"What's a muzzadell?" Exploring Italian American Food Vocabulary
Have you ever wondered why the Italian at your deli is different from the Italian in your textbook?
by Brian Alcamo
Let me describe to you a feeling that anyone who appreciates Italian culture has felt.
A few times, my grandpa has brought over “banellis”, a fried chickpea pancake of sorts. They’re delicious, and can be dressed up in a multitude of savory flavorings (or sweet, if you’re looking to go against your nonna’s traditions). They’re the kind of treat that’s hearty enough to trick yourself into thinking they’re healthy.
This summer, my grandpa once again brought us some “banellis” from his favorite deli in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and I was reminded of how delicious they were. After having bought upwards of 10 pounds of chickpeas at the beginning of quarantine out of fear of not being able to go to the grocery store, I wanted to try to make “benellis” on my own.
Naturally, I went to Google. It turns out that “banelli” is the name of a rifle company, not a dense Italian pastry. I searched for “banelli chickpea” and had to scroll a bit before I could find what I was looking for: Panelle. It turns out that panelle (singular: panella) are “chickpea fritters,” and are a popular street food in Palermo, the capital and largest city in Sicily. The word is pronounced in Italian as [panelle]. Happy with my successful search, I still felt the unwelcome sentiment of being an uncultured American(o). Why can’t I just be from Italy? Why is this panelle so different from how my grandpa and other Italian Americans pronounce the word [bəneli]? The answer lies in which Italians came to America, and how their dialects differ from standard Italian.
A Brief History of Italian In the US
From the late 19th to the mid 20th century, the US saw huge numbers of Italians arriving to escape poverty, stake their claim, and try to live out the American dream. Many of these Italians came from Southern Italy and Sicily, bringing with them their non-standard regional varieties of Italian. Standard Italian was derived from the Florentine dialect of central Italy, thus the sounds and vocabulary shipping over to the US were slightly (sometimes drastically) different. For example, Sicilian is considered by many to even be a separate language. In addition to Latin, it has myriad other influences due to its changes in ruling class over the centuries. Some of these influences include Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish. Sicilian isn’t even the only Southern dialect, and many others such as Neapolitan and Calabrese found their way to the US as well.
All of these tiny linguistic differences combined with the influence of American English create a perfect recipe for vast differences in pronunciation across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, these differences were not always viewed with prestige. James Pasto, in his paper “Goombish” says that “Southern Italians came to the United States speaking already stigmatized dialects, developing a short-lived hybrid, Italgish, that was also stigmatized by speakers of both standardized English and Italian.”
Differences Between Italian American and Standard Italian Words
In order to discuss the differences between Italian American and Standard Italian Words, we must start by acknowledging that Italian American words typically come from a Southern Italian dialect. We’re only going to look at a few examples here, but if you want a better overview, start by checking out this blog post over on Mango Languages. To keep things simple, let’s use some vocabulary that we all know and love, food. Food is integral to Italian American culture, and is a major way in which the Italian language lives on in the US. NJ.com even has an article about “How to speak Jersey restaurant Italian.”
(Keep in mind that each person may pronounce these words differently. Even different families in the same community may have slight variations in their pronunciations. These are not strict rules, and should be used as simple guides to help you reconstruct the Standard Italian pronunciation and spelling.)
Take a look at these Italian American words coupled with their standard counterparts:
Brosciutt’ : prosciutto
Gabagool : capacolla
Fajool (think “pasta fajool”) : faggiole
Rigott’ : ricotta
Muzzarell’/muzzadell’ : mozzarella
Ganol’ : cannoli
Mortadell’ : mortadella
Sound Changes
A lot of these pronunciations come from how speakers of Southern dialects pronounce words.
What’s often happening in these differences is that the Italian American version contains the voiced version of many unvoiced Italian consonants. A voiced consonant is a consonant in which your vocal folds (commonly referred to vocal chords) vibrate while you pronounce it.
Take for instance “k” versus “g.” K is unvoiced whereas g is voiced. The process of changing an unvoiced consonant to its voiced counterpart is known as voicing. Voicing happens three times in the example of capocollo (a type of cured pork) turning into gabagool.
There are also many words that get rid of the final vowel: prosciutto becomes brosciutt’.
A Note on Plurals
When discussing Italian food items in the US, people often use the plural noun form to describe a singular quantity of something. In Italian, one cookie is un biscotto, but in English, one crunchy, Italian-style cookie is “a biscotti.” To form the plural in English, you simply add an -s to the end of the once-plural-but-now-singular biscotti. The same holds true for panini, panelle, and cannoli (singular panino, panella, and cannolo, respectively).
Here’s the rule: If the name of your favorite Italian food ends in an -i, it’s singular form will either be an -o or an -e. If the word ends in an -e, it might already be singular, or it will have a singular form that ends in an -a.
Trying it Out on Your Own
Learning Italian is a lifelong process for many. It’s a way that many try to reconnect with their Italian heritage, and to move their vocabulary beyond the names of food and slang terms (I’m looking at you, stunad (stonato)). Try delving into a specific dialect on your own once you’re comfortable enough with your congiuntivo passato prossimo and your consonanti doppie. You won’t regret it. At the very least, you’ll be even more appreciative on your next trip to the deli.
(Thumbnail photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash)