Culture | Italian Language Blog

Posts under "Culture"

Quanto bene conosci l’Italia?

Jan 9 2012

How well do you know Italy? Here’s a quiz which will put your knowledge to the test. Leave your answers in the comments section.

1. Roughly how many inhabitants does Italy have: a. 40million, b. 50million, c. 60million, or d. 70million?

2. Which city is famous for its romantic songs?

3. On which Italian island was Napoleon exiled?

4. Which cities or regions are associated with: a. la Camorra, b. la ‘ndrangheta, and c. Cosa Nostra?

5. What are the main ingredients of la cecina, also known as farinata?

6. Who wrote La Divina Commedia?

7. What is the real name of the singer Jovanotti?

8. Which four countries share their borders with Italy?

9. Which composers of opera music wrote the following: a. Madama Butterfly, b. Rigoletto, and c. Il Barbiere di Siviglia?

10. What is the name of the Presidente della Repubblica?

11. Who built the first astronomic telescope in 1609?

12. In which city was the first Italian football club founded?

13. In many Italian towns there are roads called Via XX Settembre, what does this name commemorate?

14. What does the acronym FIAT, used by Italy’s most famous car manufacturer, stand for?

15. What is the name of the Venetian traveller who went to China in the 13th century, remaining there for 13 years in the service of the great Khan?

16. What do Giorgio Armani, Miuccia Prada, and Laura Biagiotti all have in common?

17. Which regions produce the following wines: a. Soave, b. Chianti, and c. Marsala?

18. What was the name of the population that inhabited the area of Toscana and Lazio before the Romans?

19. Which directors made the following films: a. L’Ultimo Tango a Parigi, b. Per un Pugno di Dollari, c. La Dolce Vita?

20. The following Italian bridges can be found in Roma, Firenze, Venezia, Verona, and Bassano del Grappa. What are their names?

a. b.

c. d.

One of the main aims of my blogs is to help you to understand the Italian language. It’s important to remember, however, that due to the complex social and historical reasons Italian isn’t necessarily the first language of all Italians. There are, for example, linguistic minorities in Italy whose first language is German (in Trentino Alto Adige), French (in Val d’Aosta), Sardinian (in Sardegna), Albanian (mostly in small pockets of Calabria, Sicilia and Molise), and Ladino (the unique language of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, which I’ll cover in another blog).

The existence of linguistic minorities in Italy is recognised in our constitution, which stipulates in article 6: ‘La Repubblica tutela con apposite norme le minoranze liguistiche’ (The Republic protects linguistic minorities with appropriate laws). In reality though, not all of these minority languages receive the same protection. In Val d’Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige for example, the regional governmental statutes provide for bilingualism in administrative documents and education. But in other regions such as Calabria, where the Albanian speaking communities exist only in small isolated pockets, bilingualism doesn’t officially exist, with the result that in these communities the Albanian language and culture is gradually dying out.

Apart from the linguistic minorities mentioned above there are also millions of Italians who speak a huge variety of dialects. A survey carried out in the 1980’s showed that at that time 47% of Italians spoke dialect at home with their relatives, 24% spoke a mixture of dialect and Italian, and just 29% spoke Standard Italian. In our village, the old people habitually speak dialetto (dialect) amongst themselves. Most of them only learnt Italian at school as a second language, but as they usually left school when they were very young in order to help their families work the land their Italian has remained fairly basic. Standard Italian, in other words, is not a language that they feel at home with. Today’s younger generation, even though they may have grown up hearing their older relatives conversing in dialect, are far more likely to speak Standard Italian most, if not all of the time. This is due to a variety of socio-cultural factors such as better and more consistent education and the standardisation of the Italian language which has been brought about by the diffusion of television.

So, what do young people feel about dialetto these days? Well, to try and answer that question I did a bit of research on the internet. Here are some excerpts from a forum in which the original poster asks the question:

Sondaggio: voi parlate il vostro dialetto? (Survey: do you speak your dialect?)

Answers:

1. No, io lo parlo ma è quasi uguale all’italiano

2. Assolutamente sì, non sempre ma ogni tanto lo parlo, il mio dialetto essendo in provincia è un po’ più paesano rispetto a quello di città quindi con termini anche abbastanza difficili ed incomprensibili; ma sono fiero delle mie radici e della mia terra e quindi parlo il mio dialetto; che è a mio avviso una caratteristica della nostra nazione da salvaguardare, da Bolzano fino a Ragusa!!!!

3. Io vivo in Piemonte però mio padre è pugliese e mia madre è campana. Mia mamma conosce quasi tutti i dialetti e certe volte per scherzare parla piemontese ma a me non piace. Conosco il dialetto napoletano, so parlarlo ma non lo faccio, non è nella mia indole.

