Home | Valente and DiRenzo Family History - From Our Correspondent in Geneva

Dialect Sayings from Gambatesa

Collected and restated in Italian by Angelo Abiuso (Geneva). English language version by Angelo Abiuso and Robert Angelo.

Special thanks to Antonio Abiuso (Interlaken)

Pronunciation note: as transcribed here, for dialect words the final "e" is silent, as in the French language.

• A bellezze è fin' a port', a bontà è fin' a mort' (La bellezza va fino alla porta (di casa), la bontà va fino alla morte).

"Beauty ends at the door. Goodness ends at death." (That is, marry a good woman rather than a beautiful woman, because after the wedding "beauty will leave, but goodness will stay". La porta di casa, the door of the house where the husband and wife go to live together, because the day after the wedding it is already over. That is, once inside the door of the matrimonial house, the illusions about the spouse come to an end.)

• Fenut' i cunfett' nascen' i defett' (Finiti i confetti nascono i difetti).

"When the confetti are finished, the defects are born." (What does it mean? Your spouse's imperfections arise after the wedding celebrations; that is, before you marry you do not see the defects in the other person. I confetti: the white-candy-coated almonds that are wrapped in small bags of lace and given as favors to guests at Italian weddings.)

• U cane da defenze, cume fà cusci ze penze (Il cane della defensa come fa così pensa).

"The neighborhood dog thinks that all dogs think the way the dogs in his neighborhood do." (Prêter ses propres pensées aux autres. La defensa is a contrada ("district") near the village of Gambatesa, just beyond the cemetery.)

• Chi a fà, chi a mantene e chi a strude (Chi la fa, chi la mantiene e chi la distrugge).

"The one who makes, the one who maintains, and the one who destroys." (About wealth. The grandfather who makes it, the son who conserves it, and the grandson who squanders it. Or about a company created by the grandfather and sold by the grandson. There is a Chinese saying, "Wealth lasts only three generations.")

• I femene, un'a penzene e n'avete ne cumbinene (Le donne, una ne pensano e un'altra ne combinano).

"Women. They think about one thing and they add another to it." (What does it mean? Compared to men women have a special gift to think fast, jumping from one topic to another, but at the same time they are able to create what a man would consider a big mess. ["chaotic feminine logic": it is women's way of thinking, their free association of ideas, going off on countless tangents, that strikes men as chaotic])

• Andò stanne i campane, là stann'i puttane (Dove sono le campane (il campanile) là stanno le puttane).

"Where there are church bells, there are prostitutes." (You can find church bells in every village, and you can find prostitutes in every village too.)

• A ditt' a messe pù cazz' (Dire la messa per il cazzo).

• Iamme senmpre annanze a m'bitce e m'broglie (Andiamo sempre avanti facendo impicci ed imbrogli).

"Forward we go, making clutter and confusion, but always forward." (What does it mean? "We'll manage it somehow unrehearsed; we'll get by, by hook or by crook." Or, perhaps, "We'll muddle through.") This saying is close to the other one: Alla Gambatesa manèra.

• Me pare e ne me pare e iette a fenì n'galere (Mi sembra e non mi sembra e ando a finire in galera).

"To me it seems so and it doesn't seem so, and I end up in jail!" (What does it mean? A Gambatesan said to the judge in a case where he was a witness: "It seems it happened like that, but at the same time it seems it didn't happen like that. I don't remember exactly." The judge was so upset by this answer that he decided to jail the Gambatesan. When is this saying used? When someone doesn't remember something you need to know and it makes you angry.)

• Fà a puttane in credenze (Fare credito (lavorare a credito)).

"To prostitute on faith." (To work on credit, i.e. on the promise of being paid).

• Chi de spranze camp', desperate more (Chi di speranza vive, disperato muore).

"Who lives in hope, dies in despair." (Or, "Who lives on hope, dies of despair.")

