldn't be seen as an either/or proposition. Speaking English in the USA is a necessity, but knowing a second or third language is obviously useful as well.
Hi love your content and happily possessing some of your books 😁 quick question about Chinese uncovered, will it be available again around January 2022 for joining in? or later in 2022, Ive made a final decision on learning Chinese next year, i would love to go for uncovered 👍
When you say “America” I really don’t picture it as only one country, but as an entire continent. Tbh, I thought you would talk about the Italians who immigrated to Brazil.
@@leotutone For us, We have a continent called North America and another called South America. I believe most Romance language speakers refer to everything from Canada to Argentina as "America".
@@leotutone most English speakers refer to the two continents as North America or South America. We do not use one word to refer to two separate continents. We will say the Americas when referring to both continents Plus, when a terrorist shouts death to America, they are not referring to Canadians and Brazilians.
See me rate the Italian of 8 famous celebs 👉🏼 ruclips.net/video/Abr9nvImQVQ/видео.html
Hey Olly, well done it i been such a great video again. Would be interesting to see a similar video on the development and/or disappearance of the French and German language across the US...
I never wondered why there were so many Italians in America, but I have been curious why there are so many Italians in Australia.
Do you got video like this about why there is so many Brits in Australi or New Zeland , and America also ?
My nonna came from Sicily during WWII to Southern Brazil. She mostly forgot Italian as she got older but it was still awesome to try and talk to her in Italian with a weird mix of Portuguese.
She passed away last month. Rest in Peace mi nonna.
I speak Italian and Neapolitan, so it was always beautiful hearing older family members use some of these Italianized versions of English words. I might have to put a whole list together!
Ue ue pur tu si Napulitan
Just watched this now. I consider myself Italian-American from New York City. I’m in my late 60’s. My grandparents came from southern Italy in 1900, 1904 and 1930. My father was 4 years old when they came over. My paternal grandparents lived upstairs ( typical). They were more comfortable speaking their Calabrian but could switch to more of the standard Italian if needed. Basically they spoke to us kids in either full on “ Italian” and we would mostly understand and respond in English or occasionally respond in “Italian”. Mostly they used a combination of their regional language, standard, and English.
An example: Grandma would say: O’ telephone sta’ ringann’ ( sta ringando/suonando). She never had a phone in Italy.
Each family is different of course but we had relatives who would visit from Italy and we figured it out. As one person commented, it was when I started learning Spanish that I decided to teach myself Italian with records, library books, radio programs, etc. My grandmother was so proud and she would then only speak in “ Italian”. I was able to read the letters she still received from Italy and when I visited in 1978 and met relatives in Rome I was able to do ok. I majored in Spanish and Portuguese and kept up with Italian. I do ok now and can have in-depth conversations. ( with mistakes).
Again, we used most of the words on the list you showed at the end.
The one thing I still do that drives people crazy is say “ open” and “close” the lights. Evidently, some Italian Americans and French Canadians heard it years ago and it has stuck! There is a reason for it, of course.
Great video, yes there are more “ Italians” elsewhere. I never pretend to be Italian but am proud of the heritage and have been there many times since the 70’s. When we were younger the standard question among friends was “ What are you? I was forced to say “ Italian” and they “ German, Hungarian, Irish, Polish,etc.)
I currently do language exchanges with natives in Italy. Wish we had the Internet in the 50’s and 60’s ( 70’s and 80’s)!!!
Grew up in Chicago and attended community college in the 60’s. My father family is pre colonial and settled in the Carolina’s and was in Tennessee before statehood. The sociology prof asked each of us to describe ourself. All the others used their nationality and when I described myself as American it started a whole conversation about who and what is an American. Quite a few wouldn’t accept my identifying and said there must be a European nationality I must claim. They couldn’t accept someone whose family has been here for over 200 years would not have a strong identity except as American. That was the immigrant world of Chicago then.
Beh hai fatto un ottimo lavoro! Credi che la conoscenza delle altre lingue latine ti abbia facilitato con l’italiano ?
Great remarks, full of wonderful information. Thank You.
As an Italian, born and bred in Italy, and from the South, I find your comment super nice. O telephone sta ringann. I love it.
Yes--I've had similar experiences--my father often used to comment, complain really, on open and close the lights. "O" as article is Neapolitan. I believe it's 'o because the "L" is dropped. The Sicilian article is "lu" and becomes 'u. My father grew up Neapolitan on the Lower East Side, and my mother was Sicilian, born here, just about. So I was bi-lingual lol.
My mother's side of the family moved from Italy to the United States in the 60s. So I heard a bit of the language growing up but could never really carry on much of a conversation. It was what the grown ups would speak to one another if they didn't want us kids bothering them. Since I studied Spanish in school I can sort of kind of get what my relatives are talking about since there's some similarities between the two languages. Interestingly, my grandfather says that other people from Italy think the way he talks is very strange. He grew up in an area where the dialect borrowed a lot of words from Algerian. Another weird quirk is that some of my late grandmothers mispronunciations made it into family tradition. Every Christmas we bake her recipe for pecondola pie and leave out milk and biscotti for Sandy Claus.
I am italian, how difficult and expensive is to learn Italian in your State?
Although, why they did not spoke to you in Italian back then?
Just curiosity. thnx :)
@@federicomarcheselli5452
I can’t speak for this commenter’s experience but this was true for many immigrant communities in America back the 1960s and even before that.
Here are a few reasons:
1) Because of World War II mentality, many states adopt the “speak American” policies which actively shunned or discouraged the usage of non-English languages in public. It didn’t help that Italy was one of the Axis countries. Remember that the Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during the war. The German speaking communities also experience the same kind of mistreatment (minus the internment camps) and as a result, they Anglicized their names and the German language lost its place as the most sought after foreign language in schools (as it was very popular and used to dominate the Midwest during the 19th century). The French speaking communities in Louisiana and Maine also suffered the same result and many school children were caned when they were caught speaking French in public.
2) Because of the long-term mistreatment that many non-English-speaking immigrant communities faced, they thought that it would be better if their children didn’t know their languages and ended up not passing down the languages. They thought that was what they must do to survive and give their children the better future. The only cultural heritage that they passed down to their children was the cuisine.