4. Qua quasi tutti gli adulti diciamo un po’ provincialotti lo parlano, ma anche io e i miei amici, mi sto riferendo al meraviglioso dialetto Siciliano *-*

5. Certo, ma il mio non è un dialetto, ma una lingua, il Napoletano!

6. Io da piccolo parlavo bene il dialetto lucano, poi mi sono trasferito con i miei in Abruzzo e ho dimenticato un sacco di pronunce.

7. Io dico pochissime parole…sono sarda, ma non capisco il sardo lol. Sinceramente non mi piace parlare il dialetto

8. Purtroppo no, quando ero piccolo non volevo parlarlo e adesso so che ho sbagliato, lo capisco solo

9. Io non so parlare nessun dialetto. Che depressione!

10. Certo, io parlo Siciliano anche se a casa mia :’D Perché a Scuola è proibito, mah! comunque io ADORO la mia regione, quindi la mia risposta è SI

11. Normalmente parlo quasi solo in italiano, però dipende anche dal contesto… il mio dialetto comunque lo so parlare..

12. Solo con i miei parenti, cioè in famiglia.. Lo trovo troppo grezzo

13. Sì ma solo qualche parola! Quelle che so! Non discorsi interi in dialetto.

14. Si, soprattutto in famiglia

15. Quasi mai…non mi piace molto parlarlo!

Il Presepe Nel Lavatoio

Posted by Serena No Comments

Dec 29 2011

Tellaro, 25th of December 2011: Yesterday, Geoff posted a blog about the lovely walk that we had on Christmas day. Near the end of the walk we came across a fascinating presepe (nativity scene) in the old village laundry near the little harbour of Tellaro.

Next to the presepe was a note with the following explanation:

“In questo luogo all’apparenza umile, strappato alla roccia come la grotta di Betlemme, le donne s’incontravano per lavare i drappi e raccogliere l’acqua. Qui, come ormai tradizione, si ripete la raffigurazione del presepe, espressione più tipica e reale della spiritualità cattolica del Natale.

“In this seemingly humble place, carved out of the rock like the grotto of Bethlehem, the women met to wash clothes and collect water. Here the tradition of representing the presepe (nativity scene), that most typical and genuine expression of Catholic spirituality at Christmas, has become an established tradition.

Nel fondo di questa che un tempo fu ‘fonte di vita’, usato come greppia, nasce Gesù. Nella rappresentazione ritroviamo i personaggi simbolo della natività. Ritroviamo la figura altissima di Maria nella sua dimensione di donna e di madre che si dona per la vita del Salvatore.

In this which was once a “spring of life”, transformed into a crib, Jesus is born. In the representation we find the key nativity characters. We see the ‘noble’ figure of Maria in the form of woman and mother who gives life to the Saviour.

Il lavatoio è stato un tempo centro di vita vera, luogo d’incontro e di socialità fra le donne, lavacro dei dolori quotidiani, di una vita dura, carica di stenti e di fatica.

The laundry was once the true centre of life, the meeting and socialising place for the women, a place to symbolically wash away the daily pains of a hard life full of struggle and exhaustion.

Oltre ad accudire la casa, e educare i figli, le donne partecipavano al duro lavoro quotidiano, che pesava spesso sulla loro testa, sopra il ‘guarco’, il cercine di stoffa, fatto arrotolando ‘er scosado’, il grembiule portato ai fianchi. In questo modo, queste regine con corona di stracci, trasportavano ogni sorta di peso, con la loro forza e sofferenza, contribuendo in modo fondamentale alla costruzione del borgo”.

Other than looking after the house, and educating the children, the women took part in the hard daily work, the weight of which they often carried upon their heads, on the ‘guarco’, the pad of fabric, made by rolling up ‘er scosado’, the apron worn on their hips. In this way, these ‘queens’ with a crown of rags, transported all sort of weight, making a fundamental contribution through their strength and suffering to the construction of the village”.

Tu Scendi dalle Stelle

Posted by Serena 7 Comments

Dec 23 2011

“Tu scendi dalle stelle” (“You come down from the stars”), written in 1754 by Sant’Alfonso Maria de Liguori (b. in Napoli, 1696 – d. 1787), is our most famous and most loved Italian Christmas carol. Its music is based on a folk theme traditionally played on zampogne (bagpipes).

Several years later, de Liguori wrote another Christmas song based on the same tune, but with Neapolitan lyrics, in order to make its message more clear to people who only spoke dialect. Its title is: “Quanno nascette Ninno” (“When the Baby was born”).

“Tu scendi dalle stelle” is so much a symbol of Christmas here in Italy that the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, who often incorporated traditional tunes into his imaginative music, included de Liguori’s theme into “L’Adorazione dei Magi” (“The Adoration of the Three Kings”), which is the second movement of his “Trittico Botticelliano”. This suite of music describes three famous paintings by Botticelli which are on display in the Uffizzi Museum in Florence: “La Primavera” (“Spring”), “L’Adorazione dei Magi” (“The Adoration of the Three Kings”), and “La Nascita di Venere” (“The Birth of Venus”).

