Saturday, June 17, 2017

Italian has also influenced English !

Resultado de imagen de Italian language
From : http://lelo.pk/classes/language-classes/learn-french-language-italian-language/lahore/-i41708
Ciao a tutti ! 
As you know from my post of the languages modelling English, English has received influences from a great deal of languages, including French, and Spanish.
Oggi vorrei fare un post sull'influenza dell'italiano sull'inglese !  He he. I happen to adore languages and one of my favourite languages (apart from English) is Italian. It is quite a beautiful interesting language that I have studied for so many years in the language school of Salamanca. This is why, to honour this wonderful language, I had quite a brilliant idea, namely, to write a post about how Italian has somehow entered the English language. 

Let's begin : 
a) Some Italian words have entered English in the same form, especially words related to food, for example, 'spaghetti', 'maccaroni', or 'zucchini'. However, these words which are plural in Italian are, surprisingly, singular in English. So, the sentence 'spaghetti is a delicious Italian dish' is correct in English. 'Pasta' is another word from Italian present in the English language. Here you have other examples :

Resultado de imagen de spaghettiResultado de imagen de maccaroni
              spaghetti                           macaroni
Resultado de imagen de zucchini 
           zucchini                       scampi (shrimps or prawns)
Resultado de imagen de broccoliResultado de imagen de cannelloni
        broccoli                                cannelloni


b) Plurals of Italian : Italian and Spanish or English are very dissimilar. For example, to make plurals in Italian, you don't have to add -s or -es, you just have to change the final vowel, normally -i for male nouns and -e for female nouns. In English, though, there are some traces of this Italian plural. 
The English have imported the word 'paparazzo' (a freelance photographer) and the plural is 'paparazzi'. This word, however, is a bit outdated in modern English. In the same way, the word 'tempo' (in music) has the correct plural form 'tempi' (although it also admits 'tempos.'

c) Other Italian borrowings in English. Italian words and English words can coexist :


ITALIAN BORROWING
ENGLISH WORD /
donna
lady
piazza
square
veranda
porch
duo
duet
stanza
verse
studio
study
patio
courtyard
barista
bartender (coffee shop)
trattoria
Italian restaurant
stiletto
high-heel shoe
marina
port
lasagna
lasagne
paparazzo
photographer

d) Italian borrowings with no equivalence in English


ITALIAN BORROWING
DEFINITION
piano
an instrument Schubert played.
villa
large property in the countryside
finale
the final chapter in a season of a TV series / the final part of a performance
opera
a performance involving singing and acting and the use of classical music
cappuccino
a white coffee with foam
latte
white coffee
espresso
black coffee
libretto (plural librettos or libretti)
the book of an opera
Tempo (plural : tempi or tempos)
the speed in music

e) Italian borrowings adapted into English
ITALIAN WORD OF ORIGIN
ENGLISH WORD
balcone
balcony
corridoio
corridor
ombrello
umbrella
ombrellone
beach umbrella
novella
novel
appartamento
apartment

Well, as you can see, Italian has found its way into English ! Che bello, ragazzi ! This week you have learnt the influence in Italian upon English.See you next week with the influence of English upon Italian

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