3) Some parents were lethargic or didn’t necessarily have time and resources to teach their children about their cultural values and hence, the American culture was what their children only knew.
3) Of course there are those who survived the mistreatment and continued passing down the languages to their children but the number is low (google Texas German, Louisiana French, Michigan Dutch, Michigan Finnish, Wisconsin German, etc.) and these spoken languages are considered outdated and archaic in comparison to modern languages spoken in Europe.
P/S: I only gave you an explanation. Many countries are also guilty of suppressing minority languages (Japan essentially killed the Ainu language, France essentially tried to erase the Corsican languages and other langues d'oïl, the Brits actively killed the Irish language, etc.). However, things are changing and I hope that many can proudly learn and pass down their languages to younger generations regardless of their countries of origins.
@@federicomarcheselli5452 Italian classes would have been more expensive than learning Spanish or French because my public high school had classes for those. I'm pretty sure my Mom and Grandma just wanted to keep some things secret from us kids when we were little.
Yes indeed. I had three formal years of he study of Spanish. But alas the ones in my family who spoke only Italian died in the 1970's.
Algerian words? Maybe they were Sicilian emigrates in Algeria before coming in the USA. Algeria is very far from Italy. Tunisia is nearer and there were many Sicilians there too. Generally, Europeans were driven out of North Africa in the early 1960s and lost all their possessions
You know the Italian influence is strong when not long ago, the goalie for the Italian Olympic ice hockey team was from a suburb of Boston, Mass. You still hear Italian accents and Italian influences are an integral part of our culture everywhere you go. This is a natural and good thing in my book.
I just volunteered at Olympic Softball. They recruited me for softball, partly because softball was in Fukushima, where I live, and partly because I speak Spanish and Italian and softball had the Italian and Mexican teams. Giant waste of time because all the Italian and Mexican stars were from the US and spoke fluent English. lol
That’s it Italian influence, Italian just don’t play ice hockey, Americans do loool
Ah yes, the famous Italian sport of "ice hockey" lol
I don't' remember the results, but they tried anyway.@@MW_Asura
I think it was the 1992 or 1994 Olympics the Italian hockey team, was made up of all Americans of Italian descent.
Australia shares a similar story the US. Many Italian immigrants from the south ( and some north- Veneto) also came to Australia . I’m Australian of Italian descent myself and I think Italian food and culture has influenced Australia a lot, particularly Melbourne
I have mob ties up there all the way to long waters
Bruh Italians haven't influenced sht in Australia
@@Reactiverse22 good on ya 😎 bruh
Do you visit your country Italy and what is your impression of it?
@@Reactiverse22 they always claim that yet I see no itailan influence in Australia i feel like greeks had more impact
Talk about Italians in Latin America👐🏽
Italian immigrants are from North to South America. I thought the video was going to cover the two continents, not just the United States.
Maybe, there has to be follow ups.
I would be interested especially with Canada, Costa Rica, along with Argentina and Brazil of course.
There is a lot of people here in Brazil that are descendants of Italians, my great grandmother was Italian. And one thing very interesting is that some regional accent are a result of the influence of Italian on portuguese.
@@enzogorlomi3620 I noticed that, when I visited Sao Paulo. I lived in Mooca and realized the Italian accent in Portuguese. Although, I met Argentinians and heard that in their Spanish also.
@@alanguages yeah in São Paulo there is a huge culture that comes from Italians imimgrants, small and middle towns like my own too.
My ancestors went to both New York and Buenos Aires. I think there are a lot of distant family ties among Italians in Argentina and the US. (And Montreal too!)
I’ve been watching The Sopranos and precisely today I’ve been googling the words they use on the show like “Gabagool” and “Goomah” and found out they are not standard Italian but come from dialects which further developed here in the Northeastern US, and exactly today you put out a video describing in detail this language phenomenon. It’s like you are reading my mind! Lol. Amazing content as usual!
Hi Juan!
I was also interested in those Italian-American words and I found a wealth of information in bite-size videos on a small channel that’s just perfect for learning the origin and meaning of those words!
I’m in no way affiliated to them, I just know their work and I think they should have more subscribers!
ruclips.net/video/w7uHgwY-gq0/видео.html (gagooz)
ruclips.net/video/rBhCID9EV78/видео.html (gabagool)
They aren't from "italian dialects", absolutely, they are just an italo-american slang, I'm italian - from Florence - and any Italian who lives in Italy can understand words like "goomah", probably was a word turned by "comare" (in standard italian) or "comà" (a kind of dialect's abbreviation), as the word "Gabagool", is an anglicization of the word "Capocollo" (italian food, a part of pig's meat).
Anthony's boat was named "Stoogoats" which sounds like italiano "Stucaz" which is "Stocazzo", a slang expression used to wrap-up a conversation or replying ot very important questions.
@@federicomarcheselli5452 Delicatissimo.
Ahahah I tell you why they can't help you....Gabagool =capu collu is a Sicilian word but the pronunciation is American which means the bone under the neck...Goomah it's Sicilian too but still with the American accent that should be Cumpà that mean Mate
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this video! It brought back so many memories of speaking to my grandparents who were immigrants from Calabria. I visited Italy many years ago when I was around 30, and people would smile at me when I spoke to them in Calabrese. They said I was so young but I spoke like an 80 year-old man. Some words they couldn't understand at all because of course they were English words turned into "Italian" words. By the way, I grew up in Brucculinu. I understood every one of those words! Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Thanks for making this video Olly! You did a very good job at explaining what is a very layered topic. I'm planning on talking about Italian American things more soon on my channel. I'll be spreading the word about your video here to give my audience a sneak peak of what's to come!
Cheers Tom!
It is similar here in Australia, although post WWII migration was the main wave. My nonni came from Southern Italy in the 1950s and 60s, so I grew up hearing their dialects but not fully understanding them (I studied standard Italian at school)
A lot of people from my generation can speak a few words or phrases of dialect, but in another generation's time we might lose that.
