...Originality of the Italian Language HUMA215 Kharyssa Rhodes November 21, 2013 Italian is a Romance Language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and Vatican City by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Somalia, Libya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea and by expatriate communities in the Americas, and Australia. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages accordingly to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a native language by 59 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%).Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is more than 85 million. In Switzerland , Italian is one of four official languages it is studied and learned in all the confederation schools and spoken, as a native language, in the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni and by the Italian immigrants that are present in large numbers in German- and French- speaking cantons. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of the Vatican Italian is descended from Latin. Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance language is distinctive. Among the Romance languages, the Italian is the closest to...
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...Italian Culture in America John Smith Psych 105 Dr. Diop Spring, 2012 Italian Culture in America America is known to be the country where most people from outside immigrate to, not only bringing their families but also their traditions with them. “According to the 2000 U.S. Census, almost 16 million Italian Americans live in the United States” (Quagliata, 2011, p. 1). Most immigrants that come to America lose their heritage; however, that is not the case for the Italian culture. Not only did Italians incorporate a style of living in America, they also brought their traditions into the country as well. Some of the customs they brought with them include their food, their game of bocce ball, their religion, and their way of greeting one another. Italian Food When thinking of the Italian culture, the first thing that comes to mind is their food. Cinotto (2000) states, “Since food is a cultural artifact, imbued with meanings and values, the cross-cultural consumption of Italian cuisine is a significant marker of the way in which others see and imagine Italy and the Italians” (p. 1). Pasta, parmesan, and cannoli’s are probably the most popular and most known Italian foods. With the way many Americans fell in love with the Italian food, it soon became part of the American culture as well. The Italian immigrants brought over their historical foods and formed new eating habits for the Americans, and most of the Italian food was shaped in Little Italy where the...
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...The Origins of the Italian Language Debra Cummings American Intercontinental University Abstract Latin is to be credited for having great influence on the Italian language as it is known through out history and today. Its vocabulary is characterized by Roman and ancient Greek words and verbs. Italian has many dialects dependent upon the various regions of the land. Tuscan is the most prominent dialect. The spread of Italian language is largely due to literary works of three authors who chose to write in the vernacular language of their region as opposed to the more widely used Latin language. The Origins of the Italian Language The Italian language is derived from Latin, imposed upon the conquered Italian natives. It is considered one of the Romance languages of the Indo-European family of languages and is the language that most resembles Latin. The vocabulary of Italian is characterized by a large percentage of words and verbs from both Roman and ancient Greece. Of all the Romance languages, “Italian is the closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary.” (Language Translation, Inc., 2013) The oldest definitive document dated back to 960-963 A.D. in vulgar Italian is a legal document called “Placito Cassinese”. This archive is kept in the Abbey of Montecassino. This famous text is a testimony of a man about the ownership of a piece of land. There was an argument between the Benedictine friars of the Abbey...
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...Count Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi both contributed heavily to the Italian unification process. Each of them contributed differently. Garibaldi was more military minded and brought together forces like the red shirts to oppose the Austrian influence with force. Cavour becoming the Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1852 had more of a political stance on unification, Cavour was very ‘tunnel minded’ he was only focused on the welfare of Piedmont; he believed piedmont should be the centre of a united Italian infrastructure. Cavour spent his career improving infrastructure, stabilizing economy and strengthening Peidmont. He built a new railway system in Italy and started a newspaper known as II Risorgemento which spread nationalist feeling in the country and the prepared the people for unification. He believed in a constitutional monarchy and made Italian unification evident at the Paris Peace Conference. Garibaldi was firmly against foreign intervention which caused the two to clash when it came to any coalition efforts. Cavour’s ideology led him to arrange the Plombieres meeting in 1858 which involved a secret agreement between Cavour and Louis Napoleon, Napoleon had promised an army of 200,000 which would drive out Austria from Italy and in return France would receive Nice and Savoy. Garibaldi’s fears of foreign support became plausible as France’s real intentions of taking land became evident. After Cavour mobilized his army, Austria sent their ultimatum in 1859 to Peidmont...
