Tha Catalan language in Sardinia

Italy has a number of linguistic enclaves, including those where German, French, Greek or Albanian are spoken. Of these, only the German-speaking area (Alto-Adige/Suedtirol) in northeastern Italy has a strong chance of surviving linguistically. This is due to their numbers, and to their history of social and political action.

The New York Times has an article today on a little-known language minority, the speakers of Catalan in Alghero (hard g, accent on the second syllable.) Alghero (in the photo above) is a small city in northern Sardinia.

Not familiar with Catalan? It is a Romance language originating in Catalonia in northern Spain, but it is not a dialect of Spanish, it is a separate language of which the Catalans are very proud and protective. Here's a sample:

Tots els éssers humans neixen lliures i iguals en dignitat i en drets. Són dotats de raó i de consciència, i han de comportar-se fraternalment els uns amb els altres.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. 
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

And here is a man from Alghero speaking the local dialect of Catalan:

Sports vocabulary

Many of us are following the Olympics, in which the Italians are doing well even as I write. They often do well in the Olympics. So let's take a little look at the names of some basic sports terms in Italian. In no particular order... although my favorite sport just happens to come first.

Nuoto. Swimming.

Staffetta. Relay.

Stile libero, rana, farfalla/delfino, dorso. Freestyle, breaststroke (literally frog), butterfly, backstroke.

Tuffi. Diving.

Atletica. Track and field.

Salto. Jump.

In alto, in lungo, con l'asta. High, long, pole.

Corsa. Running.

Scherma. Fencing.

Tennis. (same)

Calcio. Soccer.

Football americano. Football.

Baseball. (same)

Badminton. (same)

Basket/pallacanestro. Basketball.

Canoa/kayak. Canoe/kayak.

Ciclismo. Cycling.

Ginnastica. Gymnastics. (in everyday Italian the word means "exercise.")

Equitazione. Equestrian/horseback riding.

Sci ("shee"). Skiing.

Discesa, fondo. Downhill, cross-country.

Pattinaggio. Skating.

Pallamano. Handball.

Canottaggio. Rowing.

Vela. Sailing.

Hockey. (same)

Su ghiaccio, su prato. Ice, field.

Pallavolo. Volleyball.

Beach volley. (same)

Pallanuoto. Water polo.

Pesi. Weightlifting.

Tiro. Shooting.

Tiro con l'arco. Archery.

Golf. (same)

Rugby. (same)

Boxe/pugilato. Boxing.

Trampolino. Trampoline.

Lotta libera. Wrestling.

I imagine I've left out someone's favorite sport and that someone may be mildly resentful. Someone should go to the dictionary and look it up.

Word of the week- ciaone

Want to make your Italian friends laugh? Want to astound your non-Italian friends with just how cutting edge and cool you are? Just replace "ciao" with "ciaone." The word is so stupid it's cute.

"Ciaone" (cha-OWN-eh) is obviously "ciao" with the -one suffix (expressing largeness) added. Sort of a "big bye!" Although "ciao" can be used for "hello" or "goodbye," the neologism "ciaone" is generally used only for "good-bye," and is usually ironic or facetious. There is also a variant, "ciaone proprio" (really ciaone) that almost means "good riddance" (an expression that doesn't exist in Italian.)

The new entry has attained the glory of being included in the venerable Treccani dictionary. There is also an article in the Italian version of Wired discussing the word's origin (there are many schools of thought on this weighty matter.)

Ciaone e buona estate!

Italian-English dictionaries online

Here is a list of free Italian-English bilingual dictionaries online, in no particular order. None requires registration, at least not at the more basic level. I've consulted all of them at one time or the other and have my own ideas about them. In time I will take a look at each of them on the blog, providing an assessment and some sort of rating (they are not by any means equivalent.)

Hoepli dictionary at La Repubblica's website

Sansoni dictionary at Corriere della Sera's website

Collins dictionary

Larousse dictionary

Garzanti dictionary

WordReference dictionary

Reverso dictionary

Renzi's ... English

Wish you knew Italian? If you do, wish your Italian were better? Feel that Italians might be appalled at your attempts to speak their language?

You may derive some comfort from the following video. In it, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi delivers an incomprehensible speech in English, with much aplomb. Completely misplaced aplomb. As it is incomprehensible, subtitles have been provided. Some in Korean. Notice the reactions of the good-looking dude on the right.

 

Didn't think that was funny enough? Try this.

