Italiano!!

[GrunAugen]

Ciao! Ero in Italia per tre anni.

Unfortunately, I only speak the language and can't communicate as much in writing. I'm not perfectly fluent, though I'm sure I could still get by. I learned to speak Italian through conversation only... in Naples. (I may be alone in this, but I thought Naples was a diamond in the rough!) When I speak, my Neapolitan accent is so thick, the northerners don't understand me. Ah, well. Such is life.

Anyhow, I'm new and was very excited when I saw this thread. I wanted to revive it in case anyone else is looking for an Italian thread, too.

 

[Tepelus]

Hi all! Wondering if you could translate a bit of dialogue for me into Italian. A little about the work, first. My story takes place in the 15th century (Hungary, for the most part). My MC has a tutor who is teaching him Italian, the queen's Italian, as she is from Naples. This is a short greeting my MC says to a group of young women, his wife and her ladies. He says to them:

“Good day, ladies. You all look beautiful on this splendid morning.”

He pretty much says it to be a show off, since none of them understand a word of it. I may have more in the future, so you may see me again. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dryad]

Ciao a tutti! Non ho realizzatto che c'e un filo qui per italiano. Ho abitato a Venezia per tre anni ma non ho mai parlatto bene l'italiano e adesso non lo parlatto per un sacco di anni.

Tepelus, you want someone with 15th century Neapolitan knowledge, and that's not me! Good luck, though.

 

[Tepelus]

Ah, but thanks for responding anyway. I don't know anything about Italian so I don't know how different the dialects are from one area to the next, maybe it won't matter so much with that short bit I need to translate, but I'll wait and see if anyone else has anything to say about it.

 

[Shinkicker]

Vasco Rossi o Luciano Ligabue? Che e la migliore?

 

[crunchyblanket]

I speak, my Neapolitan accent is so thick, the northerners don't understand me.

Mr Crunchy e Siciliano and even he doesn't understand the Neapolitan accent I work with a doctor from Napoli. It really is the strangest sound, like talking from the back of the throat. Oddly pleasant sounding, though.

 

[Dryad]

Tepelus, the differences are huge, especially when you bring in your timeframe. To give you an idea, I encountered plenty of modern Venetians who couldn't understand Italian. (They spoke Venetian.) If you're looking for authenticity you'll need someone with very specific knowledge.

Shinkicker, Ligabue senza dubbio.

 

[Dodici]

Just checking in

Ciao ai miei compatrioti

 

[Caitlin Black]

Just had a quick Italian question about food.

Okay, here in Australia, we have a mishmash of cultures, resulting in one instance in what I ate for dinner tonight (and have had a lot): Chicken Parmigiana.

Basically, it's a Chicken Schnitzel (German, right?) but with Parmigiana sauce on top.

Now the question is what sort of things can or do go into a Parmigiana topping. Because some places do it as just cheese and some tomato-based sort-of thing, but some other places will add bacon or something like that.

So yeah - please explain this to me! Is it normal for the topping to vary from place to place? What precisely does "Parmigiana" mean? Is it related to parmesan cheese?

<-- clueless.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Roadlawyer]

What you call chicken parmigiana, the one with a tomato based sauce on it, is non-existent in Italy. A true chicken parmigiana is a chicken cutlet, rolled in breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, then sauteed in butter and olive oil. Parmigiano refers to Parmigiano Reggiano, the king of Italian cheeses, which comes from Parma a province in the region of Emilia. Probably much more than you wanted to know. Parmesan and Parmigiano Reggiano are the same thing...sorta.

 

[Caitlin Black]

Oh, wow, thanks.

So now I know that I won't be able to order one of those in Italy without having something totally different arrive on my plate.

Well, not totally different, but yeah. Y'know, I'm not even sure they use Parmesan cheese on the ones down here. It may be a different type of cheese.

Thanks.

 

[Roadlawyer]

Don't worry, you won't miss it. The food here is fabulous.

 

[Caitlin Black]

Yeah, I've heard that. It's one of the reasons I really want to make it over there some day. And the people, and atmosphere.

Kind of need money for flights and accommodation first, though. Ack!

 

[Jett.]

