apizza; pie

[Steve Boatti]

The following communication from a real flesh-and-blood Neapolitan, in
response to my query to the listserv of the Italian-American Historical
Association, may shed further light on the meaning of "apizza:"

From: alessandro buffa <alessandro_buffa at hotmail.com>



First of all let me say hello to all members of the list since I just

subscribed to it. I am from Naples but I'm moving to New York to do graduate

studies next month.  I can confirm that in Neapolitan dialect "la pizza" is

written "a pizza" and pronounced "/a pizz/". So, I agree with Steve Boatti

about the origin of the word "apizza" in New Haven, CT.


Best regards,

Alessandro Buffa


Subject: Fwd: "Apizza":Boatti



> From: Ittaob at aol.com

>

> Many of you may know that in New Haven, CT, the local word for "pizza"

seems

> to be "apizza," as shown in the name of many pizzerias in that city and

> environs. It is usually pronounced "a-beets." On the listserv of the

American

> Dialect Society, there is an ongoing debate about the origin of the word

> "apizza."

>

> Do any subscribers to this list have any information about this? My own

view

> is that it is simply Neapolitan for "la pizza," from the use of "a" for

"la"

> ("the").  Is this likely? Others have speculated that the "a" is from the

> Latin "ad", "to". (In Italian, "a" also means "to.") Another thought was

that

> "la pizza" or "una pizza" became "l'apizza" or un' apizza", much as in

> English "an ewt" became "a newt."

>

> Steve Boatti

>