Tag: Spain

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Italian Language Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Spain Spanish Teacher Translation

Lunfardo and Neapolitan dialect, a history of friendship

A slang invented to deceive the prison guards, a reverse dialect that comes from the other side of the ocean. Lunfardo is a dialect spoken in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, particularly in the port area.

In the book “Aproximación al lunfardo“, José Gobello says that the Lunfardo is neither a language, nor a dialect. According to its definition, Lunfardo is a vocabulario compuesto por voces de diverso origen que el hablante de Buenos Aires emplea en oposición al habla general. A vocabulary made up of voices of various origins that the people use instead of the general idiom.

And the desire to rebellion against the imposed society, activated through the use of a new and unwritten language, could have been born there in Argentina around the twentieth century.

A historical moment in which Argentina had recently gained its independence and had seen hundreds of Italian immigrants arrive in its land, mainly from Southern Italy.

In fact, the linguists affirm that Lunfardo is very similar to the Neapolitan dialect, especially in the musicality of the language. Obviously it also contains nuances of other spoken languages such as Genoese, Piedmontese and some words of the archaic Castilian.

Its use is very frequent, especially in the songs of the typical dance of these cities, the tango. Colloquially, it is called lunfa.

Today, some words of the Lunfardo have been incorporated into the common Spanish of the city of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, while many have fallen into disuse, or have a very infrequent use or limited to certain particular contexts. With the word lunfardo, many now tend to indicate all the slang of Buenos Aires and its surroundings, regardless of whether the origin of the term or of the neologism is linked to the real origin of the lunfardo or not.

The words that compose the Lunfardo are essentially verbs, nouns and adjectives. It is not possible to speak completely in Lunfardo, but at most it can be used terms that compose it.

The choice of a Lunfardism reflects a rebellion against linguistic standards and it is for this reason that it can be considered a unique phenomenon, which expresses a relationship with the world in an ironic, critical and contemptuous way.

Lunfardo is a 5,000-word argot (linguistic register of a social group, whose purpose is to exclude strangers from communication, encrypting the messages exchanged), rich in Italian and Neapolitan words, which is spoken in the cities of the Rio de la Plata.

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Italian Language Neapolitan

Ammuina from Spanish Amohinar

“Nun facite ammuina!”, (Do not make a fuss), a phrase that all Neapolitan children have heard their parents say. The word ammuina comes from the Spanish expression amohinar, which in Spain (and especially in Catalonia) means “to annoy”.

Both the region of Catalonia and the metropolitan city of Naples live in a State within the State and speak a language in the language. Their dialect is the most common form of communication. In those lands comes the dialect first and then the national language.

The concept of ammuina is obviously broader in the city of Parthenope. It can have both a positive and a negative meaning. Generally it has a negative one, because the fuss is always something annoying. But in such a chaotic and transgressive place as Naples the ammuina is also a positive thing. In order to make a revolution or to move a political and social situation it is necessary to do the ammuina. Go to the street to protest, march through the city, shout out loud together that something is not right. Hence the Neapolitan exhorts his friends by telling him “Facimmo ammuina” (let’s make a noise), that is, we go down to the square and go to protest for our rights.

For many years historians believed that the word ammuina was linked to an episode dating back to the events of the Neapolitan Navy. According to some, it derives from a fact that really happened after the birth of the Italian Royal Navy. A Neapolitan officer, Federico Cafiero (1807- 1888), passed to the Piedimontese already during the invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, caught sleeping with the crew, was put under arrest by a Piedimontese admiral for indiscipline. After serving the sentence, the officer was put back in command of his ship where he thought it well to instruct his crew to “make ammuina” (the greatest possible confusion) if a superior officer had presented himself, so as to be warned and, at the at the same time, to demonstrate the industriousness of the crew.

But let’s go back to the most common situations. If two Neapolitan children are left alone in a room to play and leave their toys lying around, their mother will scold them saying “What have you done? Take away this ammuina!”.

