Ahhh. To be Italian in South Philly.
For anyone not familiar with South Philadelphia, let me just say that it's ethnic to a large degree, with the most prominent group being the Italians. It is South Philly Italian Market that is wholly responsible for turning my niece into a quasi-almost-complete-and-definitely-not-lamb-eating vegetarian. I had the grand idea of taking my sister's suburban raised offspring to the market at delicately young age only to run directly into a shop window where three, count 'em three fully skinned -but-heads-still-on-baby lambs were hanging by the back paws. It turned out not to have been such a stellar idea, my wanting to bathe the kiddies in a bit of our own ethnic culture. Culture?
South Philly, I discovered, is Italian American at its most basic, its most primeval. It's the Italian American stereotype grabbing at its own crotch with a crooked grin, and thumbing its nose at the rest of the world.
But who am I talking to here? Clearly you have all seen at least one episode of "Jersey Shore". You get what I'm talking about, don'tcha?
South Philly Italian American also has its own vernacular, which, for the uneducated, can be disconcerting. Mine is mayan, yeah, like the Indians, and water is wurder. That place with the big ocean where you are dying to have a condo is da shure and the red stuff that goes on spaghetti is gravy. Graeeevie, to be exact. Now, you can find this dialect pretty much all over the Delaware basin. But when you're in South Philly, the speak has something to do with being Italian. Don't ask me what, exactly, but you have to go there to get the feel.
Tony asked me to marry him! He's mayan. We're going to da sure for our honeymoon and we'll eat a lot of wurder ice! I hope I can make graeevie as good as his mom!
Now, that's Italian.
My husband, doing his rounds for the company, stopped in for a while at the Staples store in South Philadelphia many years ago. One of the girls working there was named Dawn (let me put that into South Philly Italian for you ---Duoowwn). Dawn was working the register when a family of four Italians, I mean the kind from Italy, walked up to pay for their purchases. Attractively dressed, polite and real. Italians.
From the boot. Not from the 'hood.
Dawn, catching that the family members were speaking to each other in a foreign language, asked them, "So. Where are you from (weeeeer ya from)?
From Italy, the father of the family replied. EET- AH-LEE!
"Huh," said Dawn skeptically. "Funny. You don't SOUND Italian."
Perception is everything, isn't it?
It's like using ricotta and mozzarella in lasagna. You think that's Italian? The white stuff in lasagna in Italy is bechemel sauce, not cheese! Or meat sauce. In Italy, meat sauce is comprised of, well MEAT! Tomatoes are just added to make it a bit spreadable; the sauce is barely even red.
Back in the day, before I actually spoke Italian, I was sitting in a restaurant in Liguria, by myself. The Italians next to me struck up a conversation. During the course of the conversation, they asked me if we had an Italian dish made of pasta and beans in America. I said, sure! Of course we do! Pasta FAZOOL.
The entire restaurant broke out laughing. Ok, there were only four tables in the place. But I still turned beet red.
Pasta e fagioli is the actual name of the dish. Pasta FAZOOL, we figured out that evening, some arcane Sicilian or otherwise southern Italian dialect watered down by three generations of Italian Americans who COULD NOT SPEAK ITALIAN!!!
I love being Italian. Except that I'm not. I'm clearly Italian American. And that's a completely different thing than being Italian. Except that it isn't.
If Italian American had a Facebook page, it's relationship status would be "It's Complicated."
14 comments:
Is the last syllable dropped in South Philly?
Did you ever watch the Sopranos? The accents of the characters were dead on. When I first started studying Italian I used to say Proshoot, Motzarel, etc. my professor was like, where are you from, why are you dropping the last syllable?
I don't know if MTV Italia will start airing "Jersey Shore" here but I heard a rumor that the "stars" of the reality show might be filming in Italy for the new season. That will be comedy.
The show has received a lot of controversy. Many feel it's a bad representation of Italian-Americans. Also only one person in the house is actually from Jersey.
As someone who went to Jr. High and High School in Verona, NJ let me say most of the people in my town were not like Snookie and The Situation!!
South Philly is pretty classic, I have to say. There are rules. For example, the person with the largest wrought iron fence wins, even if it's a row house. The wrought iron fence can also be inside the house, for example, seperating the living area from the kitchen. There are also the Blessed Virgin Mary Fountains, which are often lit in several colors. These are the things that distinguish the haves from the don't got jack sh-ts. Oh, and then there are the gangland shootings. But they dump the bodies in Jersey usually.
This might sound like stereotyping, and by golly, it is. As an New York Italian American who was, for a very brief time, married to a South Philly Italian American, I consider it my unalienable right to affecionately dis the place. I really love it deep inside. Kind of. In a really dysfunctional way.
