Is the Italian Scene in The Irishman Authentic? Real Sicilian Reacts

[@ghostlightdc]

One thing to consider which you hinted on a bit is something called "Italese." Italian Americans incorporated lots of English phrasings and words into their speech over the decades and created what was the equivalent of Spanglish. Russell's pronunciation of Irish was originally translated in the US as "Irisher" rather than the grammatically correct Irishman. So I think they were trying to demonstrate that he wasn't using the correct Italian word either. It sounds to me as if he's saying something like "ai-ri-scia," essentially taking the English pronunciation and putting an Italian twist on it. This strikes me as very authentic of the time period among Italian Americans. Similarly, there's a scene near the start of the film where Latin is being spoken in church and it's really bad. Being a Philadelphia native, where the film took place, I think Martin Scorsese had the wherewithal to demonstrate that they were in an Irish American neighborhood and church, not an Italian American church. Consequently, their Latin was spoken very poorly with a heavy American accent. The little details like these made me appreciate this film even more!

[@unknown_user8449]

Not to mention that most American priests have really bad Latin pronunciation in general

[@jmgonzales7701]

​@@unknown_user8449 i wonder why americans in general have a hard time speaking latin based languages.

[@ghostlightdc]

@@jmgonzales7701 I would argue the opposite, that Latin based languages are the most prominent. Spanish is the second language of the United States and the most commonly studied language by native born English speakers. You would have difficulty not hearing Spanish spoken just walking around the street in most major American cities.

[@Rabbithole8]

I was going to write something similar. Mixed language is very common among immigrant groups.

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@Rabbithole8 yes especially first and 2nd gen, by third gen they would have more of the host country's language.

[@woodsmand]

It looks like Russell Bufalino was born in Sicily in 1903 his father died a few months later and his family returned to Sicily but then returned to the united states in 1906, then he again when back to Sicily in 1910 after his mother died. I think going back and forth between Sicily in the united states during his formative years is going to have an effect on his accent. You see it a lot here in California with children of Migrant workers who go back and forth between the united states and Mexico, they have hybrid accents.

[@GuitarsRockForever]

Exactly. Myself is an example (in my native language). When I was very young, I was told (because I don't remember much of my younger years) I spent time with my grand parents (in different region) frequently. Their local dialect/accent is different than my home city dialect/accent. I was told my accent was switching between (unwillingly I guess) the two. Plus my family was not local in the city and lived in an place with lot of different background people. As the result, I don't have very strong local accent. I had enough to be sounding like someone who doesn't sound foreign, but nowhere as typical old generation locals. It is logical both characters shouldn't speak as "local".

[@jmgonzales7701]

so as people for example fil-ams, normally they have somewhat of an american accent and a filipino one.

[@jojojojo4332]

I'm Dutch, I'm from the east. Where we speak a hybrid between Dutch and German. I can confirm to you that lyrical sounds get broken up by going from place to place.

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@jojojojo4332 well its only natural

[@jojojojo4332]

@@jmgonzales7701 not really, this area in particular is one that still maintains Talking in that hybrid language and actively criticism people who don't do it right

[@Adam_okaay]

Thank you for gracing us low socioeconomic peasants with free paid content, my manager at PlayTech put me through the ringer this morning and I really needed a pick me up.

[@sanderlaureyssens5688]

oh oh, looks like a paycut for you son.

[@GuitarsRockForever]

A massive pay cut, delivered by Rowan 🤣🤣🤣

[@RisottoNero-z1w]

The reference

[@jv8462]

Back to the pasta mines with you

[@xyrisejoss7144]

@@jv8462 lol 😂

[@jangelini]

Something else to consider, Pesci‘s character spoke most of his Italian in America with ppl from Italy and born in the states. I imagine it creates a different type of language than in Italy. Not to mention the all the regions of Italy ending up in one area creates a mishmash

[@strategost]

The bread dipping is totally accurate as my relatives do it, although we are all of Calabrese descent. It most likely is an older tradition that was preserved by the poor immigrants in America. Grazie mille per il tuo video perchè io capisco un po' della lingua Italiana

[@andrewstackpool4911]

It is also probably linked to the early Holy Communion practice where the bread was dipped

[@alessandromazzini7026]

The problem with bread dripping Is that was and (for older people) Is a tradition for farmers and poor people

[@distantnemesis1593]

@@alessandromazzini7026 maybe they learnt the tradition from older relatives who were farmers

[@Rabbithole8]

My relatives also did the same and are Pugliese.