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...Italian Americans I loved my native Italy. I loved everything about the ties and the bonds we had with our families. We enjoyed each other and worked to keep the family as one. All we had was each other because as southern Italians, we had little resources and were disrespected by the northern Italians. There was a separation of classes and the southern regions were considered the less fortunate, and we suffered within our own country. The Italian government was predominately made up of northern Italians which made life difficult for the southerners. Our taxes on northern goods were hiked up and our property taxes were very high (Mintz 2007). Time had passed and my father decided that we had to leave Italy and re-locate ourselves in a new country. The state of southern Italy was the reason we had to leave. The poverty, the disasters, the bad conditions of living was no longer acceptable by my parents and my father’s decision was to move to American where we could start a better life. Starting a new life I can agree with, but a better life, I beg to differ. Coming to this new land called America was a shock to my system as I had never expected. To begin, my family and all the other families that came across the ocean were not welcomed with open arms. We were piled through like animals, being tested for diseases and being called strange names. The American people could not pronounce our family name correctly and suddenly our names were pronounced in an American manner...
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...The Renaissance was the period from 1350-1600. The Renaissance began first in the city-states of Italy for many reasons. Although most of Europe had become a big economic crisis during the late Middle Ages, Italy managed to avoid everything and their towns remained important centers of Mediterranean trade and boost their production of textiles and luxury goods. Town life was bigger in Italy than in other parts of Europe. Therefore, most Italians could easily discard feudalism and other medieval institutions. Because Italy was wealthy and successful, they became independent city-states, each of which included a walled urban center and the surrounding countryside. The Italian city-states started a new social order. It was that wealth and ability mattered more than aristocratic titles and ownership of land. Wealthy merchants and bankers replaced the nobles in the upper class. Shopkeepers and artisans ranked below the wealthy merchants, forming a moderately prosperous middle class that employed a lot of poor workers. Most of these workers came from the countryside. And at the very bottom of the social ladder, were the peasants who worked on the country estates for the wealthy classes. During the Renaissance, Italy was not under one government, but was divided into the city-states. Each of these were ruled by wealthy families whose fortunes came from commercial trading or banking. A lot of times, workers rebelled against the upper classes. Their demands for equal rights and...
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...AN ! ! The Italian American Cinema ! ! The crucial and influential part of the American Cinema represents the Italian American Cinema. The Italian American Cinema can be defined as films made by Italian Americans about relationships between Italians and Americans in the United States (Moliterno 2002:433). The Italian cinema has been appreciated and adored in the United Stated from its beginnings. Especially valued were its artistic and cultural quality, as well as the ability to transmit the values of the European history into films (Brunetta 2009:9). The reciprocal influences between Italian and American cinema date back to 1912 and have a Polish accent: in that year George Kleine, a film distributor from Chicago, purchased distribution rights to the film Quo vadis? based on the novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. After 1912 numerous Italian films flooded America: frequently used motives were Napoleonic campaigns and Homeric battles. Popular titles of movies from that period include Cajus Julius Caesar, Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompei), Spartacus among many others. Historicalmythological films became inspirational for such directors as David Llewelyn Wark „D.W.” Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. After World War I popularity in the United States of America gained stars of the early Italian cinema: Francesca Bertini, Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli (Brunetta 2009:10). Another crucial moment in the relationship of American and Italian film industry was...
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...Italian culture is part of me because my dad was born in Italy, and almost every single one of my relatives is born in Italy too. My dad was born in a small town outside of Foggia called, Volturino. Italians have many cultural practices like eating pizza and pasta, and playing soccer. My family relates to the Italian culture because we were born there, have Italian pictures on our walls, and speak Italian. It is exhilarating to learn about my family’s Italian culture, and what it is like in Italy. To begin, Italy is located in Europe, most people recognize it because it is shaped like a boot, it also has two islands called Sardinia and Sicily, and my family and I have been to both of those islands as well. Italy is also very mountainous and my dad’s town…Volturino is 2,500 feet above sea level. Italians are very strong in agriculture because when my family and I went to visit my uncle in Nola (the town right outside of Naples), they grow a lot of stuff like fruits, vegetables, and slotter chickens for chicken meat, as a matter a fact my family and I were walking down the street and there was fresh basil growing on the sides of the sidewalks. Italian people are very loud, outgoing, and energetic like me and my family, the article in the book called “Italy” it states, ”In his famous book, ‘the Italians’, Luigi Barzini describes the...