And finally, if someone is used to complaining about small nonsense, it is certain that a friend will say to him:“Stai facenn troppa ammuina!”, “You are doing too much for nothing”, ridiculing his way of being, making him go back to reasoning.

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English Familiarity History Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Neighbourhood Past Senza categoria Spain Spanish Teacher Translation

Guappo from Spanish Guapo

Guappo ‘e casa e strunz ‘e piazza. “Boss in the house and asshole in the square”.

This is the phrase that my aunt always pronounced referring to her neighbor who, as soon as he got home from work, would scream at his wife and children. My aunt wanted to say precisely that this man, so docile when he was around town or at work, acted like a boss when he came home, to let off steam of all his frustrations. But he was really an idiot, a weak, an asshole, because he preferred to treat his relatives badly and not get angry with who he should have.

The guappo in Naples is that person who wants to behave like a boss, a bully, a rude. This word derives from the Spanish “Guapo” which means “Beautiful”. And in turn it probably derives from the Latin word Vappo which means a man who can’t do anything, a lazy. Furthermore, according to some historians of the language, it would also derive from the English slang Wop (With-Out Passport), which was used in the early 1900s in The United States to indicate Italians in a derogatory way.

The guappo must therefore be identified as that individual who likes to create havoc, noise, annoy and act as if he were a boss. He is the man who is always ready to throw himself into the fray of a fight, to create a controversy, to beat the others.

The word guappo is so widespread in Naples that it has created a series of other terminologies and idioms. For example, a Neapolitan refers to the word Guapparia when he means that someone is behaving like a guappo. Or in Naples it is also said: “The guapparia is rising”, to affirm that the nervousness is becoming so strong with respect to an event, that soon it is probable that a violent quarrel will also be reached.

As we have said several times, the Neapolitan dialect is a language that is expressed with much irony. The guappo can be a person who scares others and therefore, to destroy the image of a violent who scares us, in Naples they invented the way of saying Guappo di Cartone (guappo of Cardboard). Who is this kind of Guappo? It is that person who behaves like a boss but who does not know how to handle the situation well.

Above all, he is the one who has very weak enslaved people behind him, who deals with matters of little importance. In short, he is a person who behaves like a guappo only in certain circumstances that are not absolutely dangerous.

It may also be a person who promises revenge but who is actually afraid of facing the enemy and even that asshole in the square who said my aunt.

But Guappo di Cartone is a very big offense in Naples. When someone tells you that you are like that, he is saying that you are a really useless person for yourself and for all others.

You are a Cardboard Guappo because your figure is insignificant, similar to that of a cardboard template.

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Ancient Catalan document documento English Familiarity French History Intimacy Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Neighbourhood papel paper papier Past Senza categoria Spain Spanish Teacher Translation

Papiéllo from Spanish Papel and French Papier

Ma che è ‘stu papièllo?… What is this papièllo?

A typical phrase of the Neapolitans who find themselves having to read a document full of words difficult to understand. The Papièllo, in fact, in Neapolitan means mainly “document”. It derives from two foreign words: from the Spanish “Papel” and from the French “Papier”. Both words mean, in their respective languages, paper. And Paper is also intended as a document.

But the papièllo in Neapolitan is not only a written document. It can also be only oral.

It can be, for example, a wording on an ancient building, perhaps in Latin. Or a set of information, a decalogue of rules posted inside a civil building. In short, for the Neapolitan the papièllo is something to read or to say that it is really long.

By this we do not mean that Neapolitans do not like to read, on the contrary they will be happy to read a papièllo, provided that they are given the opportunity to make irony.

We know, at this point, that Neapolitan language needs to irony everything. It has to do it to play down, to make a conversation nice and above all to put the interlocutor at ease. To be ironic about something or a situation makes the situation itself lived in a way to read.

So, when a Neapolitan has to read a very long document, then, he announces to the listeners, or even to himself, that that document is a papièllo. Thus he uses the word papièllo to play down and say aloud: “We are ready to face a boring, long but necessary reading”.