A cool (free) tool for language learning

Not so long ago I discovered this tool from a site called Reverso. The site has a number of features for language learners, but the one that caught my eye was a relatively new one called Context. You input a word as you would for a dictionary, and select your language pair, e.g., Italian to English. What Context will give is a series of real-world sentences showing the selected word in its context.

This may be very useful to you for difficult words, words that are considered "untranslatable," or just to expand your knowledge of certain words when you are unsure or when the dictionary is not giving you a clear picture of the meaning. I've tried it myself, just out of curiosity, with notoriously slippery Italian words such as furbo or velleitario. This is how velleitario was translated in different sentences: unrealistic, wishful thinking, indecisive, pious hopes, vain (hope), bohemian better than everyone else, pie in the sky, somewhat vague, empty, and over-ambitious. And that's just a partial list.

You might be asking yourself, are these mistakes, or at least, are some of them mistakes? A few of them may be (or may be less than ideal), but most of them reflect the diversity of meanings of some words, and above all, how they can change according to context. Check it out, if only to give you new insight into the workings of language and its complexity. By the way, there is another, similar site with the same feature called linguee.com. I am less familiar with this one.

Hemingway on learning Italian

Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story (one of his best) called In Another country, based on his experiences in World War I in Northern Italy. A Farewell to arms recounts the same experiences, but as a (long) novel. The story is set in a hospital in Milan while he was recovering from injuries sustained as an American volunteer. At a certain point, the young protagonist is talking to an Italian major about his progress in learning the language.


"The major, who had been a great fencer, did not believe in bravery, and spent much time while we sat in the machines correcting my grammar. He had complimented me on how I spoke Italian, and we talked together very easily. One day I had said that Italian seemed such an easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; everything was so easy to say. "Ah, yes," the major said. "Why, then, do you not take up the use of grammar?" So we took up the use of grammar, and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had the grammar straight in my mind."

Translation and its discontents (and malcontents)

The talented and prolific author and translator Tim Parks has written an important article on The New York Review of Books about translating from Italian to English. Unfortunately, the prolific part of Parks sometimes outruns the talented part.

The piece aims to show the difficulties of translating, using the translations of Primo Levi's The Truce by Stuart Woolf and Ann Goldstein, and comparing them to what Parks would have written and why. There are many good points here; specifically, getting register right. The use of "ankylosed" in the translation is a mistake: (almost) everyone in Italy understands anchilosato, whereas almost no one understands "ankylosed" in English. The same goes for "quintal"- Italians will often say "pesa un quintale" for something or someone really hefty, but no one will say it in English. It's been said before, but apparently it bears repeating: translate the meaning, not the words. Again, the excessive use of Latinate words in English translations from Romance languages is something that should be avoided.

But as if to unintentionally demonstrate the difficult nature of translation, Parks himself makes mistakes or questionable statements. Levi did not invent the word pococurante (which is also found in English)- it presumably derives from Voltaire's Candide, after a world-weary Venetian senator. Di fronte can mean "in front of" in a certain (common sense): il bar di fronte a casa mia, il palazzo di fronte al municipio (although these are likely to be translated as "across from" or "opposite.") The word "hurricane" inappropriate for an English-speaking audience? Apart from the fact that there are plenty of English speakers familiar with hurricanes, even the English use it, from Shakespeare to the Beatles. Lear: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!/You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout... Rock and roll music: I must admit they had a rockin' band/Man they were playin' like a hurricane.

A few years ago I was curious to assess Parks as a translator, so I scanned The Prince. I went to the famous passage where Machiavelli tells us that it is better to be feared than loved. For the phrase per essere li [sic] uomini tristi he gave "sad" for tristi, confusing triste (sad) for tristo (bad), because both have the same plural. This is an enormous mistake, in a world-famous text, already translated numerous times. It completely subverts the meaning and makes no damn sense.

Sometimes traduttori are traditori. Of each other.

But the final call he makes for more translation editing is absolutely right (as he has shown). But not likely to happen anytime soon due to the low profitability of translations.

The preposition da in Italian

In every language I know of, prepositions are pesky little critters. They cause problems way out of proportion to their small size. A case in point: the preposition da in Italian. So many different uses. The dictionary will tell you that da means "from." If only it ended there.

Let's take a look at some of these uses.

Straightforward "from":

Il treno proviene da Bari.

The train is coming from Bari.

"For" in expressions of time

Aspetto da tre ore.

I've been waiting (for) three hours.

"Since" in expressions of time

Bertolli- dal 1865.

Bertolli, since 1865.

Abito a Venezia da marzo.