My grandparents also incorporated a few English words (with an accent) into their vocabulary. "Garaggiu" (garage), "friggia" (fridge) etc. My 93 year old nonna often calls me "dalinella" which I think is her way of saying "darling" 😂
Are there many aussie-italian couples
Oh mg God dalinella Is so cute 🤣 as italian I find this so cute and kind.. my uncle and my mom do the Same when we went in Greece with the greek ahahah It s smthg cute to do ,to italianize smthg ahahah
Garaggiu, it's sooo napolitan.
@@gabrieledibari2168 It sounds more like Sicilian lol
Often Italian immigrants to America moved back to Italy. My grandparents moved back to Reggio, Calabria and lived there for a number of years before finally coming back to America for good.
About half did.
Most people aren't saying that immigrant parents shouldn't pass on their mother tongue in the U.S. But, it should be those American-born kids' *second* language. A nation without a first language in common isn't a nation.
Can you speak Italian?
Second lanuage before school starts
Is Switzerland not a country?
My family has, like so many other Italian families from the south, an "overseas branch" of relatives who moved to NY shortly before WWII and who managed to stay in contact.
A long time ago, i've seen some old school letters at my late grandmother house, and pieced together a fascinating story noticing how the first letters were NOT written by family, but by professional letter writers(my great great great granparents being completely illiterate) and how in the following years the relatives melded Irpinian dialect(coming from Avellino) and english in ways incomprehensible to us modern italian and how in the later generations the grandchildren switched to english for communication due to both losing fluency in any form of Italian and having new generations who could understand English here.
When I was around 20 years old, they came over to visit to help a "cousin"(i have no idea how that family tree branch is distorted and what is the relation actually, everybody just knew the family dad as "uncle Frank from Texas") settle in his new home when he found a new job here in Italy.
Dear gods, that first week trying to understand their accent was atrocious, it was way easier to just answer them in standard English.
There’s A LOT of italians here in Brazil too, manly in the state of São Paulo.
More than in the US
italian descendents
Brazilians of Italian descent*
@@thato596 nope, Italian Brazilians.
@@MW_Asuranope, Italian Brazilians. It is ok until the 2nd gen to tag as one oneself.
My father was born in Sicily and came here when he was a year old. His father came first and got a job doing heavy manual labor---he stoked furnaces in a powerhouse. My father was the oldest son, and at 7 he already was delivering the 6 a.m. paper and the 5 p.m. paper six days a week. He also ran errands for the small local market by his family's cold water flat. The family increased to 15 children, and 9 survived to adulthood. My grandmother was illiterate, and she never wanted to learn English----her goal was to return to Sicily and die there. She never got her wish. All the immigrants had large families----birth control was unheard of. Also, having a big family was a sign of a man's masculinity. Ditto for the female---her fertility was never questioned with a boatload of children. The children could be sent out toe work, and the money they earned was used to support the family. The second and third generations of Italians in the US got smart quickly----smaller families meant better success in many cases. My grandfather always told the grandchildren that there was nothing in Sicily for him. He worked as a goat herder and sheep herder. He learned English by taking my father's schoolbooks with him at night to study in the powerhouse. Why my grandmother wanted to go back defies reason. Her father sent her to work in the salt mines when she was 6 yrs old----and she married at 16. There was no future for so many of the poor, uneducated Sicilians. While my grandmother never fit into American life because she was so unhappy here, five of her sons served in the US military during WW2 and the Korean War. They "earned" their family's way here many times over.
The family never got any handouts of any kind. Whatever they had in that coldwater flat they worked for----from using empty wooden crates as chairs and end tables to growing their own vegetables in small plots of earth between the sidewalk and the steps. Failure was never an option for the immigrants in town----and they endured shame, humiliation, ridicule, and contempt for being "different." Perhaps the greatest indignity they had to deal with involved the school system counting the Sicilians, Italians, Greeks, French Canadians,
Lebanese, and many other immigrants as "Negroes" because some of these groups had darker skin tones. And lest we forget, it was these "dark skinned" immigrants that did the jobs no Americans wanted. The Italians and Sicilians definitely paid their dues in this country, and they worked hard so that their children could experience the American dream.
And nowadays we hear that Italians are vicious anti-black gigots! Those who think so are themselves raging anti-Italian bigots.
Long after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother said she didn't know why she left Sicily. My grandfather was the one who wanted to immigrate because he fell into the category you describe, but my grandmother's family owned land and were relatively comfortable. Land is everything there. I got in touch with my relatives and have been to see them many times, and I understand why my grandmother wanted to go back. It's a magical place and the people are welcoming.
@@glittermama Your family was fortunate that they owned land----that's the prize there. You are nothing without a piece of land. My father's family were dirt poor, no land. I have never quite understood why my grandmother wanted to return to Sicily and to a life of acute poverty. She never bothered to learn English; she never tried to fit in with Americans; she never adopted any American customs----ex. Thanksgiving, July 4.
She chose to be that alien in an alien land, all by choice.
@@FlexibleFlyer50 I feel her in my heart. What I believe happened to my grandfather was that Italy promised Sicilian men land if they fought in WWI. My grandfather did that, was wounded and captured by the Germans and spent years in a prison camp. He was never given the land, even after all he suffered, so he decided he would never live in Sicily, and they emigrated. He said he was done with Sicily--I don't blame him. He only had 30$ but within ten years, he had his own small business and a house. (casa,casa,casa--they're obsessed in Sicily). My grandparents married in 1914 and came to America in 1921. He spoke passable English because of his business and business friends, but my grandmother, who stayed home as I suspect your grandmother did, never learned English. The entire neighborhood was Sicilian-speaking, so there was really no need. The poverty today is not like the poverty of the Depression and the Second War and after. I used to visit my grandmother's family about twice a year, and they are comparatively well off with an apartment in town and land in the mountains. Now I understand why my whole family here went to "the country" every summer--"'a compagna." I was introduced to my grandfather's side of the family in Sicily. I can see now that they didn't do as well as my grandmother's family. I wished I had paid more attention; I could have helped them. Before the Euro, $I00 would have helped tremendously. I understand how your grandmother felt. Her pension would have been a good enough amount of money for her. No one is as poor any longer as she remembered from her childhood, and it's just "home." The weather, the sea, the food--even simple food is delicious because it's local and vine-ripened. And everyone speaks Sicilian (especially if they think you don't hear them). If you're ever deprived of your language, you might as well not be here. It's much more important than you know. But I think our immigrant predecessors all went through what we cannot imagine and then were deprived of the relief of being home. Home has a special feeling, no matter where it is. Be well.
