Italian-Americanisms? or regionalisms?

[Alice Faber]

Dale Coye said:
>My summer class was instructing me on some of the finer points of Italian
>cuisine--they were mostly from the Trenton area.  Don't know if these are
>regionalisms or Italian-Americanisms.
>
>Gravy 'tomato sauce for pasta'-- DARE has a meaning =sweet sauces, but this
>meaning isn't there.   I asked them what they'd call gravy for turkey, or
>meat, and some said 'brown gravy'
>
>Pie  'a pizza'.  When you say, "We had a pie last night"  you mean a pizza.
>
>Ricotta-  pronounced /rih GAWT/-- with open o (cot/caught distinction is
>maintained almost universally by students here).
>
>Manicotti-- same thing /man ih GAWT/

The latter two sound familiar for New Haven also. I'm not sure of the vowel
quality (/a/ vs /ao/)--perhaps it's back unrounded?--but the <c> as /g/
(voiceless unaspirated) and the loss of the final /i/ is the norm here.

--
Alice Faber                                  tel. (203) 865-6163 x258
Haskins Laboratories                              fax  (203) 865-8963
270 Crown St                                   faber at haskins.yale.edu
New Haven, CT 06511