Tag: Origin

If you speak in Neapolitan you have to ironize about something.

After World War II, American troops settled particularly in southern Italy. And from this settlement they were born mixtures and attractions of various kinds. American civilization was really different for the Neapolitan people: too modern in language, too futuristic in lifestyle. Yet the Americans relied well on Napoli, many soldiers found a new home, some even love, others a simple refuge from the horrors of war. Unlike most of the xenophile words that are part of the Neapolitan language, the Anglo-American words have been incorporated into our speech through a transformation of meaning. Among all the ways of speaking in my language, there is one that amuses and makes us think.

When in Napoli a person is showing off too much it is said that “se spara ‘e pose” (si dà le arie, in Italian language). And when you tell someone that “se spara ‘e pose”, you mean that the person to whom you are referring to it’s really exaggerating in the ways. Therefore the Neapolitan citizens assert this sentence with conviction, in order to diminish the excess of boast from his interlocutor.

When an Italian wants to take a beautiful photograph, he is said to be posing. In the English-speaking language, instead, to create a beautiful photo it says “Strike a pose!” that means really, to pose. If we isolate the word strike from the rest of the sentence, we notice that the verb to strike means precisely “to shoot” in a decisive way. Here is where the Neapolitan phrase “Se spara ‘e pose” comes from. This is like a play on words.

As we have already said, irony is the basis of the Neapolitan language. And it is probable that whenever the Neapolitans listened to the Americans say “Strike a pose”, they did not understand what they were really saying or that this way of saying made them laugh.

To better convey the meaning of the Neapolitan ironic phrase, we can cite the scene of a critically acclaimed movie based in the suburbs of Naples. The movie is Io speriamo che me la cavo, by the movie director Lina Wertmüller.

The scene is set in a school in the poorest suburbs of Naples. The teacher asks his students to name the street in which they live. And one of the children claims to live in “via Garibaldi” (Garibaldi street) and to know everything about the historical character Giuseppe Garibaldi. Feeling in competition with his classmate, a child from the front desk shouts to the teacher: “Ma quale via Garibaldi… Se spara ‘e pose, si dà le arie. Quello abita nella via delle tre galline”( Garibaldi street what? This is not true… he’s showing off! He lives in the street of the three hens).

With one sentence the poor child ironizes about his friend’s condition and downgrades his image.

The irony of Neapolitan language is powerful mostly in this strategy. Laughing and making people laugh about their own or others’ condition.