I'm from Matera - Basilicata. I didn't expect to read about MATERANO in this video. Such a complete explanation. I've learned a lot. Really a great job!! Thank you!
Some Italian-Americans made some changes to Italian words such as "Germanese" for "Tedesco"; Others only speak a few words of their heritage language or none at all which is why there is an Italian-American newspaper in English.
Germqnese is also said in Italy, in Genoa, for example. They also spoke a corrupt mixture of Italian and English, as in booko for book.
Would you consider doing a video on how you stay on top of so many languages?
I tend to forget a lot of what i learned when I'm not consistenly exposing myself to the language and I can't imagine how you do it with as many languages as you speak?
Do you have any special tips?
My approach has always been sequential. In other words - get so good at each language that it’s hard to forget it. The problems come when you try to learn multiple languages together.
I have a degree in French and Spanish and had close to zero contact with either for over a decade. My speech was like when the tap has run out of water. Coming out in bursts. But I could watch tv with no problems. Prior to volunteering at the Olympics, I decided to bring them up to a decent level in case I needed them. Signed up for tutor classes on italki. By my 3rd lesson, I was communicating fluently again. So, like they say, it is like riding a bicycle.
PS, Like Olly I also speak 8 languages, although the last 3 leave a lot to be desired. lol. However, I do learn multiple languages at the same time and it hasn't really been a problem for me.
I speak 3 languages, but on my Spanish, I forget it. Yes its like that tap water way, but as soon as I am around Spanish speakers, and I hear it a lot, I am right back on it. What I find interesting is that every language has at least 1 for sure or maybe more that is pronounced the same way but may mean something different, and if written out Romanized is spelled the same way. I find that interesting that there is always a thread of connection which makes me believe in the tower of Babel. Although it was confused which for me is convoluted, there are remnants. It also looks to me, that the mother tongue shapes a person's mouth, because of pronunciation and to toggle between languages learned also gives the accent sound.
My family came from Piedmont in the north of Italy and settled in northern Michigan to mine copper. We were basically the only Italian community up there surrounded by Finns so my great grandfather sent letters to family in Italy to find him a Piedmontese wife.
I also think it’s notable that lots of American English words come from Italian, such as “zucchini” and “arugula” which are “courgette” and “rocket” in the UK respectively.
Funnily enough, "rocket" also comes from the Italian word "rochetta" or "rocchetto" (which are not commonly used anymore).
All roads lead to Rome! eyyyyy
Courgette Is a french Word
You only touched the tip of the iceberg. Here are lots more: opera, baritone, soprano, alto, contralto, basso, tenor, rucola, basil, chiaroscuro, spaghetti, pasta, pizza, ravioli, lasagna, pesto, palazzo, villa, casa, panforte, panetone, torrone, belladonna, sardine, anchovy, thyme, rosemary, theatre, foccaccia, maestro, cafeteria, millefiori, nostalgia, capo, mafia, ganzo, etc.
Rocket is used here. I have a theory about this word. In Neapolitan, they tend to add "etta" to the end of nouns, so "broccoli" becomes "broccetta." I think it was misheard as "rocket." Just sayin . . .
I'm an Italian American. My paternal grandfather Luca left Messina, Italy on the ferry on Dec. 27th, 1908. On the 28th there was a 7.1 earthquake there which destroyed the city and killed 75-82 thousand people. He was very lucky and always kept those shoes he wore on that day as lucky charms. My grandmother joined him later.
Your research is exemplary as usual. Very educational and interesting
Thank you!
Olly, Shaddap You Face is Australian. Well, sort. I read Joe Dolce's bio. He was born in the US but came out to Oz. However, it was the top-selling Australian song for a number of years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaddap_You_Face You should do a video on Italians in Australia. Look at my name, my Nonno Antonio Tognolini came out in 1878. Also, my dad Vic was an Australian army gunner who was fighting Mussolini's Blackshirts in World War 2. Ciao
By the way, I'm enjoying your French books both the written and audio version, and will start your Italian Uncovered when I pass the French B2 exam in Sydney next year. Your videos are really good and I agree with your definition of a polyglot. Which why I'm going by your Spanish Uncovered with your current discount price.
Outstanding content!
More videos about linguistic history!
Glad you liked it! I also find this super interesting
You hit the nail on the head. My mother spoke one of the regional dialects. It was worthless in Rome but helped when we get to the area her parents were from.
It was not worthless in Rome. Someone in Rome would have certainly known it.
The reason it really started was after slavery, and they needed people in the field, and they allowed Italians to come to America to work the fields and that’s the truth and after Italy unified it was really bad over there so they came over here for work
In Sicily, Sicilian is spoken at home. When I visit my relatives, they tell me that the Sicilian I know is 100 years old and I know words they don't. My grandparents came to America in 1921.
I'm one of those Italians in America. Unfortunately I don't know any Italian language because my family stopped speaking it before I was born. I hope I can learn it though.
That's more like, just being American with Italian ancestry
@@tomasbindateplitzky928 okay and I said it the way I did to communicate a point that's relevant to the video. If I came up in here and just said "I'm American with Italian ancestry" it leaves out the point of what I was saying.
@@koschmx hey thanks for the kind words. Some people really like to gatekeep things like this.
@@YanickFM "Some people really like to gatekeep things like this." - Lol, average Yank
@@MW_Asura I guess average Americans like to gatekeep things. I can't speak for other countries because I don't live there.
My family is from Napoli and we speak Neapolitan. The first time I went to tour Italia my Dad said don't speak you'll be laughed at in many cities...well I did and I got lots of smiles and people saying oh you're from Napoli.
You should check out the Italian community in Montreal, they’ve had a huge impact on the anglophone community here and their distinct way of talking has even spread to other communities and created a sort of accent very particular to Montreal english-speakers.
