At the moment I’m reading a book by the writer Andrea Camilleri, world famous creator of the fictional detective Salvo Montalbano. The book I’m reading, which was published in 2005, is a historical detective novel entitled Privo di titolo (Without title). It’s set in Sicily, Camilleri’s  favourite location for his stories, during the Fascist era of the 1920’s, and is based on real events.

What I love about Camilleri’s writing is his trademark creative use of the Sicilian dialect. Camilleri manages to balance the Sicilian dialect with standard Italian in such a way that his books are still understandable to the average Italian reader. Let’s say that he uses several levels of language: if the character is an illiterate person he speaks only in Sicilian (which can be difficult to understand at times); a character who is more educated will speak in a mixture of Italian and Sicilian often creating a comic effect; and an educated character (usually a professional, such as a doctor or a lawyer) speaks in proper Italian or even an exaggeratedly elaborate Italian. Through the interaction of these different levels Camilleri creates very vivid characters which are unmistakably set in Sicilian culture.

His writing is, of course, very difficult to understand if Italian is not your mother tongue, especially if you’re not familiar with the Sicilian dialect. But for me it’s not really difficult as I had two uncles who were Sicilian, one from Palermo and one from Marsala, so I grew up hearing the Sicilian accent and learned some of the vocabulary.

Let’s look at some examples of how Camilieri uses these different levels of language in his novel  Privo di titolo.

Firstly an example from page 150 of the Sicilian dialect spoken as by his illiterate characters:

“E iu fici accusì. Appena mi arrivaru vicini, mi firmai, mi voltai e desi un colpo in facci col lumi che avia in manu al primu ca mi capitò. E fici l’istissa cosa con l’àutru omo. E accussì putii scappari, macari si ci persi ‘u lumï”.

Translated into Italian: “Ed io feci così. Appena mi arrivarono vicini, mi fermai, mi voltai e diedi un colpo in faccia col lume che avevo in mano al primo che mi capitò. E feci la stessa cosa con l’altro uomo. E così potei scappare, anche se ci persi il lume”.

Translated into English: “So here’s what I did. As soon as they got close, I stopped, turned, and whacked the first one that came along in the face with the lamp that I had in my hand. Then I did the same to the other one. So that’s how I managed to run away, even if I lost the lamp”.

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Now an example of a dialogue between Lieutenant Pellegriti, who speaks correct Italian, and warrant officer Tinebra, who speaks a mixture of Sicilian and Italian (page 166):

Pellegriti: “Lei lo conosce?” (English: Pellegriti: “Do you know him?”)

Tinebra: “Io a tutti conosco. Perché?” (Italian: Tinebra: “Io conosco tutti. Perché?” English: Tinebra: “I know everybody. Why?”)

Pellegriti: “Gli voglio parlare” (English: Pellegriti: “I want to to talk to him”)

Tinebra si fici pinsoso. “E comu ci voli parlari? Ufficialmente? Ufficiosamente? Da Tenente a Segretario di sezione? Da omo a omo?” (Italian: Tinebra si fece pensoso. “E come ci vuole parlare? Ufficialmente? Ufficiosamente? Da Tenente a Segretario di sezione? Da uomo a uomo?”. English: Tinebra became thoughtful: “And how would you like to talk to him? Officially? Unofficially? Lieutenant to Secretary of the branch? man to man?”)

Pellegriti: “Da uomo a uomo. E dove vuole lui. Ma vorrei vederlo in giornata…” (English: Pellegriti: “Man to man. And wherever he wants. But I want to see him today…”)

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Finally, here’s an example of the extremely elaborate Italian language spoken by a judge, il giudice Bellezza (page 158):

“Signori, vi ho convovato ad ora sì tarda nel mio ufficio in Tribunale, e assai con voi mi dolgo del disturbo arrecatovi, per rendervi edotti di un fatto di inaudita gravità” (English: “Gentlemen, I summoned you at such a late hour into my office of the Court, and I very much regret the inconvenience it may have caused you, in order to acquaint you with a case of unprecedented gravity”)

P.S. While searching on the Internet for some information about Andrea Camilleri I discovered the official Camilleri Fans Club Check it out!

Last weekend Geoff and I went to Zurigo, Svizzera (Zurich, in Switzerland), for my cousin Francesca’s 50th birthday. Francesca, whose parents are both Italian, grew up in Switzerland, where her father used to work for the Italian Embassy in Zurich. She married a Swiss lawyer, and has two teenage children. Bilingual in Italian and Swiss German, Francesca is a professional translator and interpreter. She’s also fluent in English and French, and knows some Cantonese, but her specialisation is Swiss German Sign Language!

Visiting Francesca is always interesting from a linguistic point of view, especially when her children Oliver and Michelle are around as the conversations tend to move from English to Italian, to German, often all in one sentence … and Geoff and I can only participate in the English and Italian bits as neither of us speak German!  However, Saturday evening at her birthday’s party was particularly interesting: I’d liken it to being in the Babel’s tower. The 25 or so guests chatted together in German (naturally), in Italian, in English, in Spanish, and even in Sign Language!

