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We're All About Italy

Italian-American Dialect Expressions: Italian Once Removed

5/27/2015

22 Comments

 
Picture
My father was born in Molfetta, Puglia in the South. My Mom's mother and father came from Naples. Both spoke dialects of Italian. My mother often said that my father's dialect was so different from hers that she couldn't understand certain words. If you watch the Godfather, especially the scenes in GF II showing Vito Corleone as a young man, you can hear this sort of dialect... albeit Sicilian. The words in the South are often totally different. Lots of slang is used. Liaisons happen... Usually, the end of one word attaches to the beginning of the next word. Beginnings of words are often omitted. Even Italians consider these dialects like another language... for example, the announcements on the train from Bari to Rome are in English, Italian and "Dialetto". Dialect sounds nothing like regular Italian down South.

Now, add to all this the fact that Italian immigrants in American spoke a sort of second hand Italian dialect, much was lost to misunderstood pronunciations and the fact that many (like my parents) didn't want to speak Italian in the home. When I asked why my parents didn't teach us Italian, they said they wanted an "All-American" home for us. Even today in the South parents don't want their children to speak Dialect when they move to the big cities in Italy. They are looked down upon for speaking it by Northern Italians. What a shame...   These dialects are what makes Italian so interesting.

Here are a collection of words and phrases that I grew up with... spelled phonetically:

Stoonod                         Idiot
Mopeen                         Dish Cloth, Rag
Agida/Agita                  Acid indigestion caused by someone aggravating you
Googootz                       A fool
Cabbadost                     Thick head/stubborn
sfatcheem                     a Jerk
Stroonz                           an Ass
Stroonz-a-medz         Half ass
Strombolone                 Clumsy
Chooch                            Jackass
Briagone                         Drunk
A-fa Nabalee                 Get out of Here/Go to Naples
Facha-broot                  Ugly face
Dees-Gradseeyad        You disgrace!
Stata-Geet                     Shut Up
SkeeVo                            Disgusting
Ashpette                         Wait!
Jadrool                             Lazy bum (cucumber)
Ooo-Fah                         I've had it/I'm fed up                     
TooSay Batz                   You're crazy
Bock-owz                       Bathroom/stink house
Bazanigole                      Basil
Boombotz                        Idiot/Crazy
Brazjole                            Brasciole/Penis
Kay-Gotz                         What the F*ck
Gotzo                                What Balls
Coh-Yonees                   Balls
Ah-Va-Fan-gool          Go f*ck yourself
Pasta-vazool                 
Pasta fagioli (bean soup)
Gobba-ghool                 
Capicola (a type of cold cut meat)
Gabeesh?                         Understand?
Gavone                             Pig/Slob/Overeater
Jamoke                             Idiot
Goombah                        Pal/Comrade/Friend
GooMahd                        Girlfriend
ComoseeCyam?            What do you call it?
Keh -sa-deech?            How are you?
Mal-yOke                        Evil eye
Mamaluke                       Idiot/stupid/screw-up
Manageya                        Damn it/Curse it
Managutt                         Manicotti (pasta)
Madone!                           Madonna! (exclamation)
Medz-a-medz                So-so/half and half/not so much
Mutzarelle                       Mozzarella cheese
Naboleedahn                  Neapolitan/someone from Naples
piezahn                            Friend/countryman/brother
Pitza-gaina                     Egg-meat pie
Boochach                         Bitch
Rigutt                                Ricotta cheese
Scarole                              Escarole/Cash money
Skutch                               Pest
StuGotz                             Screw it/F*ck it
Vena Ka                            Come here

--Jerry Finzi

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22 Comments
John Flagello
10/15/2015 04:47:33 pm

A wonderful trip back into my youth.
Thank you.

Reply
Jerry Finzi
10/15/2015 04:54:37 pm

John, I'm so glad it had that effect. Some of the stuff I write about here takes me back in time, while other things are laying a path for the future... and more to do with exploring Italy, in Italy itself, or in my own home life. Grazie! And come back often.