Above: “L’Adorazione dei Magi” by Sandro Botticelli

Here are the lyrics from “Tu scendi dalle stelle” with my translation into English:

Tu scendi dalle stelle,
o Re del Cielo,
e vieni in una grotta
al freddo e al gelo,
e vieni in una grotta
al freddo e al gelo.
O Bambino mio divino,
io ti vedo qui a tremar,
o Dio beato!
Ah, quanto ti costò
l’avermi amato!
Ah, quanto ti costò
l’avermi amato!

A te che sei del mondo
il Creatore,
mancano panni e fuoco,
o mio Signore,
mancano panni e fuoco,
o mio Signore.
Caro eletto pargoletto,
quanto questa povertà
più m’innamora,
giacché ti fece amor
povero ancora!
Giacché ti fece amor
povero ancora!

You come down from the stars,
oh King of the Heavens,
and enter into a grotto
in the cold and the ice,
and enter into a grotto,
in the cold and the ice.
Oh my divine Baby,
I see you here, shivering,
oh blessed God!
Ah, how much it cost you
to have loved me!
Ah, how much it cost you
to have loved me!

You who are of the world
the Creator,
without clothes and heat,
oh my Lord,
without clothes and heat,
oh my Lord.
Dear little chosen child,
how much this poverty
increases my love,
since love made you
poor again!
Since love made you
poor again!

Here are a couple of videos of “Tu scendi dalle stelle”, the first performed in an operatic style by Andrea Bocelli: http://youtu.be/kAufwdN7m2k and the second performed in the way by zampognari (bagpipers): http://youtu.be/t2rg5Rytbww

Buon Natale!

Gli Struffoli

Posted by Serena No Comments

Dec 21 2011

It’s Christmas and here in Italy one of the ubiquitous symbols of this period is the famous Panettone. However, this cake, which is originally from Milano, only became popular throughout Italy thanks to the food companies Motta and Alemagna, who began to produce it on an industrial scale in the Fifties.

In Napoli, on the other hand, the traditional Christmas sweets are called Struffoli, which are small fried sweet pastries whose origins are said to go back to the ancient Greeks. Struffoli are in fact popular throughout the south of Italy, however their name and shape tends to differ from region to region: in Molise and Abruzzo they are called ‘cicerchiata’, in Puglia ‘purceddruzzi’, and in Calabria ‘turdiddi’. Here is the recipe:

Ingredienti:	Ingredients:
600 gr di farina 4 uova + un tuorlo 2 cucchiai di zucchero 80 gr di burro, ammorbidito Un bicchierino di rum o limoncello Scorza di mezzo limone grattugiata Un pizzico di sale Abbondante olio per friggere 400 gr di miele Confettini colorati (‘diavulilli’ in napoletano) 250 gr di scorze candite	600 grams of plain flour 4 whole eggs + one yolk 2 tablespoons of sugar 80 grams of butter, softened 50 ml of rum or limoncello (lemon liqueur) Grated rind of half a lemon A pinch of salt Plenty of frying oil 400 grams of honey ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ (called ‘diavulilli’ = ‘little devils’ in Neapolitan) 250 grams of candied peel

Preparation:

Sift the flour into a mound on a clean work surface. Make a well in the centre, and add all the eggs including the extra yolk, sugar, butter, liqueur, grated lemon rind, and salt. Knead well for at least 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, then leave it to rest for half an hour. Divide the dough into several equal pieces roughly the size of a small orange, and using the palms of your hands roll each ball of dough on the floured work surface in order to make a sausage shape roughly as thick as a finger. Cut each sausage into small pieces, about 2 cm long, and spread them out on a floured tea towel.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, sieve the struffoli to remove any excess flour, and deep fry them in small batches. Remove the struffoli from the oil when they turn a nice golden colour, and put them on some kitchen paper to drain.

Put the honey in a ceramic mixing bowl big enough to contain all the struffoli, then place the bowl in a saucepan containing boiling water. When the honey is melted remove it from the heat and add all the fried struffoli, gently mixing them until they are well coated. Add half of the ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ and candied peels and mix again.

While the honey is still warm pile the struffoli up on a serving plate, and decorate them with the remaining ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ and candied peels. Alternatively, you can put a glass jar in the centre of the serving plate, and arrange the struffoli around it in order to create circular shape a bit like a as a doughnut. When the honey has hardened gently remove the jar.

N.B. The traditional recipe is made without any baking powder or raising agent, therefore the struffoli come out quite crispy. Therefore, if you prefer them a bit lighter, add a teaspoon of baking powder to the ingredients, and leave the dough to rest for several hours before shaping it.

Buon Appetito!

Italian Blog

Search

Most Popular Posts

Most Recent Posts