L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano A bout 60 million people s p e a k Italian in the B e l p a e s e a n d a n e x t r a 1 . 5 m i l l i o n d o i t a r o u n d t h e w o r l d , i n c l u d i n g F r a n c e , Croatia, Switzerland, Slove- nia, as well as Argentina, Australia, Brazil and the US, of course. A brief review of what we k n o w a b o u t o u r a m a z i n g language: Italian is a roman- ce language derived from L a t i n , j u s t l i k e F r e n c h , S p a n i s h , P o r t u g u e s e , R o m a n i a n , L a d i n a n d Sardinian. The Italian we speak today is the evolution of vulgar Latin — the Latin s p o k e n b y p e o p l e i n t h e streets — and of the subse- quent vernaculars that beca- m e c o m m o n i n t h e e a r l y Middle Ages. Everyone knows Italian is the official language in the p e n i n s u l a , b u t n o t m a n y k n o w o t h e r s a r e s p o k e n across the country. Of cour- se, it is important to distin- guish between dialects and a c t u a l l a n g u a g e s . A b o u t 60% of Italians speaks a dia- lect along with Italian, and around 15% uses it exclusi- vely. If you know your regio- nal or local dialect, you tend to use it in familiar, unoffi- cial situations and switch to standard Italian in school, at w o r k o r i n a n y o t h e r moment of the day when it is required. Often, people understand their dialect but cannot speak it, a common occurrence among the youn- ger generations. There has been a lot of work, especially i n t h o s e r e g i o n s o f I t a l y where dialect speakers are many, to protect its cultural and linguistic wealth. The most spoken dialects i n I t a l y a r e N e a p o l i t a n , S i c i l i a n , V e n e t o d i a l e c t , Lombard and Piedmontese. S o m e c o u n t S a r d i n i a n a m o n g t h e m b u t , i n f a c t , Sardinian is considered officially a language, becau- se it derives directly from Latin, without any influence from any vernacular. The s a m e g o e s f o r L a d i n , a romance language spoken especially in the Alpine val- leys of our North-East. When it comes strictly to "foreign languages," Italy has large communities offi- c i a l l y s p e a k i n g F r e n c h (mostly in Valle d'Aosta), German (in Trentino Alto- Adige) and Slovenian (in Friuli Venezia-Giulia): they make up 5% of the popula- tion and have around 2,5 million speakers. The areas where they are spoken more widely have a special statute that makes them bilingual, giving to these idioms the s a m e s o c i a l a n d c u l t u r a l value as Italian, meaning they are taught in school, too. Linguists may be familiar w i t h a n o t h e r l a n g u a g e spoken in Italy, the Franco- Provençal, which comes f r o m F r e n c h a n d f r o m O c c i t a n . I t i s c o m m o n i n s o m e A l p i n e v a l l e y s o f Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, w h i l e i n t h e A r g e n t i n a Valley of Liguria, variations of it are more common. 300,000 Italians are also German speakers. Most of them live in the Bolzano province and their German is not the same as the stan- d a r d l a n g u a g e s p o k e n i n Berlin, but rather an Austro- B a v a r i a n d i a l e c t . Slovenian is used in the R e s i a V a l l e y , a n d o t h e r a r e a s o f F r i u l i V e n e z i a - Giulia, and reaches a total of about 50,000 speakers. M o v i n g S o u t h , w e encounter communities of Serbo-Croatian speakers i n M o l i s e ; i n t h i s r e g i o n , which is the youngest in the country, there is also a tiny Croatian-speaking minority o f a b o u t 2 0 0 0 p e o p l e : another language to add to t h e m a n y s p o k e n i n Italy!Albanian is histori- c a l l y f o u n d i n S i c i l y a n d Calabria, but there are small Albanian-speaking commu- n i t i e s a l s o i n A b r u z z o , Molise, Basilicata, Apulia a n d C a m p a n i a . A m o n g them, some speak in fact an A l b a n i a n d i a l e c t c a l l e d Arbëresh, which they proba- bly inherited from 15th cen- tury Albanian mercenaries. I n C a l a b r i a a n d A p u l i a , you'll find also small com- munities speaking Greek dialects. Beautiful Sardinia is, as mentioned, already special when it comes to languages, as her own idiom is one. In t h e A l g h e r o a r e a , i n t h e n o r t h - w e s t p a r t o f t h e island, though, you can also f i n d p e o p l e s p e a k i n g Catalan, a vestige of the t i m e s w h e n t h e A r a g o n ruled over these lands, in the mid-14th century. You may have not reali- zed before that Latin —yes, Latin! — is an official lan- g u a g e o f t h e P e n i n s u l a (although, strictly, not of Italy as a State), because it is the official language of the Vatican and of the Catholic Church. P azienza (pah- t s e e - e h n - t s a h ) comes from the Latin patire, to e n d u r e , a n d from the Greek paskein, to feel or endure something. It has the same root of another c o m m o n I t a l i a n w o r d , paziente, which means "to be patient," but also indica- tes people suffering from a p a t h o l o g y , u s u a l l y w h e n hospitalized. It is simple to see that paziente is the same as the English "patient," and p a z i e n z a i s t h e s a m e a s "patience." But in Italian, pazienza is u s e d i n s o m e i n t e r e s t i n g expressions you may have heard and wondered about. For instance: Non sono riu- scita a incontrare mio cugi- no per un caffé: pazienza, sarà per un'altra volta ("I couldn't meet my cousin for coffee. Never mind, we'll do a n o t h e r t i m e " ) , w h e r e "pazienza" is synonym with the English "never mind" or "it doesn't matter." Perhaps, pazienza has a slight tang of regret to it, sometimes, that i t s E n g l i s h c o u n t e r p a r t s don't have. T h e r e a r e a l s o s p e c i a l expressions with pazienza y o u s h o u l d k n o w : s a n t a p a z i e n z a i s a c o m m o n e x c l a m a t i o n u s e d w h e n you're at your wits' end for something, just like in santa pazienza, fai silenzio, sto cercando di lavorare! ("be quiet, for goodness' sake, I'm trying to work!) or per- dere la pazienza, as in ho perso la pazienza e ho alza- to la voce un po' troppo ("I lost my temper and I started shouting too much"). Pazienza is also said to be the virtù dei forti, the virtue of the strongest. — Volevo fare una torta, ma non ho burro. Pazienza, la preparerò domani —I wanted to bake a cake, b u t I r a n o u t o f b u t t e r . N e v e r m i n d , I ' l l m a k e i t tomorrow. — Quando fai così, mi fai davvero perdere la pazien- za! — When you act this way, you really make me lose my temper! — Devi portare pazienza, non si può avere tutto subi- to. — You have to be patient: o n e c a n ' t g e t e v e r y t h i n g straight away. LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the Day: Pazienza… we'll do better next time! Italian curiosities: did you know that Italian is not the only language of Italy? Traditional Sardinian costumes. Sardinian is considered a language, not a dialect (Photo: Massimiliano Cugudda/Dreamstime) © Wavebreakmedia Ltd | Dreamstime.com

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