• Chi nasce tunne, ne more quadrate (Chi nasce rotondo, non muore quadrato).

"Who is born round does not die square."

• A puttane cume fà iesse penze de n'avetie (La puttana come fa lei, così pensa degli altri).

"The prostitute thinks that everyone does as she does." (See u cane da defenze above).

• U diavele u fà, u diavele u sconce (Il diavolo lo fa, il diavolo lo disfa).

"The devil does, and the devil undoes." ("The devil makes and the devil unmakes." What does it mean? Sometimes when you start something new everything works perfectly. You don't even know how it works so well, and then after a while ... everything goes wrong. What happened? The devil started it and the devil destroyed it. That is the way the devil is supposed to work to make people angry -- against God and humanity.)

• Che cazzo vai a far -- morsicare Gesù Cristo sulla croce?

About people who go to church but don't practice their religion; maybe they see an old man on the street who needs help, but they walk past him. And so in Gambatesa they say, Che cosa vai a fare -- But the people of Gambatesa are very rude, and so they would say "What the hell are you going [to church for] -- to bite Jesus Christ?!"

• A levà e n'ce ne mette, vai pe vede ne ce ne truve (A togliere ed a non mettercene, vai per vedere e non ce ne trovi).

"If you take and you don't put any in, then in the end you won't find any of it." (About money. If you only take money from your bank account and you don't save any ...)

• Ancore ne vede i serpe ca gia chiame a sante Petre (Ancora non vede i serpenti che già chiama San Pietro).

To call for St. Peter's protection before even seeing any serpents. (To be frightened without cause.)

• Chi iare chi vetelle scapele preste (Chi ara con i vitelli finisce presto di lavorare).

"Who plows with young cattle (calves) soon finishes the work."

• I femmene tenne i capille longe e i cervelle corte (Le donne hanno i capelli lunghi e il cervello piccolo).

"Women are long on hair and short on brains." ("Women have long hair and small brains.") Variation: I femmene: capille longe e cervell' corte (Le donne: capelli lunghi e cervello corto). "Women: long hair, short brains." (There is a Russian saying, "Her hair is long because her wit is short.")

• I femmene tenne a lengue longe, i capille longe e i cervelle pe'niente (Le donne hanno la lingua lunga, i capelli lunghi e niente cervello).

"Women have long tongues, long hair, and nothing for brains." (To have a long tongue: to talk too much, gossip.)

• U vove chiame curnute u ciucie (Il manzo chiama cornuto l'asino).

"The ox calls the donkey a cuckold." (What does it mean? The ox has horns on his head, but he calls the donkey, who doesn't have horns on his head, a cuckold. The cuckold calls cuckold the man who isn't a cuckold. To wear the horns: to be a cuckold, i.e. have an unfaithful wife.)

• A pege rote du carre è quelle cha parle (È la peggiore ruota del carro che fa più rumore).

"It is the worst wheel of the cart that makes the most noise."

• Iammatese sta luntane du mare, u spasse nostre iè a scumare (Gambatesa è lontana dal mare, il nostro spasso è la fiumana).

"Gambatesa is far from the sea; our amusement is the raging river." (What does it mean? Our spasso ("bit of fun") is the Tappino River called a scumare (la fiumara) by Gambatesans. People use the word a scumare when they talk about the river in the fondo valle ("the bottom of the valley below the village").)

• Aspitte a Criste cha vè da lene e perde a chette pa vie (Aspetta che Cristo tornando dalla legna perda la sua ascia (per potere prendere l'ascia di cui ha bisogno) [Chette = ascia]).

"To wait for Christ to lose his ax while returning from the wood (so that you can use the ax)." (What does it mean? If you need an ax to cut wood, and you wait for Christ to lose his ax while returning from the wood so that you can use his ax, then you will never cut any wood, because you are waiting for something that will never happen. When is this said -- "You are waiting for Jesus Christ to lose his ax while coming back from the wood"? When someone says that they want to do something, for example, to start a business, but they just sit there and do nothing, then it is as if they were waiting for a miracle to happen, for something that is never going to happen.)