I've been living in Venice since March.

In historical names to denote birthplace or geographical origin

Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo da Caravaggio. (although it seems now that he wasn't actually born in Caravaggio- too late)

Melozzo da Forli'

Idiomatic use for a familiar place one may go to regularly, sometimes translated by 's in English and chez in French

Basta! Torno da mia madre!

I've had enough! I'm going back to my mother!

Devo andare dal medico.

I have to go to the doctor's.

Vorrei essere al Ristorante da Romano in questo momento.

I wish I were at Da Romano Restaurant right now.

To express a characteristic of something

Roba da pazzi/matti!

That's crazy (literally, that's stuff that crazy people would do)

Si comporta da idiota.

She acts like an idiot.

To express "as" in terms of a time frame

Da giovane era molto bello.

He was very handsome when he was young/as a young man.

Cosa vuoi fare da grande?

What do you want to do when you grow up/as a big person?

To translate some uses of "by"

Quel film fu diretto da Antonioni.

That movie was directed by Antonioni.

Milano 2 fu costruito da Berlusconi.

Milano 2 was built by Berlusconi.

To express cause.

Sto morendo dal caldo.

The heat is killing me.

Function of something/someone (often noun plus noun in English)

Tazza da te'

Teacup

Camera da letto.

Bedroom

To express value

Un biglietto da cinque (euro).

A five euro bill.

Una cosa da poco

Nothing important.

As a sort of modal verb (should, must) with infinitive

E' una persona da evitare

This is someone who should be avoided

Un film assolutamente da vedere

A movie you absolutely must see

Used with the infinitive after nothing, something, little, much etcetera

Non ho niente da fare/bere/mangiare

I have nothing to do/drink/eat

Hai qualcosa da dirmi?

Do you have something you want to say?

Phrase of the week- mi raccomando

This expression is quite common in spoken Italian. It is an idiom, which means that when it is translated literally it makes no damn sense. In fact, the literal translation would be "I recommend myself." Even in this age of rampant narcissism, this isn't going to fly.

Here is basically what it really means (although there is no equivalent phrase in English). It means to exhort, enjoin someone to do something. Often something that involves the persons it addresses taking care of themselves, or doing something that will be to their benefit or the benefit of both the speaker and the person addressed. Yes, I realize that's obscure. So here are some examples.

Mi raccomando, andate piano!

No direct translation, but expresses the exhortation that the person addressed take care in not speeding and that the person speaking has a stake in this, emotional or otherwise.

Studia, mi raccomando!

Teachers often say this to students to get them to study. It means that the outcome is important, not only to the student, but to the person speaking.

Siate puntuali, mi raccomando.

The speaker is telling the persons to be punctual, in a nice way.

It is not at all unusual for this phrase to be used all by its lonesome:

Mi raccomando!

In this case, the speaker is expressing his or her concern that you do The Right Thing. What this might be can be understood from the context. But, as always, it binds the speaker and the speakee (just made that one up). I cannot hide my affection for this phrase.

For a further treatment which is even more obscure than mine, see what the Accademia della Crusca has to say about it. The Accademia is an ancient institution that studies the Italian language and attempts to monitor its purity (such as it is). In Italian.

The Treccani is your friend

Far away and long ago an Italian industrialist named Giovanni Treccani set up the Treccani Institute. This was in 1925, three years after Fascism came to power. His aim was to publish authoritative reference works in Italian, similar to the encyclopedias he had seen elsewhere in Europe. He did a great job. His main claim to fame was the Enciclopedia italiana. This is a fabulous work which I remember reading at the beautiful main library at the University of Michigan, when I was a grad student. You wouldn't think that an encyclopedia published during Fascism would be worth much, but it has in fact become legendary. And being Italian you know you're going to have great illustrations.

Well, Treccani has survived and flourished throughout the decades since its establishment. It now has an online presence which will be of use to you if you are interested in Italian language and culture. Which is not unlikely if you are on this site. The online resources includes the site treccani.it, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WebTV. Unfortunately, I found no English, so this is for those of you who are somewhat advanced. It is incredibly rich, and you could spend many happy hours perusing it. I would bookmark it, it's that good. And being from Treccani, it is thoroughly authoritative. Best of all: no more Fascists.

The passato remoto

I've had this blog for nearly eight years and I still haven't discussed the passato remoto. For those of you learning Italian, this is the so-called distant past which is in contrast with the nearer past, the passato prossimo.