Francesca on her throne

Due to the very variable weather, one day it’s cold and rainy and the next is sunny and hot, and the stress of organising the party and making sure that everybody and everything was OK, Francesca, the star of the event, lost her voice. So when it was time to blow out the candles on her birthday cake and open the presents my resourceful cousin and her friends organised a chain translation system: Francesca, sitting on the ‘throne’ which her friends had specially created for ‘the queen of the party’, spoke to the guests using Sign Language. This was translated into German by her work colleague Monica, and then translated into Italian by her friend Guia for those, like us, who didn’t understand German!

Bellinzona: the impressive remains of several defensive castles are visible from the road

Guia is a Swiss citizen, but her mother tongue is Italian because she was born in Canton Ticino, the southernmost Canton of the Swiss Confederation. Canton Ticino was Italian until the 16th century, when it was annexed to Switzerland, but even today the official language is still Italian. Its capital town is Bellinzona, which sounds like it should mean “beautiful area”, but according to local folk etymology the name actually means “war zone”, from the Latin bellum meaning ‘war’. Bellinzona is in fact situated at the convergence of several main routes which cross the Alps and then lead down into Italy. Amongst these are  il passo del San Gottardo (the St. Gotthard pass), and il passo del San Bernardino (the San Bernardino pass, which is our favourite route). Due to its strategic importance this area was subject to regular invasions from both the north and the south, and the impressive remains of several defensive castles are visible from the road.

Il Castello di Mesocco, we pass through this evocative landscape on our way up to il passo del San Bernardino

Another peculiarity of the Canton Ticino is the fact that it encloses a small portion of Italy called Campione d’Italia. Campione d’Italia is situated on the right side of lake Lugano, and is completely surrounded by Swiss territory. In terms of geografia politica (political geography) this little portion is designated una exclave (an exclave) from the Italian point of view, and una enclave (an enclave) from the Swiss point of view.

Italian is also spoken in il Cantone dei  Grigioni (the Graubünden canton), together with German and Romansh. When we drive from Italy into Switzerland and cross the border at Chiasso (literally: Noise) into the Swiss Canton Ticino, the first thing we notice is that although we’re in Switzerland nothing seems to change. All the road signs, shop and factory names, and so on, are still in Italian. However, as soon as we emerge from the 6.5 kilometre long tunnel which takes us through the mountain ridge under  il passo del San Bernardino in il Cantone dei  Grigioni, we find that the Italian Uscita (Exit) signs along the autostrada are replaced by German Ausfahrt (Exit) signs, and we realise that finally, linguistically speaking, we are really in Switzerland.

What a fascinating and varied world we live in!

Just outside Pontremoli there’s a bakery that makes a delicious focaccia al mais (cornmeal focaccia). As much as I’d like to buy it fresh every day, it’s not practical for me and Geoff, because we live in a tiny little village 10 km north of Pontremoli, in the opposite direction from the bakery. So, as I’m already used to making my own bread at least once a week, I decided to try and make my own focaccia al mais. After a few experiments I came up with quite a satisfactory version, which Geoff likes a lot, and I’m going to share this recipe with you:

Preparation:

In a big mixing bowl I mix the two flours together with salt and sugar, and make a well in the centre. Then I mix two third cold water with one third boiling water to get the right lukewarm temperature. I pour the water in the well that I made in the flour, add the olive oil, and then crumble the yeast into it. I first work the ingredients with a wooden spoon, and then with my hands, kneading the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. It takes about ten minutes.

I dust the mixing bowl with a bit of flour, put the dough in it, and cover it with a tea towel, then wrap everything up in a small blanket or a bath towel to rest for about an hour to rise. Oh yes, I must remember to put a baking tray or the bread board on top of the mixing bowl otherwise one of our six cats, usually Smokie, thinks that I’ve made a nice snuggly bed for him to rest on!

After about an hour I warm up a baking tray (I use a rectangular tray), and dust it with a sprinkle of flour or cornmeal. I knead the dough for another couple of minutes, then roll it out quite thinly, about one cm thick, and lay it in the baking tray. I cover the tray with the mixing bowl turned upside-down in order to stop the cats from laying on it, and wrap it up in the blanket once more for another forty minutes.

Fifteen minutes before baking the focaccia, I light the oven to 240°C (450°F). When it’s time to bake the focaccia, I use my fingertips to make indentations on its surface. In a small cup I mix a little water with a little olive oil and then brush this generously over the focaccia (this is a trick that my friend Annalisa taught me). Finally I sprinkle some coarse sea salt over it. I put the baking tray in the oven on the bottom rack and lower the temperature to 220°C (425°F), leaving it to cook for 25 to 30 minutes. I transfer the nice golden focaccia onto a wire rack to cool down before enjoying it with some nice ricotta or pecorino cheese.