• Scuppà i chiove (Tirare i chiodi dalla croce di Cristo).

"To pull the nails from the cross of Christ." (What does it mean? It is about someone who is always asking you for something, making comments, trying to give you good ideas (or supposedly good ideas), forcing you to do things you don't want to do, etc. But Scuppà i chiove isn't a rude expression. It is more a kind way to explain to somebody that now you are running out of patience. It is not like romp'u cazz which is stronger and rude.)

• Quanne chiove tiane-tiano va n'gule u chrestiane (Quando la pioggia è leggera la persona si fa bagnare di sicuro).

"When the rain is light, a Christian [i.e. person] is sure to get thoroughly washed by it." (That is, when the rain is light, you are sure to get soaked; because if the rain were heavy, you would get out from under it.) [Warning: *n'gule* is not nice language: "When it rains very lightly, it goes to a person's arse", or, "A light rain will wash even the peasant's arse."]

• Preste padre cha passene i pecure (« Presto padre » disse il lupo al prete « che adesso stanno passando le pecore »).

"Hurry, father," says the wolf to his confessor, "because the sheep are now passing nearby."

• Fà u zazà (Fare da intermediario)

"To play the go-between."

• U figle mute u capisce a mamme (Il figlio muto lo capisce sua madre).

"A mute child is understood by its mother." (A mother can understand her child, even if the child cannot speak, because she has watched it grow up and knows it well.)

• Ca morte e chi spusalizie ze canoscene i parente (Con la morte e con i sposalizi si conoscono i parenti).

"At deaths and at weddings you get to know your relatives."

• Scampa verne (Uomo non sposato or uomo che non vuole lavorare, sposarsi, prendere delle responsabilità). (« Tà si fatte a vuagliole? No, facce u scampa verne. » (« Sei fidanzato? No, faccio lo scampa verne. »)

An unmarried man, or a man who doesn't want to work, or get married, who doesn't want responsibility. "Are you engaged?" -- "No, I am playing the scampa verne."

• U mune è paese (Il mondo è paese).

"The world is a village." (Also, Il mondo è piccolo e grande, "The world is little and big".)

• U paese è d'u paesan' (Il paese è sempre del paesano.)

"The village belongs always to the native."

• Se Dia vò (Se Dio vuole).

"If God wills." (Or, "God willing.") For my parents' generation in Gambatesa, it would be regarded as impolite not to say this.

• Mà, quistu fatte pocce me piace! (Questa storia pocco mi piace!).

"I don't like this story one bit!"

• Seme fatte chiara' cummare (Abbiamo fatto chiara comare).

"We communicated clearly." (What does it mean? We had a conversation where we communicated something -- news, gossip -- well, or maybe even, "We had a good gossip" or "good chat". Comare (cumma' in dialect) means "godmother" at a baptism. But comare, like compare (cumba'), "godfather", is applied to many other kinds of relationships as well.)

• Chi veve n'du bechiere sape quell' ca ze veve...chi veve n'da butigl' n'u vede quell' ca ze veve... (Chi beve nel bicchiere sa cosa beve).

"The one who drinks from the glass knows what he is drinking." (When is this said? There is an Italian saying: "Get your wife and your cow from your own village", because that way you know what you are getting. In a glass you can see what you are drinking.)

• Quanne ze cumenz n'z fenish tiù (Quando si comincia non si finisce più).

"When it begins, it never ends." (When sorrows come, they come not single spies / But in battalions.)

• Chi pozzn'accide! (Che qualcuno li ammazzi).