Yeah, true in upstate NY, as well. That Sicilian dialect thing I was raised with. Then, my generation simply mimics what they heard, and often they get even THAT wrong. I hear someone I know massacring Italian even worse than her parents did and it slays me! Michael and I want to learn real Italian in our retirement. Soon as we have time.
Well as a current (born & raised) South Philadelphian,this is rather stereotypical - though not without some truth to it!Things have changed over the years as younger people become more educated and new groups of immigrants haved moved in.Still, So. Philly remains home to a large group of Italian Americans and is a very special place. I have to go look for the official "South Philly Speak" as published by the So. Phila. Review (our local paper) a few years back. I will send it to you if I can find it. It's very funny. BTW, we eat Calamod, not Calamari!
Sheri
Sheri,
Calamod! :)
I know this is VERY stereotypical. And partially tongue in cheek. The interesting thing to me is the vast difference between what is Italian and what is Italian American. And for that, I chose the most extreme example. I can't really think about South Philly without smiling. It's that kind of place.
My ex-grandmother-in-law actually had a wrought iron fence separating the living room from the kitchen. The other classic home decorative elements: A back-lit Modonna and Baby Jesus picture, a floor lamp where the stem of the lamp was actually a plaster of paris angel, fitted plastic covers on the sofas and plastic rug runners on the shag carpet, and, in the front window, a monstrous air conditioner which blew everything in its path away.
The air conditioner not only served to chill but also to block any possible light out, hence prolonging the already extended lives of the beige, plastic covered sofas.
I look back on that row house with a great deal of affection. I think a recreation of it should be in a museum somewhere.
Long live South Philly. Hope it does not change TOO much!
I found the funniest manifestation of the differences between Italian and Italian-American a few weeks ago in the UWS Fairway: there was a sign in the deli advertising that they carried guanciale (saying what it was, how delicious it is, etc.) and they even had a pronunciation key:
"Gwoon-key-all" (or something similar).
They went through all of that trouble, and still couldn't be bothered to add in that last syllable.
Oh this is soo funny an Italian-American from Lonnnnnnnnng Island, I know where you are coming from Diane! I have to admit, we have watched the Jersey SHore a few times for some good laughs (especially since my husand was born in Toms River and his grandparents had a fish market in So. Seaside Park--it brings back memories for him too....and the Pasta Vazooolll-love it, that's how we said it growing up! I think I would rather be ITALIAN!
I just love, love, love this. Reminds me of this little lady in Texas who talked to me in "Italian" and I could just not understand anything.
Great post. My mom grew up in a very Italian American neighborhood in Boston and now that I live in Italy, I've been able to decipher for her some of the recipes that were taught to them in Italian dialect.
What a great article! I had a similar experience growing up in Boston, where our accents are ALMOST as good :) I wrote about the differences (mainly food related) between being Italian and Italian/American
here.
So true, Diana :)
To NYC above, dropping the last syllable of words is a southern Italian thing--common from Naples to Sicily--and since most Italian Americans have roots in the south, this is where that particular speech tick comes from :) Other words like "mutzerell'" are straight up mimicked from local southern dialects in which many vowels change to a "u."
"Fazool" I'm pretty sure is Napolitan' ;)
In my (Italian-American) family, we've always said "fajole" which is a little closer to Italian and actually close to how they say it in Calabria; I'll never forget when I had my grandmother write the word down for me, though, and she wrote it "fagioli."
"Fag-ee-oh-lee?" I asked? :D Ah, the days of innocence....
Italian American is most definitely not Italian! (But, then I can't even claim to be Italian American...I'm just a "Wanna be Italian" with my nose pressed to the glass looking in!) Never the less, having lived in Italy and having many Italian friends, even I can see the difference between the Americanized Italian culture that developed in this country. American Italians are fiercely proud of their heritage, but hold onto memories of Italy from the 1950s. Last fall I attended a street festival held to celebrate Little Italy in San Jose. I shot video of the festivities and showed it to my friends who live in Garda. They fell off their chairs laughing saying that is not how real Italians party! That is not the music real Italians listen too. That is not what real Italians eat! I have to admit it was all a little embarrassing and, yes a teensy bit sad. These ItalioAmericans are not real Italians, they are Americans that have created a whole new culture, with amalgamated traditions..proud & still clinging to their heritage, but severed completely from the pulse of the real bel paese!
Great post! As a Philly native, though not of Italian descent unfortunately, Italian-American never made any sense until my first visit to Campania. It has surprising parallels to the rougher neighborhoods in Naples. I say that with nothing but admiration and affection. Few places can match the passionate embrace of life as can the Porta Nolana in Napoli or the Italian Market in Philly.
Great post! As a Philly native, though not of Italian descent unfortunately, Italian-American never made any sense until my first visit to Campania. It has surprising parallels to the rougher neighborhoods in Naples. I say that with nothing but admiration and affection. Few places can match the passionate embrace of life as can the Porta Nolana in Napoli or the Italian Market in Philly.
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