But the papièllo can also appear in an informal, family conversations that do not concern official documents. For example, if a child of a Neapolitan family writes a letter to his grandfather for his grandparents’ party or for Christmas, it may happen that he becomes an object of irony on the part of his family. Let’s take an example. It’s Christmas and Carmine, a Neapolitan child, wrote a nice letter for his grandparents to thank them for the gift they made him find under the Christmas tree. The boy puts the letter under his grandfather’s pasta dish and, as soon as all the family members sit at the table, he says to his grandfather: “Look what’s under your plate”. Grandfather will find his grandson’s letter and start reading it. At that moment he will say in front of everyone: “Let’s read this little papièllo who wrote Carmine”. But he will say that in an ironic and above all affectionate sense, because he knows that his grandson is good at school and has written a long but full of love letter.

Let’s take another example. A Neapolitan husband is sent by his wife to do the shopping. The woman wrote her shopping list on a sheet of paper. When the man arrives at the supermarket, he unrolls the sheet and realizes that the list is really long. Then he approaches the shop assistant and asks him, in an almost desperate and compliant tone: “Can you help me, please? My wife gave me the shopping list but it’s a papièllo and I don’t understand anything.”

A typical shopping list that will lead the two lovers to a most certain fight

When the husband returns home, he will probably fight with his wife for forgetting to buy something. And the husband will justify himself by saying: “You gave me to buy a papièllo di roba, “too much stuff” (in this case the word papièllo is accompanied by the word roba, which means stuff), how could I remember everything?”.

So here we go from the irony to the apology. Using words that indicate exaggerated situations can also become, in the Neapolitan language, a form of personal apology for claiming that you are unable to complete a task but certainly not because of an improper fault.

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Appointment Catalan Down there English Familiarity French History Italian Language Latin Napoletano Napoli Neapolitan Neighbourhood Portoguese Portugal Senza categoria Spain Spanish Teacher Vomero

ABBASCIO that means DOWN

 

This time we’re talking about the word Abbàscio. 

In Italian it means giù (Down There). In the neapolitan language it comes from many languages like Spanish, Catalan, French and Portuguese. Abbascio is the product of the words abajo, a baix and en bas. 

In Napoli Abbascio is a word that can be used in different contexts. It mainly means down, that down to the building where you live. “Corri, ce sta ‘o pustino abbascio (run, there is the postman down)”. This is the typical phrase that your mother yells at you when the postman arrives at your house and you must also go down in your pajamas to go and sign a letter.

But abbascio also means the place of an appointment. “Ce vedimm abbascio addu te domani (see you down to your place tomorrow)”. Abbascio is therefore also that typical place, the usual place where you meet with friends. And it can be either the door of the palace of a friend, or a square, a street, a wall where everyone passes and it is easy to be able to make an appointment.

Dante plaza, the most common place to meet with friends in Napoli.

Naples is a city divided by neighborhoods, by traditions and ways of living. It contains many cities within one city. Citizens of the upper part of the city usually say the word abbascio when they want to talk about the neighborhoods that are located in the flat area. I’m talking about the neighborhoods of the historic center, the most famous ones. A citizen of the upper districts of Naples often says “vaco abbascio Napoli” to say that he is traveling (by funicular or subway) to the districts of the historic center of Naples. Sometimes abbascio can also be used in a derogatory way since the neighborhoods of the historic center are among the poorest in the city. And so an inhabitant of Vomero (the richest and highest Neighborhood of Naples) quietly says “Sto andando abbascio Napoli” to say: “I’m going to that area that I despise but where I am forced to go for work”.

Vomero neighboorhood.

We have seen in previous articles that the Neapolitan language is able to transform the meaning of a foreign word. Now we have been able to observe that a word that derives from different European languages takes on multiple meanings in the same Neapolitan dialect.

The culture and the freedom of speech of the Neapolitan are still evolving. They constantly change, defying time and traditions, the canons of language and the barriers of perception. 

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