The passato prossimo is found all over the place and is easy to use, although of course there are some irregular forms and you have to be careful about the minority of verbs that take essere instead of avere as an auxiliary. The passato remoto presents more difficulties.

First, let's look at the conjugation of the most important verbs, to be and to have. They are irregular. You should memorize these.

Essere:

io fui
tu fosti
lui/lei fu
noi fummo
voi foste
essi furono.



Avere:

io ebbi
tu avesti
lui/lei ebbe 
noi avemmo
voi aveste
essi ebbero

Notice something? The forms fosti, foste and avesti, aveste are similar and easy to mix up. They are also similar to fossi and avessi, which are not even forms of the passato remoto, but imperfect subjunctives. This is a good time to remind you of the highly useful presence of online verb conjugators, where you can plug in the form and see what it is. Or plug in the infinitive and get all the forms. Here is Coniuga.



Here are the three regular conjugations of our old pals -are -ere -ire:

• io parlai
• tu parlasti
• lei/lui parlò
• noi parlammo
• voi parlaste
• essi parlarono

• io ricevetti (or: ricevei)
• tu ricevesti
• lei/lui ricevette (or: ricevé)
• noi ricevemmo
• voi riceveste
• essi ricevettero (or: riceverono)

• io dormii
• tu dormisti
• lei/lui dormí
• noi dormimmo
• voi dormiste
• essi dormirono

Isn't this BORing?

Now, I'm going to tell you something you'll like. There is an active knowledge of language (speaking and writing) and a passive knowledge (listening and reading). Generally, the latter is easier. Now, the passato remoto is squarely in the passive area for foreigners, and even for most Italians. It is rarely used in speech (sometimes by Southerners, which I always find cute) and mostly used in written Italian of a more formal nature (published works). So you will see it when you start reading a lot of "serious" stuff in Italian. If you do, you will have to recognize the form.

Usage: it is an oversimplification to say that the passato prossimo is simply more distant in time than the passato prossimo. The perception of time is subjective and even cultural. But for all practical purposes, you, learner of Italian, will not have to use it in an active way.

Interesting bit of trivia: the form fu can also be used as "late" i.e. dead, as in Pirandello's novel Il fu Mattia Pascal. 

Italian words for cooking and eating objects

Il cucchiaio- spoon

La forchetta- fork

Il coltello- knife

Il piatto- plate (also means dish in figurative sense e.g. my favorite dish is gnocchi)

Il bicchiere- glass

La tazza- cup

La scodella- bowl

Il mestolo- ladle

La spatola- spatula

Lo scolapasta- colander

Il colino- strainer

La pentola- pot

Il pentolone- big pot, Dutch oven

Il coperchio- lid

Il tegame, la padella- pan, frying pan

Il tegamino- small pan

Il tagliere- chopping board

La grattugia- grater

Il cavatappi- corkscrew

Lo schiaccianoci- nutcracker

La frusta- whisk/whip

L'apriscatole- can opener

Il forno- oven

Il freezer/congelatore- freezer

Il (forno a) microonde- microwave

La cucina- kitchen, range/stove

Il frigo(rifero)- refrigerator

Il lavello- sink

La tovaglia- tablecloth

Il tovagliolo- napkin

Le americane- place mats (I am mildly offended by this)

Il frullatore- blender

Il tritatutto- chopper, sometimes garbage disposal (uncommon in Italy)

Word of the week- periferia

Our word of the week, periferia, means periphery. But its common use refers to the outskirts of a city, which in some European countries (like Italy and France) has a negative connotation. Historically, what is called the centro storico (the center of town with all the attractions, monuments and beautiful architecture) has been inhabited by the middle and upper classes, with the poorer folks relegated outside this area. Below you see the area of Spinaceto, near Rome, which was visited by Nanni Moretti in his movie Caro Diario.

This is the Italy (the Europe) that most tourists never see, and don't even know about. At present, there is a process occurring which is similar to the move to the suburbs and out of the downtown areas that occurred in the US after World War II. The centri storici are increasingly losing population and businesses, and thus changing the very nature of Italy as we have known it.

Saving money on language learning

I just happened to be on the British newspaper The Guardian reading about multilingual comedian Eddie Izzard when I saw this reference to an article on learning a language on the cheap. Although it's written for a British audience, much of the content can be applied elsewhere.

New language acquisition can be time-consuming and expensive, but I think that because of electronics and globalization this is the best time in history to learn another language. Take a look at their variety of money-saving tips here.