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...architecture. The social roles and similarities during the Italian and Northern European Renaissance are the flourishing of the arts under powerful and wealthy families such as the Medici’s of Florence and in the north Philip the Good as well as many others. In both Northern and Southern Europe there was a strong desire to reconnect with the ancient past of the Greco/Roman world this desire extended beyond just ideals in art but also to philosophy and politics. The artistic endeavors of both the Northern and Southern Renaissance were dominated by their shared Christian faith, we can see examples of this in Jan Van Eyck’s Ghent “Altar Piece” (Benton & DiYanni, 2008, p. 353) at Saint Bavon Cathedral an ingenious polyptych painting which uses multiple panels to depict a religious scene an exciting blend of the Northern inventive spirit of the age and ancient faith. The works of the Italian Renaissance were also dominated by this Christian outlook possibly the most famous piece of art in the world Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel full of religious imagery while also boldly proclaiming the humanist philosophy. Both these examples show a shared Christian world view as well as a blending of new and ancient ideals capturing the multiple fronts on which society was leaping forward in the arts, sciences, architectures, politics and philosophies which characterized the Renaissance. Along with the shared ideals of the Northern and Italian Renaissance there were huge...
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...Italian Fascism vs. German Nazism By Christina Dixon HIS306: Twentieth-Century Europe (BPI1434A) Instructor: Max Fassnacht May 4, 2015 Fascism and Nazism came during a time when there was an economic crisis that was sweeping through Europe. Fascism and Nazism was two familiar totalitarian regimes that was able to arise from Germany and Italy. In Germany, the National socialist party was conducted by Adolf Hitler, while Benito Mussolini conducted the fascist party in Italy. Italy and Germany’s future was based on the education in the schools, since education played an important role between these two nations. The people’s image of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as two leaders was profoundly the important factors to their popularity. The most essential tool that was allowed in both countries and played a very important role in both political parties was propaganda, which gave both parties the ability to influence the perspectives of the people to their partiality. Italy and Germany are two natural allies, but however they are both different from each other and can be connected in many salutations. “Largo ai Giovani”, Italian for "make way for the young" (Clayton, 2009) was just one of the mottos that was used by Benito Mussolini’s regime. Mussolini’s saying highlights one of the most important aspects during the Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany’s education system. The education system in both countries was not just used for learning but also was the...
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...A private club, with a rich community history, faces the challenge of membership declines and shrinking profits. Like many private clubs, the Hershey Italian Lodge’s declines are driven by economic downturns, aging membership, and increased competition. This document explores the hardships facing the club as well as some alternative action steps the lodge can take to meet those adversities head on. Marketing Plan The Hershey Italian Lodge Stamey 1 Company Overview The Hershey Italian Lodge (HIL) is in its 94th year of operation. Located in the heart of Hershey, PA, HIL was established by a small group of Italian men in 1920. The name Nuova Societa Italiana Indipendente Di Mutuo Soccorso Per Uomini was, and still is, the true name of the lodge. It means, Men’s New Independent Italian Mutual Benefit Society. HIL is a private men’s social club that includes a bar &restaurant serving a traditional style Italian menu, a banquet, and other activities and amenities. As a staple of the Hershey community for many years, the HIL is well known and respected throughout the area. The primary goal of the lodge is to preserve their heritage and build a strong, close community. The mission statement is, “…to provide a comfortable, friendly, affordable, family atmosphere for our members and guests.” The saying “Ieri, Oggi, Domain, Sempre Fratelli” is the motto of the organization and is printed at the bottom of each quarterly newsletter. Translated, this means, “Yesterday, Today...
