Il Club Sociale Italiano

What is Italiese?

In my novel Aldo Gagliardi, the president of the Italian Social Club, meets two Italian exchange students the club was sponsoring to study in Canada. One of the students was majoring in linguistics and had come to study the Italiese dialect. Italiese is an unofficial Italian dialect spoken in Canada and in other English speaking countries.

Most of the immigrants who came to Canada after the Second World War and until the late sixties came from southern Italy and spoke the dialect they grew up with. Italian dialects between towns and regions are sufficiently distinct that someone who speaks Abruzzese may find it difficult to understand someone who speaks Calabrese and vice versa. In Italy, most Italians speak standard Italian that is taught in schools and their local dialects.

When they came to Canada the new arrivals face two linguistic challenges, learning basic English or French, and communicating with fellow immigrants who can from different regions of Italy. Adopting anglicized Italian words, and making English or French words sound Italian by adding an a or o to the end of the word helped them communicate in one of Canada’s official languages and with their fellow paisani.

It’s important to note Italiese is a spoken language not a written one. Most Italians read and write standard Italian.

Also, those who came to Canada had a strong desire that their children get an education so they can better themselves. It fell on many first generation children to read and translate legalese found in government and business documents into simplified terms that their parents could understand.

When I grew up these are some of the Italiese words that I spoke with my parents and relatives. I’m not an expert in linguistics nor phonetics, so the spellings are how they sounded to my ear. A few might be Calabrese words that I could not find in a dictionary.

Decline of Italiese

Sadly the usage of Italiese is in decline. It is still spoken by many with their aging parents and relatives. The Italian taught in clubs, local schools, colleges, and universities in Canada is standard Italian.

Efforts have been currently been made to document Italiese by linguistic departments in Canada such as the Italian Studies Department at University of Toronto and by the now defunct Italian Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Laurentian University, and around the world. Due to a financial crisis the entire Italian Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Laurentian University was cut in 2021.

References and Resources

Canadian Italian: a Case in Point of How Language Adapts to Environment

https://www.mhso.ca/ggp/Polyphony/Can_Italian_language.html

Lost in Translation: Speaking Italiese in Canada - Italy Segreta Abroad

https://italysegreta.com/speaking-italiese-in-canada/

Italiese - Dizionario

https://italiese.ca/dizionario/

Youtube video

Learn Italiese: How to pronounce Sudbury's most commonly used Italian/English words - YouTube