Italian-Americanisms? or regionalisms?

[Frank Abate]

Larry Horn said:

>>
(One of these days
I'll locate my student's senior essay in which he tracks the New
Haven Italian dialect to its source in two small villages in
Campania.)
<<

In the FWIW department, re _apizza_:

I was picking up a pizza today from Jerry's Pizza in Middletown, CT.  Jerry
was there.  He appears to be in his 60s, and has a thick Italian accent.
Though many Middletown residents of Italian heritage hail originally or
ultimately from Sicily, and many from Middletown's sister city of Melilli,
not Jerry.

I asked Jerry about _apizza_.  His response was that the word is not SPELLED
that way, that it is only said like that.  Now in Italy, with its prestige
Northern dialect, that suggests to me that the form _apizza_ is, per Jerry,
dialectal (at best) or ignorant, i.e., not in keeping with standard form.  I
asked Jerry where he was from in Italy, and he proudly said, "Napoli".

Of course, Jerry could simply have been demeaning the New Haven area Italian
Americans.

Frank Abate