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...Entering the US Market- American Business Perspectives for Italian Manufacturers to Consider _ Part 1 By Laura Kolbe An investigation of 183 countries in 2010 by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development reported that the United States is the 4th easiest country to do business in out of 183 countries. Italy is 78th, France 31s and Germany is 25th.. There are Italian products that are selling in more difficult markets than the U.S., which are not in U.S. Other Italian products are in the U.S. but are not maximizing their potential. For example Lambrusco and Parmigiana Reggiana have not been ideally positioned in the U.S. Lambrusco is sold with a screw-on bottle cap restricting its potential sales. Parmigiana cheese’s U.S. positioning does not maximize consumer awareness of the product’s uses. I advise companies who are entering new markets that it is not enough to have a quality product and know its success strategies in its existing markets. You must also know the other side of the story. That is, you also need reliable information of your new market to realize whether there is opportunity for your product and to achieve profitable product adaptation/positioning. To truly know the other side of the story sometimes you have to talk to the natives! Why did it take an U.S. entrepreneur to visit Italy, observe the coffee shop ritual and turn it into Starbucks; a U.S. $9,774.6 million company? The answer is market knowledge of both...
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...Introduction Italian immigrants migrated into the US together with many of their Europeans neighbors. When they first came to US most of the migrants had a very hard life. Arriving in a new country, the Italian migrants mostly had very little money and had no idea of their new place apart from US being the land of opportunity. The lack of resources and contacts in the new country prompted many of these immigrants to settle down in the place the first set down. These immigrants came from various parts of Italy they were scattered all around the US. This paper will look at the common menu of those Italian migrants and look at how it has involved in the community that is now known as the Italian-American. This essay will mainly try to address the significant issues of the process of ethnic identity. This paper will argue that the role of family is very important in advocating ethnic identity. The influence of a very rigid and traditional family institution helped the Italian immigrants whom in the end were known as Italian American to maintain their identity. This is fascinating because despite undergoing changes from generations to generations their tradition is still very much alive and important to them. The paper will further argue this point by looking, the transmission of ethnic consciousness amongst the Italian American. Last but not least we will look at the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries and most importantly, the role of food in such process...
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...Kathleen Talentino Professor Dr. Duff Sutherland HIST 106 December 4, 2006 Research Essay The Honest Courtesan during the Italian Renaissance The honest courtesan, also known as “cortigiana oneste” in Italy, contributed to the development of the intellectual and cultural revolution of the Italian Renaissance. This was during a time which the status of women struggled against that of their male counterparts. During this revolution, upper class women had less power politically and socially than women of the medieval era, and were confined to the opinion that their attention should be focused on domestic affairs. The honest courtesans were ambitious women who possessed all of the qualities of the male courtier, and maintained their sexual equality. The contributions of this elite group of women were in the areas of philosophical thought; historically through art and literature, and in development of the structure and function of human society. During the Renaissance, Italy experienced many revolutionary ideas, one of them known as Humanism. Humanism birthed the popularity of classical studies among the Italian elite of scholars, artists, writers and architects. This group of elite men were the forefathers of popular contemporary thought, and had the freedom to move in directions economically, socially, politically, emotionally, intellectually, and morally.[1] This idea changed life in Italy by individuals always striving to realize their human potential.[2]...
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...Introduction Italian immigrants migrated into the US together with many of their Europeans neighbors. When they first came to US most of the migrants had a very hard life. Arriving in a new country, the Italian migrants mostly had very little money and had no idea of their new place apart from US being the land of opportunity. The lack of resources and contacts in the new country prompted many of these immigrants to settle down in the place the first set down. These immigrants came from various parts of Italy they were scattered all around the US. This paper will look at the common menu of those Italian migrants and look at how it has involved in the community that is now known as the Italian-American. This essay will mainly try to address the significant issues of the process of ethnic identity. This paper will argue that the role of family is very important in advocating ethnic identity. The influence of a very rigid and traditional family institution helped the Italian immigrants whom in the end were known as Italian American to maintain their identity. This is fascinating because despite undergoing changes from generations to generations their tradition is still very much alive and important to them. The paper will further argue this point by looking, the transmission of ethnic consciousness amongst the Italian American. Last but not least we will look at the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries and most importantly, the role of food in such process. Overall...
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