L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano M a n y Ital- ian-Amer- icans have Neapolitan a n d S i c i l - ian roots and, among them, a great part has certainly fond memories of their grand par- ents or parents speaking in the "dialect" of their own native land. Some, I am sure, probably also learned it, a sincere and loving way to bond with family, but also to keep alive the connection with their ancestral home. Neapolitan and Sicilian are special idioms, even for Italians: first of all, while in t h e r e s t o f I t a l y r e g i o n a l dialects are usually left in the safe – and relatively hidden – haven of the home, and t h e y s e l d o m m a k e a n a p p e a r a n c e a m o n g t h e younger and more formally e d u c a t e d , I n N a p l e s a n d Palermo everyone – and I mean, everyone – knows the dialect. From the waiter at your local restaurant to the university professor, every- one can switch from Italian to dialect and viceversa, and t h e y d o s o w i t h e a s e a n d aplomb. Well… in truth, they don't switch from a language to a dialect at all, they switch from a language to another, because both Neapolitan and Sicilian are, in fact, consid- ered languages. UNESCO says that Sicilian is distinct from Italian, to the point it can be considered a separate language, which evolved not from Italian but -- rather and j u s t l i k e I t a l i a n - - f r o m Latin. For this reason, it is considered by UNESCO a mother tongue, and Sicilians a r e c o n s i d e r e d b i l i n g u a l ! Moreover, the famous inter- national organization also introduced Sicilian in the list of Europe's vulnerable lan- guages, which means it is a patrimony to protect. T h e m a t t e r a b o u t Neapolitan is a tad differ- ent and more complex. Here, too, UNESCO is involved. A bunch of years ago, in 2 0 1 4 , n e w s s p r e a d a b o u t Neapolitan being declared "a language" by UNESCO, with some even writing it was to become part of its immateri- al patrimony: indeed, if you s e a r c h t h e n e t f o r "Neapolitan language," you'll be amazed by the enormous amount of articles stating just that. Pity it isn't true. Let me explain. I n 2 0 1 4 , U N E S C O d i d introduce the "Neapolitan L a n g u a g e " o r " S o u t h e r n Italian" in its atlas of vulner- able and endangered lan- guages – of which Sicilian is also part. So, yes, UNESCO does consider Neapolitan a l a n g u a g e , b u t … i s i t t h e Neapolitan of Naples? Yes and no, because with N e a p o l i t a n L a n g u a g e ( o r Southern Italian) UNESCO means a number of linguistic variations of our South, all with a common substratum, which include the dialect of Naples, but also those spo- k e n i n o t h e r a r e a s l i k e Abruzzo, Calabria or Apulia, as well as Naples' own region of Campania. In other words, the Neapolitan language of UNESCO is not the same as t h e N e a p o l i t a n d i a l e c t o f Naples, it is the union of all dialects spoken in the south- ern regions of Italy, which all have historical and linguistic characteristics in common. At the heart of it all, how- ever, lies the linguistic and cultural wealth of the dialects of our southern regions: they are not only a signifier of l o c a l p r i d e , b u t a l s o a n i m p o r t a n t i n s t r u m e n t o f local identity and creativity and, indeed, of cultural dis- semination: one only needs to think about the cultural weight of Neapolitan music, fully sung in Neapolitan , of course, to understand how far a "dialect" can travel and how culturally significant for the whole country it can be. There is also another con- sideration to make, about the sheer number of people s p e a k i n g S i c i l i a n a n d N e a p o l i t a n ( i n t h e s e n s e i n t e n d e d b y U N E S C O ) : 5 million for the first and 11 m i l l i o n f o r t h e s e c o n d , i n c l u d i n g a l s o t h o s e w h o speak it outside of Italy – and this, indeed, include all the Italian-Americans who still enjoy the beauty of their ancestors' original idioms. So, if your family comes from Sicily or, in general, f r o m t h e S o u t h o f t h e Belpaese, don't be shy, do try and learn the colorful regional idioms of the vil- lages your relatives came from: there is more to them than folklore. And learning them is a way to keep them a l i v e a n d e n s u r e t h i s immense patrimony of beau- ty is preserved in time. P a s s e g g i a r e means to stroll and a passeg- g i a t a ( p a h s - s a i - d j a h - t a ) i s I t a l y ' s f a v o r i t e a c t i v i t y , along with watching soccer and having aperitivo with friends. The word was first attested in our vocabulary in 1 5 6 6 : I t a l i a n s h a v e b e e n happily strolling since. F a r e u n a p a s s e g g i a t a means to take a stroll or a walk, but it may have a lot o f s e c r e t m e a n i n g s , t o o . When you say vado a fare u n a p a s s e g g i a t a ( " I a m going to take a stroll"), you may mean anything from "I need to think" to "It's time for me to decompress and be alone." Or, of course, you may just want to take a nice walk, that is. I f y o u a r e i n a s e a s i d e town, la passeggiata is an a c t u a l p l a c e , t h e p r o m e - nade. So, it can happen to fare una passeggiata sulla passeggiata, or "to take a stroll on the prom." A n d a r e a p a s s e g g i o i s another popular expression, w h i c h m e a n s a l m o s t t h e s a m e t h i n g a s f a r e u n a p a s s e g g i a t a , b u t h a s a slightly more urban conno- tation: you're more likely to go for a passeggiata some- w h e r e o u t d o o r s y , w h i l e a n d a r e a p a s s e g g i o i s somehow more alike walk- ing up and down your local m a i n s t r e e t . A n d a r e a passeggio also has a some- h o w o l d f a s h i o n e d , e a r l y 20 th century allure to it, if you ask me: it's something b e a u t i f u l w a s p - w a i s t e d women with parasols would h a v e d o n e t o s p e n d t h e i r long, idle afternoons back in the day. Today, la passeggiata is t h e u l t i m a t e e x e r c i s e t o keep healthy and get back into shape: fai una passeg- giata al giorno per dima- grire, "take a walk every day if you want to lose weight," and that may be true, but it's hard to slim down when you live in the country with the best food in the world! Ho bisogno di schiarirmi l e i d e e , v a d o a f a r e u n a passeggiata I n e e d t o t h i n k , I a m going to take a walk Ci vediamo sulla passeg- giata alle 8 I ' l l m e e t y o u o n t h e promenade at 8 Le passeggiate in cam- pagna mi rilassano I f i n d w a l k i n g i n t h e countryside very relaxing LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE W o r d o f t h e d a y : p a s s e g g i a t a , Italy's favorite activity I t a l i a n c u r i o s i t i e s : d i d y o u k n o w t h a t Neapolitan and Sicilian are actual languages? © Floriano Rescigno | Dreamstime.com © Mykola Kravchenko | Dreamstime.com

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