So, if you’ve studied our recent blog Parliamo Romanesco! you should be getting the hang of the Roman dialect by now, and ready for your next challenge. Here it is …

To get a real flavour of the Romano dialect it goes without saying that you need to hear it spoken, or sung, by a native of Rome. Who better, therefore, than Roman actor, comedian, singer, and director Gigi Proietti to provide us with a perfect example of ‘er Romanesco‘ at its finest.

In the following video, Proietti describes how, at a certain hour (“fra le due meno venti e le due e un quarto … alle due meno diciotto”) the ‘cantante da night’ (night club singer) would perform a song in ‘il francese’ (French), which was considered very suave and intellectual.

https://youtu.be/dix7kyojepw

The cantante would be dressed in black: “scarpe nere, pedalini neri, carzoni neri, mutande presumibilmente nere, majone nero di quelli che finiscono qua …”

Lighting a cigarette, the singer would prepare himself … and begin …

te me rompe er ca’
te me rompe er ca’
te me rompe er ca’
te me rompe er ca’ … etc.

ti m’ha rotto er ca’
ti m’ha rotto er ca’
ti m’ha rotto er ca’
ti m’ha rotto er ca’ … etc.

perciò …

si me rompe er ca’
si me rompe er ca’
si me rooooooooompe er ca’

At this point he would walk over to the piano and speak, repeating the same ‘concept’ that he had previously sung. “Parlava triste, malinconico, definitivo, amaro”:

no me no …
me no no …
non …
non me …
romp …
er ca’ no …

….…
toi a moi … nun m’ha da rompe er ca’ no no no

“e finiva sempre così”: (and he always ended like this):

ti m’ha rotto er ca’!

Now, if you refer back to Serena’s basic instructions for understanding Romanesco you should be able to provide us with a perfect translation.

We look forward to your comments, a presto! 😉