[@inisipisTV]

@@andrewstackpool4911 - It’s way older. Bread at the time is so hard so to soften it’s dipped in with wine or soup. That why the "Last Supper" which is a "Passover meal", Judas was caught dipping his bread in the Wine with Jesus’s.

[@TheMule71]

@8:10 According to wikipedia, Bufalino moved back to US at the age of 3 and then back again to Sicily at the age of 7, so no he didn't spend from 0 to 11 in Italy. The years from 3 to 7 are very important for language development and he was in US during that time.

[@sdmarciano19]

Great video Metatron, really appreciate all the language work you do! One interesting point. When Pesci says "Iressce" for Irish - this is also how my family who came from Messina to Philly would say "Irish", basically italianizing the English word. The Irish and Italians in Philadelphia had a lot of animosity towards one another as they would have to fight to work for pennies, so not surprising that the word "Irish" would make it into the lexicon, albeit with a heavy accent. That stood out as something really authentic considering the mixed Italian and American heritage of Russ - actually I haven't heard that word since my grandparents died!

[@EmmanuelGoldstein3]

I actually thought that De Niro's Italian was too good for someone who had learned it incidentally as an adult, especially as a soldier spending most of his time in battle surrounded by other Americans. (And I'll add that he has learned to speak it much better than he could in The Godfather. Too bad he couldn't flip the two performances). I think both of them have the mannerisms down. Pesci's a little hit and miss. His short phrases are pretty good, but he gets in trouble with the longer sentences. To me it's not so much that he's pronouncing things wrong. It's more that we can hear him diligently making sure he makes the correct sounds, rather than calmly letting the words flow out without thinking about them. So he sounds like someone speaking a foreign language. I'll also note that they're both presumably saying what's written in the script, so any word choices go to the screenwriters rather than the actors. I'll also note that there is a distinct dialect of Italian that was spoken in the US in this era. It was a mixture of a variety of Southern Italian dialects and English. It seems quite plausible to me that someone who had lived in the US since he was eleven would drift over to speak that, both in vocabulary and in accent, rather than retaining his childhood Sicilian. My father, born in 1928, grew up with that language, which he believed to be Italian, because that's what everyone called it. But when he went to Italy, he discovered that it wasn't remotely like standard Italian, and didn't work in Palermo either. That needs to be considered when judging the authenticity of the scene. Pesci isn't playing an actual Catanese, but rather an Italian-American who lived in Catania for ten years as a small child. It's somewhat like making the mistake of saying that Italian restaurants in the US aren't "authentic" by comparing them to restaurants in Italy rather than to the food that Italian-Americans eat.

[@Floreal78]

Maybe consider the infamous scene in the first Godfather movie when Michael meets Sollozzo in the restaurant, part of the conversation is in italian, it can be found on youtube.

[@arrow1414]

Including a few lines they frustratingly did not show subtitles for.🙁

[@Aries162]

Love your vids about the Italian language and the Sicilian language. Thank you! From an Italian language student in San Diego, CA.

[@anonymoususer4866]

One of my dearest friends, now passed on, was a proud Italian. I miss him so much and having these types of content creators out there fills my heart.

[@yt.602]

That was an interesting take on that conversation. Especially the cultural implications and dialects in context, as you've pointed out one learned the languages in a war scenario by just talking to people and the other was a native that had lived a long time in the USA. Neither had any formal education in the languages and they used various shorthands that were entirely believable, more believable in context than "perfect" grammar.