The French founder of Montreal had been to Monreale, Sicily, a beautiful suburb of Palermo. He named the beautiful place he found in the New World after it. I've been to both . . . worth two trips!!
There's a great Sopranos episode where they travel to Italy and are made aware of the differences between their idea of Italian and Italian-in-Italy.
What has always amazed me is the incredible number of Italian American singers esp. in the 50's - 60's. Such a musical culture.
Just wanted to say I very much enjoyed the Audible version of both your Spanish and Russian short story courses - very well-produced and at a nice speed! (And I consider myself a connoisseur of foreign language courses 😊) AND I also very much enjoyed your video on the Monterrey DLI! (I also make language videos on my channel, though not as successfully) Anyway, hats off to you for the outstanding content, both on and off RUclips!
This was a really interesting video! Thanks!
I went back to my grandparents village back in 2002, when I was a freshman in college. I went to Arellino and I was able to get by between the dialect my grandparents taught me breaking out the standard Italian (Florentine) as needed.
that's why the USA should be called "United states of Vespuccia" sounds fine to me.
I really enjoyed this video, I love learning the history of languages. I'm currently learning Portuguese, do you have any short stories in Portuguese?
I do indeed! bit.ly/slbooksportuguese
@@storylearning Amazing thank you!
Yeah look up the story of why there are so many Portuguese and Cape Verdes in the north east of America
I'm working on obtaining Italian citizenship based on descent through my grandmother, I'm not entirely certain I'd live there but it is something I am entitled to and something I'm going to get. As for communication, I studied Italian in school and am working on it now. I registered for an adult Italian class at the local Italian cultural center.
Bravo💪
Bravo.
Besides from the fire cracking it is a funny and interesting video, accuracy in citing the sources and a perfect, I would say delightful, pronunciation. I'll use your video for my lessons, well done!!! Big Thank you
I would like to mention another reason that the Italian language or other dialects fell into disuse by Italian immigrants and their descendants has a lot to do with technology and time zone differences. When my grandparents, dad and uncles immigrated to Chicago in 1972, it was very expensive to call my other aunts and uncles in Italy. To send a package or a letter was a nightmare because it cost an arm and a leg and was always at the risk of being lost by the awful Italian post office. For us in Chicago, it is a 7 hour difference from Italy, so when you do call, you have to make sure your schedules line up. And to fly to Italy, it is 9 to 11 hour flight that costs at least $800.
In comparison to Mexican immigrants in the US, they do not face many of the same problems. Cell services between the US and Mexico are very well developed with no International fees. They are either on the same time zone, or a hour or two off. And you can drive or fly into Mexico at a cheap price. This is one of the reason they have been able to keep their language while Italian immigrants have not.
My favorite Italglese word that I’d like to think my nonna coined is basciamento (basement). The concept of a basement is strongly tied to the way American homes are built, and cantina or seminterrato don’t really call to mind the right imagines.
Però basciamento lo trovo geniale ahahah 'a basc' in dialetto pugliese significa giù ,quindi lo trovo geniale 🤣 brava la tua nonna ahahha
Basamento esiste in italiano. Significa "parte inferiore". (plinth, baseplate).
Your nonna did NOT coin that word. It was used by Italians who immigrated to the states over a hundred years ago.
Joe Dolce, the creator of Shaddupa Ya Face, is an American-Australian - of Italian descent. He wrote the song about Italian Australians. :)
There are lots of Italian descendants in Latin America. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil, for instance, locals speak with some Italian accent due to the Italian influence (besides lots of people with Italian looks and surnames).
Yup, many in 'The Americans" in general.
I have never had any contact with American relatives (although I have some), but I remember my grandmother telling me in the 1960s that a descendant of cousins who had emigrated to Newark in the late 19th century had come to visit her village in Puglia a decade earlier. This lady was a doctor, but she did not speak standard Italian, more like she used a kind of 19th century regional dialect. When she would walk into shops and start talking, my grandmother's sisters would shush her, because the shop assistants would laugh. I think it happened to everyone like that. It seems normal to me.
Really interesting video, thanks Olly. My ancestors moved over before WWI, spoke Ciociaro and Neapolitan. They switched exclusively to English by the early 1920’s and today no one speaks any form of Italian, yet even for the Millennial generation the ethnic identity dies hard. Some of my relatives have been back and they’re just your regular English-speaking. Americans who blend in until they open their mouths. To this day I feel like we had something robbed from us in the urging to “not speak the enemy’s language.”
I grew up in So Philly. My father and mother spoke Italian at home, English outside when they were kids.
From what I understand my maternal great grandparents came for two reasons. One was an engineer in Italy, so the Delaware and Hudson RR needed someone who could help design and build rail in the North East. They set him up nicely in Pennsylvania with a house and a the authority to hire and fire employees. The other great grandfather went to Argentina and was working there for a period of time. He was going to move to either Argentina or Brazil, but there were wars going on and it didn't seem safe so reluctantly, he came to the US. He spoke only Italian, but the kids and his wife who was American could speak English. They only used Italian in the home influenced by the English, Irish, and Welsh who lived near them. My grandmother had almost a brogue when she pronounced words like "bottle". She sounded almost Northern English and had no Italian accent only the local accent from the NE Midlands.
The brothers of my paternal grandmother (Giuseppina Cattani) was settled in Chicago area, they was from northern italian region Emilia-Romagna (province of Bologna),
i met in Italy her nephew Luigi in 1982, in my house in province of Florence (i was 18 and he was about 70)
Would love for you to do a video about the unique linguistic landscapes of Canada! There are many indigenous languages, various French dialects and English accents (especially in the Atlantic provinces), Gaelic was spoken for a while, and in addition it is the most multi-cultural country in the world with many non-official languages such as Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Italian to name but a few with many hundreds of thousands of speakers …
Greeks of the diaspora also tend to use more idiomatic phrases and often times a more "Demotic" language. Modern Standard Greek has actually been influenced by Katharevousa, the "correct" ancient-like language that was official until the 80s. But because Greek immigrants retained the spoken and not official language, there are some differences in vocabulary
Hello, polyglot here. I have watched a lot of videos by well-known polyglots, but your videos are very practical. I have known about you for a while, but never really got into the content of your videos. All I have to say is keep it up. We all need information that actually helps us in a very real way, not just talk or theories about language learning. Your exposé on the military language institute in Monterrey, California is just one example.
