ITALIAN MAFIA - Diallect in Brooklyn

student   Tue May 06, 2008 4:52 am GMT
What is the Italian dialect spoken by the Mafia in the Americas. Is it Sicilian ?
I have heard some Italos talking in Brooklyn, and they intermixed so many English words. Just like a Spanglish.

Are they still speaking Italian?
mafiusu   Tue May 06, 2008 6:32 am GMT
Slang - bad grammar and obviously Sicilian Calabrese accent. Contrary with the common belief, they are from many Italian provinces, as far as Northern Italy, including Sardinia.

The rule is - you have to be Italian (not just southerner) to be trusted for "cosa nostra" ("Our thing")

Today - most of them don't speak Italian, but regardless if you speak it or not, the criteria is still the same, you have to be Italian to be trusted. Many Italians were socially discouraged to speak it in the US, because of the negative connotations, associated with Italian. I personally know an Italian family with 5 mature sons. None of them speaks Italian, despite having both parents from Naples, Italy.
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 6:53 am GMT
If one's parents are Italians born in US, and they don't speak Italian, is that one still considered Italian?
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 7:17 am GMT
NO, Thats American with Italian ancestry or Italo-American
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 6:19 pm GMT
Are they still speaking Italian?

No, this is what you think because you see too many American movies. They have never speak Italian and if they are saying something which is not English is not Italian either. Some dialect maybe
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 1:18 am GMT
Brooklyn is not that Italian-flavored these days.
Try Staten Island/
Guest   Thu May 08, 2008 5:56 am GMT
<<If one's parents are Italians born in US, and they don't speak Italian, is that one still considered Italian? >>

For Europeans ancestry matters very much. In 90's when thousands of "germans" from Eastern Europe were granted german citizenship many of them didn't even spoke German - and they were considered Germans (bear in mind those Germans had been living in their host countries for centuries but they were still thought as intruders there). It is not like in US, Canada, Brazil where your origin doesn't matter but I guess even there some groups - like Italians - retain their European way of thinking.
Lech   Sun May 18, 2008 3:00 am GMT
Yeah, I can tell, ancestry and race matters very much for Germans, you can always watch documentaries of Hitler!
Guest   Sun May 18, 2008 3:44 am GMT
Michael Corleone   Sun May 18, 2008 12:08 pm GMT
What I wanna know is..........Who killed Frank Pentangeli?
Scully   Sun May 18, 2008 2:04 pm GMT
What I wanna know is....Who killed Laura Palmer?
Guest   Sun May 18, 2008 2:04 pm GMT
I did.
Michael Corleone   Sun May 18, 2008 2:31 pm GMT
I think Frank Pentangeli's death was ordered by Hyman Roth.