[@samchaleau]

Always love your videos, especially on reviews of italian history presented by Americans and the British. They're always informative, self-aware and contextually meaningful - while you consistently state an awareness of areas you're unsure of or lack full knowledge, thus allowing us to research outside of your work to our hearts content. One of the greatest educational KZbinrs. I consistently recommend your channel to others through my own works. Congratulations on the success of your channel, and best wishes for the future! Sam.

[@Nehutu]

About the moment, when De Niro's character says: "I thought you had an accent like Catania", it wasn't a script statement, it was a compliment to the superior. A compliment to the accent from the past, even though it is being diluted by the present one. It's paying respect. Anyway, thanks for the Great Video as always. And it is a Killer of a movie. It's what it is.

[@philmckenna5709]

Yeah. That's how I perceived it. I've done that myself, and I've had people say similar things to me when I speak French. It's just a compliment.

[@gloriathomas3245]

If there's one I've learned being fan of Valentino Rossi (Italian MotoGP) is the fact your italian varies depending on the region you come from. In fact Kobe Bryant who's speaks Italian fluently actually speak with with Milanese/Lombard vernacular as since he lived and grew up in the Lombardy region. Going back to Valentino Rossi he's from Urbino/La Marche clearly speaks that way.

[@OgeiDennepeL]

Eh,being from Tavullia Valentino is right on the border between Romagna and Marche,his way of speaking is kind of a hybrid between those of both regions,considering that the “romagnolo” dialect speaking zone extends somewhat into the Marche region.

[@Nelvouser]

It never fails to amaze me how easy it iss to understand Italians, being a Brazillian, i wonder if italians feel the same, particularly about people from Sao Paulo, the most italian of brazillian cities

[@lanfrancoadreani9212]

My boss is Brazilian I kinda understand him, many words are very similar, but I need to study the language.

[@joelalvarez5322]

im argentinian and i can pick up a few words even though i dont speak italian,sometimes i can understand the general message even if i dont understand the language cause of the similar sounding words,context and expressions its a weird feeling

[@Nelvouser]

@@joelalvarez5322 Its funny, spanish and any of its varietys are much harder for me, although it SOUNDS more simillar to portuguese than italian and has many many equal words the meaning and pronunciation is so different, for example i could NEVER understand a full paragraph when my argentinian friends where arguing

[@Nelvouser]

@@joelalvarez5322 pretty cool to see how other south/LATIN americans view this topic

[@marcello7781]

The good thing is that once you know a language of a certain group all the others will be slightly easier to learn. I can easily understand Brazilian and European Portuguese and much of the other Romance languages, even not well known ones like Ladino (both the Romansh-like alpine language and the Judeo-Spanish). The problem comes when I have to write long and complex texts and I end up mashing words from this or that language. Acho que um brasileiro médio pode entender um 70% do italiano.

[@andrewsmith9174]

As a person that has had to learn Spanish on my own, the hard way, your comment about vocabulary and pronunciation as correct. I am now fairly proficient when I speak, but my “accent” is all over the place from the different countries of the people that have helped me learn more words. I also mistakenly insert English or forget and bastardize words to fit. I think that pointing out this nuance to people that never experienced this themselves is helpful to stop the ignorance of people and broaden their enjoyment of the film.

[@emanueleanselmi7631]

I would suggest to write your examples of Italian and Sicilian sentences as you proceed to explain them (with some visuals or something like that), so non-native speakers would understand the differences between the languages and also where the grammatical mistakes lie. Ps: apart from that, I enjoyed the video. You're great, man. Keep going with these amazing contents. 💪🏻

[@alessiobenvenuto5159]

Yeah, even i at some point realized: Wait, a non Italian isn't supposed to understand that

[@JJohnny03]

I would suggest the scene in "Inglorious Basterds", just for a fun, short video like this one. Great content overall, Metatron, keep it up! :-)

[@meowfaceification]

Bawnjourno

[@santinodagostino4441]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@danielrobertson2154]

Lmao i love that scene. My wife is southern and notoriously bad at any accent but drawl. We always have a good laugh at that part🤣

[@AshManzarek]

@@meowfaceification lmao

[@MichaelScheele]

Even people who have never heard Italian before could tell Brad Pitt and crew had the worst accents imaginable. It was such a contrast to Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa. Waltz doesn't speak Italian, so hearing Signor Urbani's review of his performance in Italian would be great.