Just about all that came to the USA were southern Italians. My maternal grandfather was one of six brothers and there were no jobs for the youngest 3 in their town of Matera. He and his two brothers came here to NYC with their wives in 1920, after having fought for Italy in the 1st World War.
@donk8105 The small amounts go back further in time. I have Balkan, Cyprus, Greek (1/2 Sicilian). All ver interesting. Cheers.
Yes, same DNA combos for me too.
@JohnDove-rn2cd Yes, true. There was an Italian-American regiment from Philadelphia who fought in our Civil War.
@JohnDove-rn2cd Thanks for your family story. They are always interesting. Cheers.
There are many, many Italians in Canada, Australia, Germany, the BENELUX countries, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay….
It’s pretty sad how in the us the government forced people to Speak English, it would be so cool if there were a bunch of German norwigen Italian and polish speakers that of course also knew English and maybe Spanish.
It's "cool" but stupid. There are many times when YOU have to be able to communicate with someone to solve a problem, imagine if you had to learn 15 languages to have a smooth & orderly society. Try thinking a little bit, samo.
It is. Though ultimately there's nothing unique about the US in that regard. My own grandparents were prohibited from speaking Breton in public, and whipped by their teachers when they did. To this day French authorities are squeamish when it comes to regional languages.
Linguistic diversity is a victim of our impoverished political thinking and inability to articulate political systems that don't require razing diversity to function. While not the only reason, that certainly contributes to the fact that languages are dying off at such a dizzying rate. If you average it out, one language dies about every 14 days. By the end of the century, expectations are that there will be less than half of the amount of languages spoken today. So goes it.
And THOUSANDS of indigenous languages as well, where not only the language was annihilated, but the people as well.
In Germany the sons and daughters of immigrants can take free classes of their parents language. The Germans encourage and value the culture of origin of the new Germans while in America it was the opposite.
Nice video! I wish my grandfather’s parents (from the hills near Matera) had kept the language alive in our family. I’m not even sure if the dialect is still common or if it has been overtaken by standard Italian in Basilicata. Common words in our family: scungil (squid/octopus), brazhol (braciole), mozzadell’ (mozzarella), pasta fazul (pasta e fagiole), and a local pastry called laganedd’ (lagane).
I know some people in Basilicata and they also speak the dialects so don't worry, the traditions are still alive!
Also virtually everyone in the south has some knowledge of the local dialects (or local languages)
The dialect is still alive. And so is Matera, a beautiful unique city,
@@lucianomezzetta4332 Good to hear! My family was from Accettura and Stigliano, not too far from Matera, but a similar dialect.
What I remember about Matera is that there are caves, sassi, locally. Also, it was as hot as hell. We visited there many years ago. We hired a young man to take us around. The caves are on two sides of a ravine--in my memory. There are some paintings on the walls in the caves. It's unique.
Most of these words come from Sicily. As Italian I can barely understand them. As you said at that time there was nothing in this country. 12mln of Italians landed just in Argentina. Then Usa, Brasil, Uruguay, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Libia, Eritrea and Somalia.
12 milioni sbarcati in Argentina è impossibile
Many European countries after the war were impoverished and poverty stricken. That’s part of the reason my Italian grandpa and my Eastern European grandpa ended up in Canada. I think it wasn’t until the 1970’s counties started to rebuild there infrastructures.
I think you need to be a bit more educated about history lol
Eastern Europe btw covers an insane area, remember, all of Europe is larger than the US, from Iceland, the Azores to The Mountains in Russia down to Caucasus bordering Asia.
After ww2, most of Europe were destroyed, correct, but rebuilding started May 6 1945, from the 1950s and onwards the west grew quickly and became rich and prosperous. Lots of money came internationally to. Heard about the “Wirtschaftswunder”? The forming of the EU in the 1950s?
The eastern block was also quickly rebuilt.
The countries that wasn’t destroyed like Sweden, Switzerland and some others, took off quicker and became among the richest nations in earth.
Europe started to build metros, commuter train lines, trams in the 19th century and more were built after ww2. Seen the spectacular metro stations in for instance Stockholm and Moscow?
Europeans had monthly long payed holidays implemented in the 20th century.
Yes, poverty was a problem in parts of Europe but poverty looks different from an North American outlook, poverty were mostly tied to conflict areas like Northern Ireland, Spain/Greece when they were not democratic countries, or slow inefficient parts like Southern Italy with the Maffia, those type of situations. Lots of peace work (that’s how the EU started; it was a peace effort) improved the continent.
Not sure where you get the idea that Europe still wasn’t rebuilt in the 1970s.
@@AnnaKaunitz The Caucasus is not "bordering Asia".
South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) is in Asia
I hope there would be more italian that immigrate into the US instead of amerindians spanish speaking like guatemalan, Salvadoran,mexican,and Dominican
@@physicspectrum16 are you kinda racist?
@@francoisdaureville323 i' m just being honest and thinking for good sake of the US. Amerindian central Americans and blk immigrants into the US change demographics of country
Well, Italians discovered the continent..
When's the video on Italian language coming out?
It's in the works!
@@storylearning Great, looking forward to it!
I recognized the first word in the list. It the bathroom, the "house in the back" the out house. We used that when I was a boy.
I worked in the Bronx for a couple of years. It was an Italian section but I couldn't pick up what they were saying. I asked my grandfather who spoke Calabrese. I imitated the sound and he said it was people from the northernmost part of Italy near Germany.
We had a lot of Yugoslavians living there who spoke Italian from working as migrants in Italy.
The New York Subway System was built by Italians working as laborers. Most were unskilled labor was all they could do.
The union contract between New York Telephone years ago and the Communications Workers Of America had a section for the Empire City Subway Company. This company owned all of the duct ways under the streets of New York and every employee was Italian.