"May someone kill them!" (i.e. they would deserve it if someone did. But it is not as rude as it looks, and they use that expression very often. "They ought to be shot!" said, for example, when civil servants waste public money.)
  Variation: Ca te pozz'n' accide! (Che qualcuno ti ammazzi!): "May you die murdered!" (Frequently used in Gambatesa; typical when people are very angry.) But these expressions all have a double usage, like the word zoccl'e has: they can be meant as a joke or they may be a curse.
  Variation: Puzza ietta u sang!: "May you die in a terrible way, have bloody death." (On a death bed sometimes a parent curses a child. Or threatens: if you don't take care of me, I will curse you. "Curse": condemn, damn, a malediction -- opposite of benediction.)

• Me pozz'n accide (Che qualcuno mi ammazzi).

"May someone kill me." (In the sense of "I ask God to kill me" is often used in Gambatesa by people who feel desperate.)

• Veni da n'gule i vacc'.

"You come from a cow's arse." (That is, "Don't give yourself airs; remember your origins"; British: "You are dead common, as common as muck." When is it said? If you have peasant origins and you return to Gambatesa behaving like a nouveau riche, people will say this to remind you where you came from.)

• Chian' chian' (piano piano).

"[Go] slowly slowly." (i.e. "Take your time" ; "Don't rush." An expression often heard in Gambatesa).

• Va papisc' va! (Va a capire, va!).

"Go understand, go on!" (i.e. "Go figure it!" ; "Who can figure it out! We human beings are strange creatures -- who can understand us?")

• U parere da sere n'u truv' a matine (Il parere della sera non lo ritrovi al mattino).

"No trace in the morning of what was decided on the evening of the day before." ("The decision taken in the evening you don't find again in the morning" or "The opinions of the evening and the morning are not the same". When is it said? When someone changes their mind like the wind changes directions. About someone whose expresses intentions that cannot be relied on.)

• Mangiare soltanto quattro maccheroni.

What does it mean? Angelo was preparing a parcel of store-bought biscuits and his mother said, "You can't send to America only quatt' vescott' (quattro biscotti)." This is a typical expression in Gambatesa to say there is not enough of something: instead of saying "these few" people say "only four". If I am eating and I don't take lots of food (macaroni, for example), people will say: mangi solo "quisti quatt' maccarune".

• Alla Gambatesa manèra or alla gambatesana manèra (Come si usa a Gambatesa).

"In the Gambatesan way." What does it mean? Alla gambatesa maniera means: to do things without planing it or carefully thinking at it, without thinking at all about the consequences. Doing things just as good as it can work for a short time without thinking long term. No care if it is perfect or not, if it looks good or not, as far as it works (even for a little while only, after .... we will find a solution for after if it stops working).
  Italy went to war (WWII) this way.
  This saying is close to the other one: Iamme senmpre annanze a m'bitce e m'broglie (Andiamo sempre avanti facendo impicci ed imbrogli).

• Zè m'banbalite u chutch and Zè m'banbalite a chutch (L'asino ha perso la ragione).

"The donkey got crazy." When is it said? When someone falls in love and does stupid things he/she would not do in their normal condition. (Ciutsc is dialect for "donkey".)

• Jire'ze a romp i corne (Andare a rompersi le corna), Jire'ze a capa i uaie ca lundèrne (Andare a cercarsi i guai con la lanterna)

"To go looking for problems" (lexically, "to go to break the horns" -- "horns" because it is hard to break an ox's horns), "To go looking for trouble with a lantern." What does it mean? If you have been warned that a particular place is a minefield (i.e. a dangerous place) and you decide to wander into it anyway. Or if you marry a foreign girl -- i.e. one from another village.

• Jammatesa, brutta gente e mal' paese ...

"Gambatesa: Bad people. Bad town. Even the grass is bad." (About the grass: it stings (pungere) your bottom when you defecate in the fields, which is what people in the countryside used to do. "Gambatesa: ugly people, bad town; even the grass stings your arse.")