[@seymourfields3613]

I'm third generation Italian American, my grandfather was from Napoli. I really appreciate this stuff, because I feel it helps me connect with my past.

[@MIKE_THE_BRUMMIE]

You hail from one of the most beautiful cities in the world and the people I met there were so warm, it took us aback!!!! The owner of the hotel invited me amd my pregnant partner out for dinner with her amd her parents, who were celebrating their 50th anniversary.....there are no words! I genuinely belive it was their warmth and wise words that fortified my resolve to be a farther.

[@arturocaissut1071]

Being from the north (Friuli, to be specific) I didn't know the meaning of scandare and I was under the impression he mispronounced "rischiando", which felt lame. Now I love the movie even more. Also, I totally agree that sometimes we grow up using words from our own dialect thinking they are italian words: in our case it's probably even worse, since our history and the influence from our neighbours brought us words that have slavic/german roots and we italianized them when we were forced to speak Italian in the twenties. That's one of the many beautiful things of our Country: our diversity is a treasure.

[@Panz82]

so i come from Ticino, the only italian speaking canton in Switzerland, and i can tell you i've seen my whole life my father and mother dipping anything from biscuits to bread into wine :D

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

Do you guys only speak italian or are you multilingual? Are your road signs in Italian? Switzerland confuses me.

[@Panz82]

@@G-Mastah-Fash italian is a official language in Switzerland... and that is our mother tongue

[@JustinJurazick]

I will say as an American I have noticed certain traditions that have gone out of style abroad tend to be more celebrated here I think personally it's isolation just like you said you live in a very specific Italian speaking area I would not be surprised if that was similar

[@Panz82]

@@JustinJurazick i think you are correct. My parents do that maybe once a month while i never did it in my whole life.:)

[@Jaco6185]

@@Panz82 Ma si parla anche dei dialetti come Italia? Mi sembra fascinante Ticino

[@path1024]

I've often said that if I could go anywhere in time/space it would probably be Sicily in the 1140s. Perfect blend of cultures and a great respect for knowledge regardless of where it came from. Having Norman ancestors has nothing to do with my opinion ;)

[@Mode-Selektor]

I like that you paid attention to the nuances of what makes something authentic. Not everyone is going to speak a language 100% correctly 100% of the time especially if they are a foreigner.

[@ianhelyar9553]

Yeah, I was giving a speech/presentation to a bunch of uni students in China, and one of them accused me, a native English speaker, of making mistakes with my English. I told her, "That's dialect, not mistakes. I'm Australian." Yeah, I know I'm stretching it a bit calling myself a native English speaker...

[@CodeeXD]

@@ianhelyar9553 lmao huge stretch

[@faithlesshound5621]

We all expect that children will make mistakes in grammar and word choice from time to time, but it has become orthodoxy for some linguists that adults do not mistakes in their native language - that instead what appear to be mistakes are class, education or dialect markers. It's difficult to be dogmatic about this: at any one time, was the speaker trying to speak the standard written language (and getting it wrong) or being colloquial?

[@pillager6190]

Really enjoyed this. I enjoy language learning. 20 yrs ago I was fluent in German, Brazilian Portuguese, and (naturally) American English. I stopped using German 15yrs ago because my (ex)wife hated hearing all foreign languages, I continued to speak Portuguese in my National Guard job so it's still good enough. Give me a week back in Brazil and I would likely be back to native level.

[@alekzander2010]

você é brasileiro de ascendência alemã?

[@markredacted8547]

I didn't think I'd enjoy this, but Metatron you never seize to amaze me in how you make everything so gosh-darn entertaining. Unfortunately not a noble one but I love learning every bit of wisdom you speak, and continuously look forward to every video. Thank you for what you do you deserve so much success 😊

[@cadethumann8605]

One thing I wish he would talk about is women in feudal times (European, Asian, etc.) with their roles, struggles (like during times of war), activities, freedoms, limitations, facts, misconceptions, and various figures. Wouldn't you agree that it would be fascinating to hear his knowledge on the other half of our species (preferably without getting into an anti-sjw vs sjw rant)?

