L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano W h a t ' s t h e first thing t h a t c o m e s t o your mind when you think of Italians? They dress well: yeah, sure. T h e y k n o w h o w t o c o o k ! True, true. They are passionate: there we go, we're getting close to the point. Imagine — o r r e m i n i s c e a b o u t — a n Italian friend passionately discussing about something and, no shadow of a doubt, you'll picture them vehemen- tly moving their hands and arms around to underline every word and every senten- ce. I t ' s a n u n d e n i a b l e truth: we Italians speak with our hands and it's one of the characteristics our friends from abroad like to mock us about the most. In the heat of the moment, when words — which we already use pretty emphatically, mind — seems to no longer suffice, we begin an endless dance of waving and pointing, hands shaping objects in the air and words stressed with what appear to be an arcane and mysterious upper body ballet session. In truth, it's just our way to speak, and we like it. A couple of decades ago, children would be taught t h a t s p e a k i n g w i t h y o u r hands was a synonym of lack of fluency in the mother ton- gue: basically, that you used your hands a lot when you couldn't speak Italian well. To be fully honest, this idea did fit pretty well the ste- reotype of the dark, dialect- speaking Italian with the thick gold chain hanging at his neck who would rise his voice and move his hands with increasing fervor depen- ding on the topic of discus- sion. But you know what? That idea wasn't really accurate. Yes, of course, the stereotypi- cal loud, dark Italian with the gold chain speaks with his hands, but so do university professors, doctors and prie- sts, so no, formal education and social extraction have not enough to do with it to be an explanation. The fact is that Italians as whole love non-verbal com- munication, and while there may be a substratum of truth in the fact that people with a higher level of formal educa- tion are less dramatic with their hand gestures, be pre- p a r e d t o s e e e v e r y o n e — every-one — to use them. While we are all pretty aware that Italians love to speak with their hands, not m a n y m a y a c t u a l l y k n o w where the habit originates from. Educator and author L i n d a F a l c o n e s a y s t h a t I t a l i a n s s p e a k w i t h t h e i r hands because they all are artists at heart, and are in continuous need to create, make and shape: if they have a pen, a brush or a chisel and scalpel in their hands, perfect, otherwise, they just move them around as if they were there. Falcone's isn't the only theory out there trying to explain why we love gesticu- lating so much. A while back the New York Times, basing its article on the work of pro- fessor Isabella Poggi, of the Psychology Department at Roma Tre University, wrote that Italians use about 250 hand signs while talking, with the aim of strengthe- ning the delivery of their w o r d s . P o g g i h a s a m o r e historical take than Falcone, when it comes to the origins of the habit. According to her research, they probably are to be found in the times of G r e e k c o l o n i z a t i o n o f southern Italy, when cities where busy, crowded and often multicultural, a real m e l t i n g p o t o f Mediterranean cultures and languages. Body language w a s e s s e n t i a l n o t o n l y t o catch people's attention, but also to interact with indivi- duals who may have spoken a different idiom. Further studies, on the other hand, believe the habit developed more recently, between the 14th and the 19th century, when Italy was i n l a r g e p a r t o c c u p i e d b y foreign powers like Austria, Spain and France and the need to communicate with people who spoke an unk- nown or little understood language increased the use of hand gestures as a way of interacting. Whichever interpretation you want to choose, whiche- ver you find more adequate, there is no denying that we Italians are all about expres- sivity and emphasis: strange to think we are also among the inventors of diplomacy. B u t t h i s i s m a t e r i a l f o r another curiosity… T hose among you who have an ear for languages — or music, as the t w o s e e m t o g o hand in hand — probably haven't failed to recognize h o w t h i s w e e k ' s w o r d , influenza (een-floo-ehn-zah) sounds a lot like the English "influence" of which is, in fact, the Italian translation. Influenza can mean just t h a t , s o m e t h i n g t h a t c a n a f f e c t t h e w a y s o m e t h i n g happens or a person beha- ves, just like in the sentence nella tua tesi, vedo chiara- mente l'influenza degli studi c l a s s i c i c h e h a i f a t t o ( I clearly see the influence of your classical background in your thesis), or la cucina S i c i l i a n a h a u n a c h i a r a influenza Araba (Sicilian cui- s i n e h a s a c l e a r A r a b i c influence). F r o m a n e t y m o l o g i c a l p o i n t o f v i e w , i n f l u e n z a comes from the Medieval L a t i n i n f l u e n t i a w h i c h i n turn came from the Classical Latin verb influere, or "run inside," especially in relation to liquids. You can see then how the word influenza in Italian got the meaning it h a s : t h i n k a b o u t i t , i s n ' t being influenced by someone or by something just like having them making them- selves comfortable inside us? But influenza in Italian is one other thing especially, a thing we all fear this time of the year , but that we've been awaiting for, in 2020, with a whole new level of stress: the flu. The evil viru- ses of the orthomyxoviridae family give us the sniffles and high fever, and we often get vaccinated against them just about now, at the begin- ning of the fall. Of course, you all know the same word exists in English to define the same illness, even if in Italian is often used, more generically but not accura- tely, to define all cold season ailments that give you a sore throat and a bit of a tempe- rature. T h i s y e a r , a v o i d i n g influenza is very important, because its symptoms can be easily mistaken for those of another evil little virus which has been playing havoc with h u m a n i t y f o r t h e p a s t 9 months. Let's keep our guard up! - D e v o a n d a r e d a l medico, ho bisogno del vac- cino contro l'influenza! - I must go to the doc- tor: I need the flu vaccine! - P e n s a c o n l a t u a testa, subisci troppo l'in- fluenza dei tuoi amici. - Think with your own head, you are too influenced by your friends. - Ho mal di gola, ma niente febbre. Non dovrebbe essere influenza - I've got a sore throat b u t n o t e m p e r a t u r e . I t shouldn't be the flu LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the day: influenza, a very seasonal term indeed Curiosity of the week: why do Italians speak with their hands?

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