• u gabron (il capro), u mondon (il montone)

These are the words for a male goat (billy-goat) and male sheep (ram). This is a name people call a girl's boyfriend they don't approve of. It's quite rude; the male goat smells bad and has big b*lls.

• Ma'ia fa diceca (Devo sentire la gente dire che ... or Devo sentire la gente che dice che ...).

What does it mean? "And then people will talk about me" -- i.e. say bad things about me. If I do such-and-such then later "I will have to listen to what people say about me".
  (Reputation is very important in Gambatesa; Gambatesans are very snobbish. So a common reason for avoiding doing something is: perche non si ribassano. What does it mean? "So as not to lower themselves." When is this said? Postcards from Gambatesa often are captioned in Italian, English and German; but the English and German are often wrong, e.g. "Church Mother" and "Kirche Mutter" instead of "Mother Church" and "Mutterkirche" -- but why? There are many people in Gambatesa who have worked abroad and know English or German; why are they not asked for help? Because the postcard captioners do not want to "lower themselves" by admitting their ignorance and asking for help. They do not wish "to belittle themselves", to feel "put down", "lowered in esteem". Ils ne veulent pas se rabaisser.)

• Solo a la guerra si perde tempo.

"Only being in a war do you waste time." "Only when you are in a war are you wasting time." When is it said? If you say, "Ah, today I have lost time [or, wasted time] doing this or doing that or waiting for ...", then people stop you and say, "No, no, no, only at war you are wasting time. When you are doing something else, don't think that you are wasting time. The only place you waste time is when you are at war, because it doesn't bring anything good."

• Money can make a mute sing.

Meaning that with money you can do impossible things; you can buy anything, anyone.

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Sayings from Giovanni Valente and Nunziata DiRenzo

The first three were transcribed for Robert Angelo by Carmelina ("Millie") Valente (1921-1998) who had had lessons in the dialect when she was a girl.

• Quistu fa brutt'.

What does it mean? "How ugly you make yourself when you act this way."

• 'merica bella, chi divo abbandonà!

"America the beautiful, who wants to leave you!" This was usually shortened to 'merica bel'!

• Corpo di milli bombe!

"Body of a thousand bombs!" When was it said? When Giovanni Valente was exasperated. "Millie" Valente told me that this expression has no meaning. (Maybe it is a euphemism like the French sacré bleu = Sacré Coeur ("Sacred Heart") or sacré Dieu, although one meaning of the adjective 'blue' is 'profane', 'blasphemous': "blue language", "blue murder"). There is also an old French expression: Sacré mille bombes! (in the short story "A Terribly Strange Bed" (1852) Wilkie Collins calls this an "oath", in the sense of "blasphemy").

• "You're right. I'm wrong."

Giovanni Valente used to say this when his children criticised him (and some of the children criticised him a lot).

• "One father can look after eleven children, but eleven children cannot look after one father."

Giovanni Valente used to say this, with the variation "One mother and father can take care of ..." Eleven was the number of his own children.

• After he ate, his daughter Marie told me, Giovanni used to put his hands on either side of his stomach and say, "If anyone asks, I feel better now."

• "You gotta eat, grandmom."

Nunziata DiRenzo used to say this to her grandchildren who did not want to eat because they did not want to get fat. Angelo Abiuso wrote that: It is a strange way to talk they use at Gambatesa: Su, mangia a nonna. It is like: "Eat, please do it for me (grandmom), do it for grandmom."
  Giovanni Valente also used to say, "Watch myself, daughter. Watch myself. Try to make a fool of you," to Vittoria Valente, meaning for her to be cautious about what she did, "especially when I was going out with your father". (She was in her late twenties and had never gone out with anyone before, while her future husband was a handsome if poor college boy.)

• "Keep your face clean."

Giovanni Valente used to say this to his oldest son Nicola Natale (1916-2000) when he was a boy, but Nicholas did not understand it for a long time. "Pop," he used to say, "I washed my face." What does it mean? Never do anything that would make you ashamed to show your face before other people.

