“MAMMA MIA” Italian American Slang Word of the Day w/ Stevie B
“MAMMA MIA”
Italian American Slang Word of the Day
w/ Stevie B
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Growin’ up I heard this all the time. Just as an exclamation or a reaction to something we may have been unprepared for.
“MAMMA MIA…!”
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If you grew up in an Italian American or for that matter any Italian / English speaking Immigrant family…. didn’t matter if you were first, second or third generation you heard these slang words.
Actually many of them were simply words that had been bastardized in the transition from Italian or from a particular Italian dialect into English.
These days they are just too funny to hear but all of us remember words such as Capeesh (Capisci) for example. Capeesh was a word that meant Understand in Italian. So when the people emigrated and wanted to react to someone that didn’t understand they would say… Capeesh? It is just something that we all grew up with.
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In these videos Stevie B. in a non vulgar way brings back these adorable words for us to hear again. Some people take offense saying that we are in some way dimunizing our culture. On the other hand these are fond memories we have of our Italian ancestry.
As I go through his library of slang words my memory comes alive. Words like Pazzo or Crazy, Acita or Heartburn, Mortadefam or Morta di fame which translates into starving to death or as a noun to describe someone as a mortadem. Somebody that always complains that he is poor or in a bad way… starving to death.
Managia which I often say to this day is kind of a swear word that is an expression of unpleasant surprise.
Che Cozzo – Which begs to ask why? But not really in a nice way.