Word of the week: negato

Here is a word which derives from the verb negare, to deny. But this is the adjective form, and has a special meaning to describe someone who is the opposite of gifted in some area. In English we might say "no good at" for the same concept. People will often describe their own deficiencies in these terms.


Sono negato per la matematica.
I'm bad at math.


Sono negata per la cucina, ho fatto anche un corso, ma niente.
I have no aptitude for cooking; I even took a course, but it was no use.

Word of the week- infradito

As summer wanes (especially here in Boston, where it is unseasonable weather- whatever that means for New England), I should inform you before it is too late of the Italian word for thong, flip-flop, or any sandal that has a strap between your tootsies. They call it "infradito," literally, between toes. The Italian word for finger is dito (irregular plural, le dita). Toes are called "foot fingers" (le dita del piede). So, thongs or flip-flops are what you might be putting on your foot fingers for a few more weeks.

Words of the week: astice and aragosta

This gets a little complicated because both words are translated by the word "lobster." But they're different species.

First, l'astice (m.) (AHS-tee-cheh) is closer to what we as Americans think of as lobster, the Maine lobster i.e. the one with claws. Here is an astice (Homarus gammarus):

But this European lobster is not exactly the same as the Maine, or American lobster, which has the scientific name of Homarus americanus. But they are quite similar.

Now for what the Italians refer to as aragosta (Palinurus elephas). This unfortunate-looking critter is the European spiny lobster. Here it is.

We of course have spiny lobsters in the US, too, but I never see them because I live in New England.

The takeaway from this is that you have two entirely different animals here. There is disagreement about which one tastes better, but in Italy the aragosta will cost more than the astice.

Word of the week- peperone

Our word of the week is il peperone, or pepper (the veggie). It does not mean pepperoni, which is salame or salamino piccante. In Italy, pepperoni pizza is usually called pizza alla diavola, but is not as popular there as it is here in the States.

Above is a fun song from the 60's by Edoardo Vianello, called Il peperone, in which there is a poetic conceit (remember those from high school?) in which he compares his lady love at the beach to a red pepper: since you've been tanning in the hot sun, you're red, you're peeling, you're like a pepper.

Da quando tu prendi tu prendi il solleonesei rossa spellata sei come un peperone

Bagnata dall'acqua dall'acqua di sale,baciata dal vento che viene dal mare,accanto alla riva pian piano ti lasci bruciare dal solcon tutte le creme massaggi la pellema giorno per giorno ti riempi di bollele gambe, le braccia, il naso e le spalle ti lasci bruciar.

Da quando tu prendi tu prendi il solleonesei rossa spellata sei come un peperone.Da quando tu prendi tu prendi il solleonesei rossa spellata sei come un peperone.

Ormai pure all'ombra continui a scottarti,nemmeno la luna riesce a calmarti,appena ti stringo tu urli, tu piangi mio pallido aamor.avevi le labbra cosi` vellutate e oggi le hai rossecosi` screpolate che sembra ch'io bacil'ortica di un campo ingiallito dal soooool.

Da quando tu prendi tu prendi il solleonesei rossa spellata sei come un peperone.da quando tu prendi tu prendi il solleonesei rossa spellata sei come un peperone.

Test your Italian family words

Are you sure you have a handle on all the words for family members in Italian? Take this test. Answers below.

1. La madre di tua madre
2. I genitori di tuo padre
3. Il figlio di tua sorella
4. La figlia di tua sorella
5. I figli di tuo fratello
6. Il marito di tua sorella
7. La madre di tua moglie
8. Il fratello di tua moglie
9. Il padre di tuo nonno
10. I genitori di tuo nonno
11. La nonna di tuo nonno
12. I figli di tuo zio
13. I tuoi genitori e i genitori di tua moglie
14. Il figlio di primo letto di tua madre
15. La seconda moglie di tuo padre
16. Il secondo marito di tua madre
17. Un uomo la cui moglie e' morta
18. Il figlio di tuo figlio
19. La figlia di tuo figlio
20. I figli dei tuoi figli
21. Il marito di tua figlia
22. La moglie di tuo figlio





1. La nonna
2. I nonni (paterni)
3. Il nipote
4. La nipote
5. I nipoti
6. Il cognato
7. La suocera
8. Il cognato
9. Il bisnonno
10. I bisnonni
11. La trisavola (tree-ZAH-voh-lah)
12. I cugini
13. I consuoceri
14. Il fratellastro
15. La matrigna
16. Il patrigno
17. Il vedovo
18. Il nipote
19. La nipote
20. I nipoti
21. Il genero
22. La nuora