Salve!

Sono ormai tanti anni che non vivo piu' in Italia, tanto che ormai neppure I miei pensieri sono in italiano. Fortunatamente la capacita' di leggere e capire la lingua non diminuisce con gli anni

Saluti!

 

[Caitlin Black]

I think I understood what you said there, apart from a few words. Good to know I can still feel my way around the language.

(I can't, however, write the above in Italian.)

 

[Caitlin Black]

Random question for the Italians out there. I just had dinner at a place called "Caffe Primo". (The food was excellent, if anyone cares. )

Anyway, I was curious about whether that translates into English as "Coffee First", or if it gets reversed in translation to "First Coffee". I could never get the hang of sentence construction and word orders when I studied Italian all those years ago.

Or am I misremembering and "Caffe" means "Cafeteria" and "Coffee" is spelled as "Caffee"? I'm pretty sure I was right the first time around, but you never know.

 

[Jett.]

^ I'm losing my Italian, but I'd say that "Caffè Primo" means "Prime Coffee".
You're right. In Italian adjectives usually come after nouns. Though if you're counting the coffees, it's:
il primo caffè, il secondo caffè, il terzo caffè, ...
Can't tell you why...

As far as I used to know, "Caffetteria" means coffee shop, for which in some places the French word, "café", is used.

Since every language seems to be spelling the brew differently although it's basically the same word, I quit and drink tea, tè, tee... nevermind.

Let me sit here with you and wait for someone with more specific knowledge.

 

[Caitlin Black]

Thanks.

I'm not sure where the native Italian speakers of AW have gotten to, to be honest. This thread was active for a while there, but lately there haven't been many posts at all.

 

[Pegster]

This thread is probably dead, but there's enough ambiguity that Caffe Primo could mean "Drink coffee first," like Americans will, instead of last, dopo il pasto, like Italians will if they drink any at all. Or it could be a brand name. I vaguely recall seeing a coffee brand, like Lavazza or Kimbo, that was Caffe Primo. I hope the food was good.

 

[Pegster]

Che ti piacciano i gatti (hope you like cats).

October I visited some friends in Scandicci and we drove up to Orvieto. After unsuccessfully leaving my body at the bottom of Il Pozzo di San Patrizio, they dragged me across a very windy bridge to Civita di Bagnoregio. Quiet, cozy walled village framed by startling beautiful countryside, ala the Badlands of North and South Dakota. Mi raccomando, go see it before it falls off. Didn't see many people. Saw some forty cats, a touch aloof as cats will, but the mangy ones were friendly.

 

[Caitlin Black]

Ciao! Good to see this thread again, after so long. And curiously enough, I used a little Italian knowledge today to stun and impress my coworkers. Basically, there was a sign in Latin that they were trying to figure out - it said Deo Duce. They knew Deo meant God, but had no idea about Duce. Then I remembered the word Doge as being assigned to the leader of Venice, so hesitantly offered the idea that Duce could have something to do with leadership. After some Google-translating, "Deo Duce" was deigned "God as guide/leader".

Mwuhahaahhaa! Viva l'italiano!

 

[Pegster]

Auguri! Stretching the polyglot tongue is probably the cause of all that coughing. I think un po' di miele will soothe that.

 

[J.S.F.]

Question for the Italian contingent. In a recent novel, I used the word straniero to indicate "foreigner". Is that the correct word to use? I would hate to make a mistake in this. My Google search turned up that word, so if I am wrong, could someone please correct me or PM with the correct term to use? Much appreciated in advance.

 

[Tazlima]

Question for the Italian contingent. In a recent novel, I used the word straniero to indicate "foreigner". Is that the correct word to use? I would hate to make a mistake in this. My Google search turned up that word, so if I am wrong, could someone please correct me or PM with the correct term to use? Much appreciated in advance.

Yes, with a caveat. Straniero specifically refers to an individual, male foreigner. If you're referring to an individual female foreigner, it would be straniera. There are additional variations when the word is pluralized, but I'm guessing you don't need those.

 

[Caitlin Black]

Yep, the gender and number of foreigners will change how it's written (especially if you use an Italian version of "the" before it).