My Zio e Zia arrived from Calabria yesterday and we had a big family dinner at my parents’ house. The food was delicious and it was great to catch up and see how everyone is doing. It’s also fun to speak in our Calabrese dialect. I’ve lived in several parts of Italy and have come across many dialects. The famous Tuscan dialect that eliminates the letter “c” and replaces it with an “h”…. hasa = casa and you may have heard the famous drinking of a Coca-Cola with a cannuccia? the Sardinians, who like to jumble their words, “scherzando stai?” my aunt from Puglia says, Shamu = Andiamo and among the ones you know of, there are so many other dialects that you never knew existed. I can remember my barber in Bologna would speak to his friends while cutting my hair….. I didn’t understand a word, not even one. We have our dialect as I’m sure many of you do as well. The thing that amazes me about dialects is that they can be languages in themselves and they can vary from town to town. I’m sure our dialect from Calabria is different from dialects in other parts of Calabria. In our dialect we replace a lot of “Fs” with “Hs” for instance Cahe = Caffe’ or cutting words short, which is a big part of many dialects: iamu = andiamo. In addition, there are words in every dialect that are unique and completely different from the correct corresponding word in the Italian language.

I’ve noticed that dialects are slowly fading and many of my younger cousins in Calabria speak proper Italian. They are more prevalent with the older generations but I imagine that they will continue to fade. Growing up, I always assumed that we spoke Italian in our house but in fact, we spoke our dialect. I’m sure many Italian American families do the same. In addition, Italian American families who do speak dialect, usual speak the dialect that was used when their families left Italy, so many are older dialects…… not to mention that over time, they are infused with English influence. You know what I’m talking about!…… those words that are not Italian and not quite English. It’s a made up word, Italenglish or Engtalian. My father has been here for over 30 years and he likes to use certain words that no matter how many times you correct him, he will continue to use them. One of my favorite “dad words” is Yesternight = last night. Ieri sera would be yesternight…. right? makes sense to dad.

To me there is a beauty in dialects, an individuality but there are people who think dialects divide Italy…. to those people, I say “blah, blah, blah” which in our dialect means….. blah, blah, blah.