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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).
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