FW: Capocollo (1953)

[Joanne M. Despres]

On 4 Feb 2003, at 5:50, Frank Abate wrote:

> my grandfather (100% Sicilian, born there) ran a
> deli in Detroit, so he used to sell all the food items that are subject to
> this syllable-dropping.  I never heard it, from him, from my grandmother
> (also 100% Sicilian, but born here), or from my dad or any other relatives,
> all of whom settled in Detroit or were born there.  This leads me to suspect
> that this trend is Neapolitan or mainland S Italy, not Sicilian dialect.

I don't recall any syllable-dropping in "capicollo," "ricotta," "pizza,"
and the like in the speech of my Sicilian-born grandmother or any
other Italian speakers on that side of the family, either.  (My
grandfather was also from Sicily, but he died before I was born.)

Another peculiarity of their speech that I haven't heard mentioned
here was the use of an "oo" sound for "o" in some instances. For
example, "nanno" (our word for "grandpa" -- not the standard Italian
"nonno") would be pronounced "NAHnoo."  Standard Italian "con"
("with") was pronounced "coo."  Did you hear anything like that,
Frank?  I can't clearly remember whether "capicollo" would have
been pronounced with a final "oo" sound, but it did definitely end
with a vowel.

Joanne