I have cousins who live in Torino with whom we are very close. When I ask them about dialect words from my Nona from the same family, they don’t know the words. They no longer speak or know the old family dialect.
Nothing odd about that.
Well done Olly! You told the story well!
Im Italian American from Staten Island.. never been to Italy. Growing up the Island was probably around 75% Italian. Very few of us spoke Italian, only the more recent immigrants did. But we used alot of bastardized Sicilian & Napulitan slang words when we speak. The best example of the way we speak would be from the show "The Soprano's"
Such a shame.
@@lucianomezzetta4332 During WW2 when Italy was alligned with Germany Italians in America stopped teaching their kids the language to show that their allegiance was to the US over Italy. My grandmother said the teachers would beat them in school if they were caught speaking Italian to eachother. The language was literally robbed from us. Its actually a miracle that we kept the slang up to modern day being how bigoted Americans are toward other languages.
The Portuguese spoken in Brazil is more similar to what was spoken in Portugal in the 16th century than the accent that the Portuguese speak today, because in the 19th century with the Napoleonic invasion a large part of the population of Portugal was forced to immigrate to Brazil and france exerted a great influence on portugal, similarly the history of spanish spoken on the equator today is more similar to that spoken in spain in its 16th century.
What you have "discovered" is true of all the American countries and of Australia, and New Zealand. The mother tongue undergoes change in the mother country. In the immigrant countries, the language remains basically the language spoken by the immigrants.
To all my people of Italian ancestry, Its fascinating to hear all your stories! I live in Milan now, and if any one of you want to come revisit your ancestry, you are welcome at my place
Here in Canada the cummunity next to the one I grew up in, there is a smelter that recruited workers from Italy before ww2. They built homes in the mountainsides with cheap loans the company offered. Their descendants are still there and many still have an accent.
Fascinating!
My maternal grandmother could read, write, and speak, Italian, my mother spoke it, and I know no Italian. so sad.
Bravissimo Olly. Hai propio fatto un bel video. Sono prima generazione nato in Italia. Emigrato nel 1981 all’età di 13 anni a East Boston!
I was surprised to find out that MySwedish LTR from.Sweden could understand some of my Italian words for instance. He understood me perfectly when I set a pan of cinnamon rolls out to cool, but one fell to the ground, out the window. Well,he understood the words perfectly well
USA, east coast.
can’t compare “speaking English” many years ago to now.
Now, you have to know Spanish in order to be hired just to work in a store. Everything is in Spanish now such as applications for a job to buying a house and using the phone.
Great video and great channel
This video's going to be 🤌🤌
New Jersey is probably the most Italian part of the US
More folklore based on no evidence. You did the research, right? I bet.
I live in a city(Columbus) named after an Italian but not many Italians or descendants living here! Many people have German or Irish last names.
Germans and Irish are the most reported ancestry groups in the US...
In Brazil we learn that there is only one continent of America. North, South and Central are just geographical regions, like for example Eastern Europe is still Europe. And also I researched this the other day and found out there are many countries that consider it like this too. Not just Brazil.
Yes, this is very fair, and something I’ve been aware of for a while. Problem is, US people refer to themselves as “American” which makes it very cumbersome to use other terms
@@storylearning It's fine I wasn't correcting you on the video title. It's just that you mentioned the continent division at the beginning of the video. So I thought I would add the comment.
@@storylearning There is an historical explanation for this. While it is true that all residents of the North and South American continents from Canada to Chile are Americans just as French, Italians, Russians and Germans are Europeans, the United States is unique in that America is also the name of its country. The United States of America was the first colony to declare independence from its home. Most Central and South American colonies did not declare independence until almost fifty years later in 1821, or later. Many, such as Mexico, also declared themselves to be the united states, i.e., Estados Unidos Mexicanos. In Mexico and a few other countries they circumvent this issue by referring to Americans from the US as Estadounidenses or the unflattering Gringos, although technically a native of Mexico - the United States of Mexico - is also a Estadounidense. It's just an issue that we all have to live with.
@@storylearning @italo My husband is Brazilian and this has been a big conversation in our house. I constantly refer to myself as American and he corrects me. I see where he's coming from but I've been referring to myself as American for 33 years. It's really hard to let that go, and I also didn't learn that the continents were taught differently until I met him.
'U.S citizens' can usually work, but yes, it is cumbersome. How about Estadoonies from Spanish? As a U.S. citizen, I am sure most of my fellow citizens will hate it, Latin Americans might appreciate it and the rest of the planet will not care at all.
I find it very interesting how the descendants of immigrants end up preserving the old dialect of their countries more than the local inhabitants who stayed in the country.
I don't know if it is fact because I only read or heard it somewhere on the internet but as far as I have understood, American English is more similar to the English Shakespeare was using than nowadays British English. I guess this is simply what happens if you separate a group of language speakers from another. One developes one way back in the home country with all the influence there (war, political changes, new immigrants, pandemics, printed media, etc.) and the other group adapts in a new country to a new culture, living conditions and a new language. And suddenly we have an old Italian dialect mixed with English expressions.
It is common every where, including the USA.
*Let's not forget that ITALY is the mother of Europe.* Besides the Latin root of so many Western European languages, there's also things like LAW, ROADS, CITIES, that actually come from the ROMAN EMPIRE. Imagine orderly & efficient Germany without Laws & roads (you couldn't even have the famous Autoban in Germany!!).
Laws taken from us inspired in the laws of our city-states, roads we taught how to do it including any kind of infraestructure Italics themselves couldn't do anything, cities most important cities during the Roman Empire were founded by us, most important monuments designed and architected by us. The most efficient roads in Germany were built recently. Latin.. 40% derivation from Greek.. so who's the mother of Europe, Europa is Hellas.
Greece AND Italy are the mother of Europe. Saying that only Italy is, is disingenuous. Also, the Roman Empire didn't even reach Germany lol
This is who:
Wiki:”Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Magna Graecia, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the European integration. During its history, the nation gave birth to an enormous number of notable people. Both the internal and external faces of Western culture were born on the Italian peninsula, whether one looks at the history of the Christian faith, civil institutions (such as the Senate), philosophy, law, art, science, or social customs and culture. Italy was home to many well known and influential civilizations, including the Etruscans, Samnites and the Romans,”
Greeks were conquered by the Romans.
