FW: apizza; pie

[Frank Abate]

What Steve says below jibes with what Jerry the pizza parlor guy said to me,
as posted just a bit earlier.

Frank Abate

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Steve Boatti
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 10:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: apizza; pie


In a message dated 7/12/02 12:08:52 AM, douglas at NB.NET writes:

<< t is speculated here and there that "pizza" is from a Germanic origin
(perhaps Lombard "bizzo" or so, meaning "bite"/"morsel"/"cake"), cognate
with English "bite" or German "Biss". This might not be very consistent
with the existence of a variant "a[p]pizza" in southern Italy (presumably
reflecting Latin prefix "ad"). >>

It is my belief that "apizza" derives from Southern Italian dialects that
render the Italian feminine definite article "la" ("the") as "a." Thus
standard Italian "la pizza" is "a pizza" in these dialects. I have heard
numerous Italian-American older people say it and similar words with the "a"
article.

Steve Boatti