Reply
Arlene
10/22/2015 08:17:56 pm

Thanks for sharing

Reply
beddama
1/6/2022 07:14:29 pm

i dont know any napolitano even though im 100 percent italian blood american lol. I was raised with only sicilian spoken in the house so i had no choice but to be bi lingual with that.but still not literate in italian. this list is so charming because i didnt know both my ancestrial languages were so similar. napolitano is way closer to sicilian than standard italian. its also more easy for me to understand. i have so much difficulty with standard ... i learned spanish so fast. but standard italian is hard because we have " dialect" habits that are so hard to break. often i think the word in dialect is the same word in standard and its not. and people go " oh i guess you arent italian" sicilian was my first language ffs lol. and its not the same!!! i love the italian language family ancestors did not speak tuscan italian which is now standard italian they spoke sicilian, napolitano, and baresi but i only know sicilian. the government and the establishment speaks italian and its a beautiful language but its not the language of my people. where i came from. and these are not dialects or pigons they are languages of the native people of each area of the southern italian penninsula and its islands ext

Reply
gene christy link
1/18/2018 01:09:38 pm

Grazie, I enjoyed this. My family came from Alta Villa Irpina, near Avellino. In my house my mother used to call the dish-rag "Mopina." Go to Naples came out as "Ah-fa-Nabbala." Capricola was "Gabrigol." What fun to remember!

Reply
Rosalie Marchesi
6/12/2018 06:27:51 pm

This took me a long way back to my youth in Italian East Harlem bringing both laughter and some tearing up. I agree tat eventually the dialect will disappear. It is too bad.

Reply
Claire
10/20/2018 04:32:19 am

Hi - I've been trying to find some sort of spelling for an American - Italian slang / pidgin phrase meaning something like 'I got nothin'
Sounded to me like gotza basile growing up, but I can't locate a clue :-) Mille grazie

Reply
Janon
5/2/2019 12:31:59 am

Stugots is "dick"... its literally from questo cazzo (this dick)

Reply
Sean Hagan
5/4/2020 09:07:59 pm

My wife often speaks of her father and little phrases she would hear him utter as a child. He used to say to his friends in her hearing: "a fanobalee gotz!" She would laugh and ask him what it meant. He would say "Nothin'. It don't mean nothin'." This is what she believed it meant. I didn't buy it and was compelled to find out. I believe what he meant was "Get the f*** outta here!" So funny. Thank you so much for clarification. She loved it!

Reply
Vince Andiorio
8/20/2020 06:38:05 pm

I remember my family calling a boy something that sounds like “wa-LYÓ.” Do you have any idea how that would it’s spelled or where it comes from?

Reply
Anthony
1/3/2021 11:59:44 am

Wanione is boy in the Barese dialect

Reply
Herbie
5/21/2021 03:15:41 pm

"Guaglione" is the accepted spelling, pronounced as you wrote it, with "w" not "g".

Reply
Jerry Finzi
8/25/2020 12:08:29 pm

Cioa, Vince!

I think you're probably referring to "guaglio", pronounced in the South with a soft "g". The word itself is sort of a slang for a boy or young girl (guaglia)... pretty much meaning "kid". You can use it the way we do... even for adults, like "Hey kiddo, how's it going?"... "Ciao, guaglio! Come va? While you can use it for young kids, you can also use it like we use "dude".

In the Naples area, the slang for kid is "uaglio", used in the same way. Uaglio would definitely be the word you're looking for since it's pronounced the way you wrote it... “wa-LYÓ.”

Buongiornata, uaglio!

--Jerry F.

Reply
Angela Santigate
9/29/2020 05:57:06 pm

Thanks for this. It's giving me that warm fuzzy grandparent vibe. I miss hearing these words so much.

Reply
Tom link
12/10/2020 08:46:43 pm

Sicilian American parents called their teenagers:

Scumbari - slob, your shirt was sticking out
Turk, you’re unfriendly to relatives
Chooch ( ghooch) lazy

Reply
Ottavio
12/16/2020 05:24:40 pm

Dees-Gradseeyad

Clearly it was always your father saying the word: that "eeya" sound is so characteristic of the area around Bari!

Being an Italian who has lived in the States, this list is so funny.

Reply
Karen Mazzone
8/31/2021 03:42:18 pm

I have heard and used all of the above..... very frequently might I add..... Thank you for sharing.

Reply
Don Loy (LoIacono)
9/1/2021 02:49:42 pm

Wonderful trip back in time to my childhood. Heard, and used every one of these terms in our house with a Sicilian father and Baraise mother. Pronounced just as you have them here. Thanks.

Reply
vito formica
10/23/2021 09:32:43 pm

Mistake.

1/2 Hoboken from Molfetta not Barletta.

Reply
Tony Rocco
1/15/2022 12:35:54 pm

This is great! So many words my father and his parents said....and ones I still use...I searched "stroons" and that's what lead me here. Thanks again.

Reply
Melanie
1/16/2022 12:59:21 pm

What’s the actual spelling of toosaybatz, I laughed so hard when I saw this, it was my Dad’s favorite expression.

Reply
Jerry Finzi
3/22/2022 02:57:09 pm

Sorry for the late reply...

You can simply say Sei pazzo... or tu è pazzo.

Reply

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