Sit with a bunch of Italians around a dinner table at a family reunion and you’ll notice a difference in your hearing when everyone goes home. Basically, they are loud. Each of my family members that I spoke with commented on the loudness of their family, especially when my Nonu spoke Italian to his mom. None of the children of Louis and Priscilla know Italian fluently, especially the dialect of Italian that their dad spoke, Foulong. Brian speculates that the reason his dad never taught them the dialect was because the conversations that were in Italian were usually arguments over money and family issues. That way the kids also didn’t know what was being said to his mother (Brian). My mom agreed, remembering that the arguments were always in Italian. The one of the only words that was regularly heard amongst the kids was “capish” (Brian and Celeste). “It means ‘understand?’ in a command manner that means more like ‘you had better understand’ ” (Brian).

Though his children do not know the language, Louis does. However, he said since there are few people now to speak it with that he would have some trouble speaking it, but not understanding it. He grew up listening to it when his parents spoke the dialect with family and friends. However, he couldn’t speak it until he grew older. Two cousins from Italy then came to live with him for about six months, and Louis had to act as the interpreter. He then became pretty proficient at the dialect (Louis).

            Below are some words that are commonly used in my household and the households of my family members (Celeste).