Archive for 'Italian Language'
‘O Sole Mio Posted by Serena on Jun 18, 2009
‘O sole mio is without doubt the most well known Neapolitan (and probably Italian) song in the world. The lyrics were written by the journalist Giovanni Capurro in 1898, and the music was composed by his friend Eduardo di Capua, a professional posteggiatore, a Neapolitan word meaning someone who sings in restaurants and at parties. They then…
Parliamo L’Italiese, part 2 Posted by Serena on Jun 12, 2009
In my last blog I had a look at the way in which English words have been incorporated into the Italian language. In part two I thought it would be interesting to take a look at ‘the other side of the coin’, and discover some of the less obvious Italian words that we use in…
Parliamo L’Italiese Posted by Serena on Jun 9, 2009
Whether we like it or not, la bella lingua has absorbed a fairly substantial vocabulary from the English language. The language of sport and entertainment in Italy, for example, has long been influenced by English: ‘Il Jazz’ for example, was already in use back in the 1920s. During the fascist years under Mussolini there was…
Gli Scorpioni in Italia Posted by Serena on May 31, 2009
I remember when I was a child seeing a film, set in the desert of North Africa, in which a man was stung by a deadly scorpion which was hiding in one of his boots. Che impressione! (how frightening) for a long time after seeing that film I always used to bang and shake my…
Parole Onomatopeiche, the solutions, and a poem. Posted by Serena on May 22, 2009
It’s always exciting to launch a little quiz on the internet and wait for the answers to come rolling in, so first of all I’d like to say thanks to the people who replied to Parole Onomatopeiche, well done both of you! Now for the solutions: 2. Tic… tic… e’ il ticchettio dell’orologio (is the…
Parole Onomatopeiche Posted by Serena on May 13, 2009
O.K. it’s time for another one of my little quizzes. This one is based on parole onomatopeiche (onomatopoeic words). Here’s how it works: below, you will find a numbered list of sounds together with their onomatopoeic counterparts, this is followed by a list of things that produce the sounds (highlighted in blue). All you have…
Meta’ or Mezza? Posted by Serena on May 10, 2009
They say that two halves make a whole, but that’s not necessarily true. Let me explain: in Italian we have two words, meta’ and mezza, which both mean “half” in English. This can be very confusing, and students of Italian often find it difficult to know which of the two to use. Hmm, let’s see…