L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano hoods named Little Italy." Then, with the dynamics of the Italian-American communi- ties and "their social and eco- nomic achievements, Italianisms are freed from their symbolic 'ethnic' function and take on more general values and func- tions: Italian words become sym- bols of values," explains Vedovelli. "They connote taste and good taste, a certain lifestyle, a 'non-plastic' way of living our time." Vedovelli adds that today some Italian sounding words are vitally transmitted through a global digital world and the elec- tive places of transmission are the piazzas, the streets of a city, the so-called urban linguistic landscape, the language visible in public spaces. "The linguistic landscape has become a branch of sociolinguis- tics. At the University for For- eigners of Siena, we were the first to examine the spread of Italian in this perspective," he says. The excellence of our entire production system had a great influence. "The Made in Italy brand combines two dimensions. The former is related to the suc- cess of our production system and its specific characteristics such as craftsmanship, creativity, and a deep bond between a prod- uct and its territory. The latter is aesthetic (taste and good taste) and represents a natural continu- ation of our cultural history and intellectual heritage." "Today the values of our artistic history are revived through the products made in Italy, which are perceived as beautiful. And our language, our words in the world, are the sym- bol of that beauty." German poet, novelist and philosopher Wolfgang Goethe said that the force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it. And the Merriam Webster dictionary continues to add few Italian terms every year. The word arancini was added in 2018. The term, meaning literal- ly "little oranges" because of these famous deep fried balls of savory rice's color, was first used in the US in 1948, but made it into the dictionary only recent- ly, after a more recent use of the term appeared in the New York Times, on Oct. 2017: "Snacky spuntini like arancini and pro- sciutto bomboloni have been added to a refined Italian menu." A new, food-related Italian term was also recorded this year. The new entry is Campari, used for "a reddish-colored liqueur used especially as an aperitif," as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary. Campari is an Italian icon, created by Gaspare Cam- pari in 1860, a year earlier than Italy unification. The legendary beverage is a mixture of fruit, bit- ter herbs and low alcohol con- tent. If you ever get up here, in Milan, please visit the Galleria Campari in nearby Sesto San Giovanni. That vibrant venue traces the history of Campari through illustrated ad campaigns that contributed to modern and contemporary art, from 1860 to today. Continued from page 12 Italian words, as used within the Italian communities in North America, soon spread around and became "Italianisms" LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE A recent Italianism that entered the Merriam Webster dictionary is "Campari," while the word "panini" has been in it for a while

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