@@hellenicnationalism7608
Romans conquered south Germany BUD, learn history, and which was greater, Roman or Greek Empire?
Wiki:”Italy is considered the birthplace of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Magna Graecia, the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento and the European integration. During its history, the nation gave birth to an enormous number of notable people. Both the internal and external faces of Western culture were born on the Italian peninsula, whether one looks at the history of the Christian faith, civil institutions (such as the Senate), philosophy, law, art, science, or social customs and culture. Italy was home to many well known and influential civilizations, including the Etruscans, Samnites and the Romans,”
@@MW_Asura
My grandfather came from Nicosia in Sicily where they speak a distinct gallo-italic dialect that derives from where the Normans settled. Someone at work told me it's called Nicoshutta (?).
Nicoshutta? Oh my God!
the reason is because there was a large influx of imigrants from Piedmont region to Nicosia and they influenced the language. I had many of my friends from other parts of Sicily who could not understand my grandparents it was so different.
I remember hearing many years ago that the Southern Dialect and the Northern Dialect are barely comprehensible to each other. In this day and age of Television News Coverage, where presumably a standard dialect would be achieved (or at least attempted), I wonder if that is still true.
In England, the Scots dialect is very difficult to understand, though it is mostly the vocalized brogue rather than dialectical differences. Sort of like American Northern "accent" and American Southern "accent."
For some reason these different languages have become known as dialects in Italy (ie, as if they were different forms of Standard Italian) when it fact they are different languages that evolved from Latin. It's not like American Northern and Southern accents or like the different ways English or Spanish are spoken around the world. Like Italian and Spanish are different languages derived from Latin, so are Neapolitan, Sardinian, Apulian and so on.
Still true.
Loving that enso wave shirt. Excellent! 🤙
America, the continent, was named after an Italian, sure. And there are more Italians per capita in the southernmost part of America: in Argentina (50ish%) and Uruguay (40ish%) versus 6% in the USA.
Dumbest comment ever
you should look into Italians in australia. almost 5% of Australia's total population claims Italian ancestry...
I thin Italians in Argentina is more relevant where more that 50% of the population have Italian ancestry, or in Brazil where is the largest Italian population outside of Italy
I hope there would be more italian that immigrate into the US instead of amerindians spanish speaking like guatemalan, Salvadoran,mexican,and Dominican
@@physicspectrum16 Why?
@@ericgonzalez3641 why you asking? Because they italians brought more benefits for the US than what you and Africans
@@physicspectrum16 🤣🤣🤣 FYI I don’t live in the US, fortunately I don’t have to deal with racist and ignorant people like you
My Italian ancestry came to the U.S. in the 2nd wave. So the peasants. Yeah originally from Rhode Island. The place my ancestor came from was a town called Fondi. It's between Rome and Naples.
just one thing about waldensians…they actually started before the protestant reformation….they were kinda like a catholic reformist group
Thank you for remembering the Waldensians.
This is so timely. I was just wondering this specifically.
Italian culture basically created half the world 🌎 love my culture
Orrioppo? Questa non l'avevo mai sentita, nella vita! Gran video, as always, Olly! ;)
i've wondered about this for many years. unlike most other nationalities, Italians have myriad last names. i think every day i hear a new Italian last name. and i grew up with and was immersed in NE USA Italian culture and this is still the case.
All settled in little Italy on carmine st in little Italy
broom street
Hey great vid, how do the courses come? Something like a pdf file?
Also another reason why Italians don’t speak the same Italian anymore is because America stuck Italians in detainment camps as foreign enimies. They didn’t want us here. We were not allowed to keep the language going.
Lunfardo and the Italian immigration wave to Argentina would be a great follow-up video.
My dad’s side is Sicilian welsh French Canadian polish and English and my mom’s side is Canadian and Irish and Scottish and Norwegian and Native American and Spanish and French
It would appear the Italian spoken in America has a lot of parallels with AAVE. The immigrants speaking different dialects and languages from Italy blending with each other, then being almost forced to speak English to be able to make a living is not unlike enslaved peoples speaking different West African languages being made to speak English. Elements from both people’s languages blend through into the English dialects both cultures speak today.
What about south america? Brazil is the country with the largest italian population outside italy, and argentina is the third, but more than half of Argentina population are italians
Wow Donald Trump demanding people to speak English (8:56) clearly forgot that he is the descendant of non-native English speakers who got married twice to women from former Soviet States (who had no English language traing) who had to study English from scratch. Fun Fact: His mother Mary Anne MacLeod (Scottish) only knew how to speak Gallic and some broken English prior to her arrival in the US. His paternal grandfather Friedrich Trump (German) spoke broken English and his paternal grandmother Friedrich Trump (German) had a REAL hard time mastering the English language....but don't speak Spanish in the US!!! Maybe Trump should study the Navajo, Iroquois or Apache language in...
It shouldn't be seen as an either/or proposition. Speaking English in the USA is a necessity, but knowing a second or third language is obviously useful as well.
@@Frodojack Exactly!
There are communities in Mexico that speak Venetian, they call it Chipileño.
Can't wait for the "why so many Russians on Brighton Beach" video 😉
How about little Odessa?😆
Hi love your content and happily possessing some of your books 😁 quick question about Chinese uncovered, will it be available again around January 2022 for joining in? or later in 2022, Ive made a final decision on learning Chinese next year, i would love to go for uncovered 👍
When you say “America” I really don’t picture it as only one country, but as an entire continent. Tbh, I thought you would talk about the Italians who immigrated to Brazil.
In English and German, we refer to the US as "America."
@@mrsmith1938 what about the continent?
@@leotutone For us, We have a continent called North America and another called South America. I believe most Romance language speakers refer to everything from Canada to Argentina as "America".
@@leotutone most English speakers refer to the two continents as North America or South America. We do not use one word to refer to two separate continents. We will say the Americas when referring to both continents Plus, when a terrorist shouts death to America, they are not referring to Canadians and Brazilians.
@@mrsmith1938 That is, all America, be North be South