guys and gals

[Joel S. Berson]

Apparently (young?) Italians on the Web use
"guys" generically -- although in the form "raga"
(an abbreviation of "ragazzi").  The following
was written on another list by a woman.

>The raganella can be a rattle, or a kind of frog.
>
>A "raga nella" (two words) does not exist. What
>you find in google is, probably, the beginning
>of a sentence in direct speech: "raga" is the
>Italian for the vocative "hey guys!" and "nella"
>means "in" or "inside" (literally "in the", with
>"the" declined at the feminine); so, sentences
>as I see in google: "Raga nella mia scuola..."
>or "Raga nella mia città..." mean "Hey guys! In
>my school..." or "Hey guys! In my town..."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org