Italian Flashcards

1
Q

Reasons why Tuscan/Florentine dialect began to dominate in the 14th century and became modern Italian

A
  1. Tuscany’s central position in Italy and the aggressive commerce of its most important city, Florence
  2. Greatest similarity in morphology and phonology to classical Latin of all the dialects
  3. Three literary artists who best summarized Italian thought and feeling of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance: Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio
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2
Q

Le Tre Corone

A

Dante Alighieri (completed Divine Comedy 1321 shortly before death, older than others by 50/60yrs)
Francesco Petrarca (early Renaissance humanist famous for love poetry)
Giovanni Boccaccio (principal work is Decameron, a merchant’s epic)

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3
Q

Dante’s work

A

The Divine Comedy (1321) shocked the literary world as the first great work of the standardisation of Vulgar Italian. He attempts to construct rules for this new language.

He theorises this work in the early 1300s in a work called De Vulgari Eloquentia.

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4
Q

History of Italian language

A

Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio, as fathers of the linguistic revolution, wrote in the Tuscan dialect in the 1300s but until the 1500s writers used Latin.

Intellectuals in the 1500s discussed a national language.
- Niccolò Machiavelli defended contemporary Florentine and not Dante’s
- Pietro Bembo proposed the 14th-century Tuscan as a pure literary language (wrote Tuscan grammar based on Petrarca and Boccaccia)

Accademia della Crusca, an academic body that deals with linguistics, was founded in 1582 (created first Italian dictionary 1612, based on Bembo’s idea)

Also in the late 16th and early 17th century, the scientist Galileo Galilei, creates the Italian of physics and astronomy by using Vulgar Italian

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5
Q

Proverb: red in the evening good weather is hoped for
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight
Red sky at morning, shepherd’s warning

A

Proverbio: rosso di sera bel tempo si spera

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6
Q

Proverb:who goes slowly, goes healthy and goes far
Slow and steady wins the race

A

Proverbio: chi va piano va sano e va lontano

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7
Q

How does Italian compare to the origins of other Romance languages?

A
  • Europe was a confusion of countless dialects, many from Latin, which, over the centuries, developed into a few different, distinct languages such as French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
  • What has happened in France or Spain or Portugal, however, is an evolution that we can define as organic: that is, the dialect of the most important city has gradually turned into the official language of the entire region.
  • Internal division prevented this in Italy. As the country gradually unified so too did the language.
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8
Q

What was the situation in Italy before unification?

A

Until Italian unification in 1861, it was a peninsula of city-states at war with each other and dominated by sometimes proud princes or other European powers. Part of Italy belonged to France, part to Spain, part to the Church and finally part to whoever managed to conquer the local fortress, castle or palace.

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9
Q

Idiom: Good luck/Break a leg

A

In bocca al lupo & risposta: Crepi il lupo

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10
Q

Idiom: Good as gold, describing person with a heart of gold

A

Buono come il pane

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11
Q

Idiom: The grass is always greener on the other side

A

L’erba del vicino è sempre più verde

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12
Q

Idiom: Desperate times call for desperate measures

A

A mali estremi, estremi rimedi

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13
Q

Idiom: easily overwhelmed with little problems

A

Affogare in un bicchier d’acqua

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14
Q

Idiom: all is fair in love and war

A

L’amore domina senza regole

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15
Q

Idiom: the more you’re prohibited from having something, the more appealing that thing is

A

I frutti proibiti sono i più dolci

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16
Q

Idiom: I know what I’m talking about

A

Conosco i miei polli

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17
Q

Idiom: reviving a relationship gone sour. It’s just never the same

A

Minestra riscaldata

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18
Q

Idiom: be straightforward and speak one’s mind, regardless of the possibility of upsetting or insulting someone

A

Non avere peli sulla lingua

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19
Q

Idiom: when you’re left with a bad choice alongside another equally horrible option

A

Trovarsi fra l’incudine (anvil) e il martello

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20
Q

Idiom: You’ve made your bed, now lie in it

A

Hai voluto la bicicletta? Allora, pedala!

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21
Q

Idiom: Let’s call a spade a spade

A

Diciamo pane al pane e vino al vino

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22
Q

Idiom: refers to a person who has a good head—someone not only bright, but one who possesses a lot of good sense

A

Ha molto sale in zucca

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23
Q

Idiom: to describe somebody full of life—someone with a vibrant personality and a sunny disposition that lifts everyone’s spirits

A

È tutto pepe!

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24
Q

Idiom: when something fits you perfectly

A

Ti sta a pennello

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25
Idiom: means someone is trying to accomplish too many things at once
Fare troppi atti in commedia
26
Idiom: Break the ice
Rompere il ghiaccio
27
Idiom: Spit it out, speak up
Sputa il rospo (toad)
28
Idiom: Caught red-handed
Colto con le mani nel sacco
29
Idiom: Plenty of fish in the sea
Morto un papa, se ne fa un altro
30
Idiom: Get out of my way!
Togliti dai piedi!/Fuori dai piedi!
31
Idiom: It is what it is
Alla come viene, viene
32
Idiom: Once in a blue moon
Ogni morte di papa
33
Idiom: Every little helps
Tutto fa brodo
34
Idiom: a big shot, somebody important who wields strong influence
Un pezzo grosso
35
Idiom: To chicken out, surrender
Calare le brache
36
Idiom: for a person who acts stupidly, has low intelligence or has poor judgment
Avere un cervello di gallina
37
Idiom: There's honour among thieves (opposite of English)
Cane non mangia cane
38
Idiom: to be cheap
Avere le braccine corte
39
Idiom: You'll get over it (love affairs, a job, a friend who’s not calling back, a fight)
Chiodo scaccia chiodo (A nail drives out another nail)
40
Idioms: Actions speak louder than words
I fatti parlano più delle parole
41
Idiom: Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched
Non dire gatto se non ce l’hai nel sacco
42
Idiom: Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Chi non risica non rosica
42
Idiom: Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Chi non risica non rosica
43
Idiom: it's damn cold
Fa un freddo cane!
44
Idiom: it's my forte
È il mio cavallo di battaglia
45
abstemious/temperate in Italian
frugale
46
teetotal in Italian
astemio
47
an accident
incidente
48
damn! shock
accidenti!, accidente
49
actual
effittivo
50
present/current
attuale
51
actually
in realtà, effettivamente
52
currently, now, at this moment
attualmente
53
addiction
dipendenza, assuefazione
54
sum/addition
addizione
55
to advertise
pubblicizzare
56
to warn
avvertire
57
advice
consiglio
58
warning
avviso
59
affluent/rich
ricco
60
tributary, lake
affluente
61
to annoy
infastidire, seccare
62
to bore
annoiare
63
argument
discussione, litigio
64
topic, subject
argomento
65
to be intelligent/well-informed
essere in gamba
66
Keep it to yourself! (a secret)
Acqua in bocca!
67
to lose one's temper
Perdere le staffe(stirrups) Se io perdo le staffe, tu perdi la testa
68
Achieve two things with a single action
Prendere due piccioni con una fava (two pigeons, one stone)
69
I don't feel like it
Non mi va
70
a long way to go before finishing (eg. because of procrastination before finishing a project)
Essere in alto mare (on the high seas)