• "Pity the poor man."

Giovanni Valente used to say this. (There is also an Italian saying: "Everyone takes advantage of the ignorant.")

• "Make me a fool, but make me the oldest."

In Nicola Valente's family the oldest son inherited nearly everything, the three younger sons almost nothing. Giovanni left for America, married and made his life there, and only returned to visit Gambatesa in his old age.

• "First one today."

Giovanni Valente used to end each day with a shot of whiskey, always cheap Canadian whiskey (sc. Seagram's VO when he was older, but it was many years before he could afford that) because he was a poor man all his life, in his cup of American coffee; he would measure out a shot in a miniature beer mug and then poor this into his coffee. But it did not matter which drink that day it was, his toast was always the same: "First one today".
  Giovanni Valente never missed a day of work, which for many years was twelve hours a day, six days a week, because of illness. When he felt ill he would tell his wife Nunziata to wrap him up in blankets and he would drink hot tea and whiskey until he "sweated the illness out of himself".

• "If you put your foot on every stone, you'll never get there."

Giovanni Valente used to say this to his second daughter. "I think he meant: Don't worry about every little thing. Don't make every little thing important."

• "We don't want people to talk about us." "Otherwise they're gonna talk about us." "Otherwise they'll go home and talk about us."

That is, to say bad things about us. For example, that when they visited we did not make coffee and put cake on the table for them (not just offer, but actually do it). The women used this expression a lot. If your clothes were torn, if your hair wasn't combed or your face wasn't washed, if the children were disrespectful ... countless things like that, anything that could become the subject of village gossip.
  In Gambatesa the expression is Ma'ia fa diceca, meaning that if I do such-and-such, then "I'll have to listen to what people say" about me later.

• Someone with "art in his hands".

Nunziata DiRenzo talked this way about artisans. She was very proud that her oldest son was a tailor, someone with a skill, someone "with art in his hands".

• Foreign ways are not your ways.

Nunziata DiRenzo told her children that they were born Americans and ought to marry Americans, not people from Italy. Italian ways were her ways, not theirs. (See the Gambatesan saying "Chi beve nel bicchiere sa cosa beve".)

• To be smart you have to be born early in the morning.

When Vittoria Valente looked at her birth certificate and saw that she was born at 10 a.m. she said, "I guess that's why I'm not very smart. To be smart you have to be born early in the morning, my father said; I think before 7 a.m. he said; I think that's what he said."

• He plays the fool not to go to war.

Vittoria Valente said that "Italians like to play the fool", i.e. to pretend to be stupid, to know less than they know (like the young man who wants to avoid military service, which since forever used to be compulsory in Italy).
  Angelo Abiuso wrote that in the dialect of Gambatesa the expression is Fà u fess' pe ne ii a fà a uerre (In Italian, Fare il fesso per non andare a fare la guerra).

• Enough.

When Vittoria Valente used to ask her Aunt Rose about ingredient amounts when they cooked, "How much should I put, Aunt Rose?" Maria Rosaria DiRenzo (Nunziata's younger sister) used to answer, "Enough". "How much, Aunt Rose?" -- "Enough". (In Italian this would have been [ingrediente] quanto basta, but Maria Rosaria spoke English very well.)

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Sayings from Maria Vittoria d'Alessandro (1874-1955)

Vittoria Valente told me these sayings of her maternal grandmother's, but she could not remember how they were said in dialect.

• "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are."

• "Eat before your husband comes home. That way if he's in a good mood, you eat again. And if he's not, well then you've already eaten."

• "Make your bed in the morning. When you make your bed in the morning, you honor your face. When you make it at night you honor your backside (arse)."

• "Open your eyes before you marry; close them after you marry."

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Last modified: 8 April 2019 : 2019-04-08 and 12 July 2013 : 2013-07-12 by Robert Wesley Angelo.

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