FW: Capocollo (1953)

[Frank Abate]

Just to add to what Larry H says below and what Steve Boatti observed, the
New Haven area Italian-American community (of apizza fame), most of whose
ancestors hale from Southern Italy or Sicily (it is said), say this
something like "COP- at -COAL", with primary stress on the last, and secondary
on the first.  At least, that's how it sounds to me.  The sounds represented
by "C" are quite guttural, and the second one may be slightly voiced, though
not quite all the way to "G", to my ear.

So this is the last-syllable-of-standard-Italian-being-dropped syndrome, as
has been observed on ADS-L with several other Italianisms used in the New
Haven area.

I was mystified by all this when I first encountered it here in CT.  I am
half-Sicilian myself, and my grandfather (100% Sicilian, born there) ran a
deli in Detroit, so he used to sell all the food items that are subject to
this syllable-dropping.  I never heard it, from him, from my grandmother
(also 100% Sicilian, but born here), or from my dad or any other relatives,
all of whom settled in Detroit or were born there.  This leads me to suspect
that this trend is Neapolitan or mainland S Italy, not Sicilian dialect.

Mingya!

Frank Abate

At 8:20 AM -0500 2/3/03, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>
>It's in OED as "capicola" although not as a headword (it appears in a
>citation under "provolone").
>
>There are many spellings. "Capicola" is the one I think I've seen most
>often.

Ditto around here (New Haven), although my usual concern is the
distinction between "hot" and "sweet", not that between "capicola"
and "cappocollo" (or other variants).  The hot version is truly
ambrosial, although no doubt higher in cholesterol than ambrosia.
And, as the OED foresaw, particularly good with provolone, whether or
not you pronounce the final vowel of the latter.

larry