goopaline or ? =hat

[Sam Clements]

To reply to/add to my own question:

Here's the original thread from the Straight Dope.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=281940

And the answer can possibly/probably be found there.

"I'm pretty sure that meowpossum has it right and that it's a New York / New
Jersey (think Tony Soprano!) pronunciation of cappellino.

Italian-Americans in the Northeast USA arrived predominantly from Southern
Italy (Naples, Calabria, Sicily), where there is a tendency to drop the
final vowel (or make it a schwa at most) rather than pronounce it fully as
in Northern Italy. Other differences between what is considered "Standard"
Italian (i.e. Northern) and the NY-NJ pronunciation are the pronunciation
shifts "o->oo", "k->g", and "zz (ts)-> soft z".

Manicotti -> Manigott'
Mozzarella -> Moozarell' (or even Moozadell')
Cannoli -> Ganool' (cf meowpossum's friend's guh-NOL)
Calamari -> Galamad',

hence Cappellino -> Goopalin' is not too much of a stretch. Google doesn't
show it because it's not a proper spelling, thus presumably rarely written,
although one can find a few entries for "Manigott" and "Moozadell" (the
latter mainly because one of the episodes of The Sopranos is called The
Telltale Moozadell).

In Italy itself, "Cappellino" can be used to refer to a baseball-style cap.
Since New York Italians already have a term for "baseball cap", it's
possible that the reference shifted to a wool cap with pom-pom as in the
OP."

Sam Clements


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sam Clements" <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 6:35 PM
Subject: goopaline or ? =hat


Is there a wool hat with a pom pom that has a name that approximates my
spelling---goopaline?

I can't offer any help as to region, but it's not in OED or HDAS.

SC