![]() ![]() Trust me, it’s one of the most traditional things you can hear around. Sicilians are always interested in weather forecast and many times associate some specific events to the temperature or the cloudy (or sunny) sky. But you will always pay, won’t you?īuy something cheap and sell it at a double price. Who doesn’t intend to pay, signs any contract. Vucciria (Palermo)Ĭui nun voli pagari, s’assuggetta ad ogni pattu. ![]() Who buys needs one-hundred eyes (has to pay attention) who sells needs just one. ![]() If you are visiting one of the traditional street markets on the island, there are a bunch of Sicilian common sayings you can use…just for fun! Here are a couple of advice and recommendations…Ĭu’ accatta abbisogna di cent’occhi cu’ vinni d’un sulu. L’ amuri è come a tussi…nun si po ammucciari ![]() Well dear readers, it’s time to study with Sicilian Secrets. On the other side, if you are a tourist, perhaps you’re curious to learn some proverbs and use them during your holiday on the island. And maybe you don’t speak Italian at all but perfectly know some Sicilian common sayings. If you were born abroad but have a Sicilian heritage, maybe you heard your parents or grandparents speaking dialect pretty often. Moreover, in Sicily people use a lot of Sicilian common sayings that you cannot hear anywhere else around the whole country. Well, Sicilian is a mix of Romance languages and not only! It’s more than a dialect and perfectly reflects all the influences coming from French, Spanish, Arabic, etc. (Note that ‘ bout is pronounced with a:). Although it’s not the same phrase, the anecdote makes me wonder if it’s possible ‘fuhgeddaboudit’ was borrowed by Italian (or Sicilian) speakers, then loaned back to English after accruing hints of foreign inflection and phonology.īut is ‘fuhgeddaboudit’ actually common in New York-Italian speech? Donnie Brasco is based on a non-fiction book of the same name, and a quick Google Books search of the text yields dozens of ‘forget about its.’ That being said, I couldn’t find anything like Depp’s semantics lesson in the book.As everybody knows, Italian is a Romance language. While I’ve never heard someone in New York say ‘fuhgeddaboudit’ specifically, I once heard a man speaking (probably dialectical) Italian in Brooklyn insert the English loan ‘ don’t worry about it,’ pronounced rather like dɔn waɹi ba:ɾ et. Like, you know, like ‘Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker?’ and Paulie says ‘Forget about it!’ Sometimes it just means, ‘forget about it.’ĭoes anyone in New York actually demand that one ‘fuhgeddaboudit?’ It’s a tricky question, since ‘fuhgeddaboudit’ is just a transcription of ‘forget about it.’ And that’s a common phrase in English, after all. ‘Forget about it’ is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, ‘forget about it.’ But then, if you disagree, like a Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? ‘Forget about it!’ You know? But then, it’s also like if something’s the greatest thing in the world, like mingia those peppers, ‘forget about it.’ But it’s also like saying ‘Go to hell!’ too. Here’s a quote from Johnny Depp’s character on the phrase’s meaning in mafia culture: ‘Fuhgeddaboudit’ seems to have become a pop cultural meme around the time of the 1997 film Donnie Brasco. (I’m confused as to why James Caan is schooling a British RP speaker on the finer points of non-rhotic speech, but anyway …) You can hear an exaggeration of this idiom at 1:27 in the trailer for the Hugh Grant flop Mickey Blue Eyes: I would add to this list ‘ fuhgeddaboudit,’ a New York Italian-Americanism. Note Irish ‘ top o’ the mornin‘ (mostly fiction), Australian ‘ g’day‘ (mostly fact), and Cockney ‘ guvnor‘ (based in fact, but passé). Some dialect phrases are so parodied that you question whether they have any basis in reality. ![]()
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