[@theicepickthatkilledtrotsk658]

I loved the Irishman but every time De Niro is forced to do something physical like the scene with the store owner it becomes an unintentional comedy.

[@tcc5750]

Yeah he's too old for a scene like that.

[@corinnepmorrison1854]

Can’t stand De Zero...

[@robo5013]

Yeah, I laughed real hard at that one. Had to REALLY suspend my belief that he was hurting the guy with those kicks

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@corinnepmorrison1854 same here

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@hazard3483 yea back in the day. Now he's just a dull whiney old man

[@MrPiccolop]

Thank you Metatron.. always a pleasure.

[@SirAtesh]

Am i Italian? NO. Do i know Italian? NO. Do i plan to learn Italian? NO. Why do i watch it? Because it's METATRON!

[@gordyrroy]

I agree

[@stirfrywok2927]

I really enjoyed this. As someone who is hopeless at languages it always impresses me how actors give it a bash- but I'm always wondering how accurate their bash actually is. I really enjoyed The Irishman, too. Considering how Pacino and DeNiro had effectively phoned in most their performances of the last 20ish years, it was a welcome reminder how good they can be. Pesci I thought was excellent

[@copperkettlepot]

My first time at this channel. I find it humorous that I detect a British accent along with an Italian accent when you speak in English. And here you are critiquing American actor's accent, syntax and inflections when they attempt to speak Sicilian. I do love the sound of spoken Italian - but know very few words to understand any of it. Great content, keep it up!

[@Ellis307]

I found the learn-teach thing quite interesting because even in English some people will do a similar thing and say variations of ‘can you learn me this?’ rather than ‘can you teach me this?’

[@markiobook8639]

It's old English to say that'll learn them. because to learn is the Germanic cognate: lernen, as in some parts of UK especially South West which retained Saxon like Somerset say good, gooder and best, bes'ser (beste, besser) are just some examples.

[@Ellis307]

@@markiobook8639 Hmmm that’s interesting. (I know nothing about Old English) Is it ever used in the direct voice like in the examples I put above? I’m from Northern England and hear those quite often so could be that holdover from OE

[@markiobook8639]

@@Ellis307 It depends. Most linguists ignore the South West which is where academics acknowledge Cornish as a living language and should be given special same status as Welsh. Simultaneously you have the self-same academics looking down their noses at the South-West dialect, as being somehow stupid or the jabberings of mere imbecilic peasant farmers, despite its long history of being highly inflected by Angle-Schäsisch- and I use the German spelling to underline the link to the West Germanic dialect. Essentially Somerset itself is AngloSaxon for Sumorseate- seate (land) of the Somerton peoples. Among many links to German is an infamously stereotypical crop in the South West: the mangelwurzel- a large orange-yellow turnip/beet. Mangelwurzel in modern High German means "without roots"- yet mangold remains an fairly common old German word for chard or fodder and wurzel remains a word still used by German farmers for root crops- like beet, turnip etc. It's universally held that old Somerset-Dorset-Gloucester was the hold-out of the Anglisch-Sächsisch language- it retained rhotic R (as in American "yard") and until travel was made much easier by the expansion of the railway lines- it was fairly insular- but people of Bristol and Plymouth have always been foul-sea (as opposed to fair weathereres) and cod and kipper (herring) also known as silver darlin's a major industry- and also privateering (piracy) was a big calling (the stereotypical pirate accent) If you're looking for the English accent most similar to modern American- it's a combination of the North-South vowel split of path/path, bath/bath past/past, castle/castle (Irish and Northerners) combined with strangely a West Country rhotic R.

[@jpmwright]

Great video, fascinating stuff! You are amazing at languages. I am a half Italian Brit who lives in Japan and I can only fluently speak English, your breakdowns are wonderful.

[@giannifois8948]

2:57 the instant laugh at “Minchia” is a 100% accurate proof that this man is both italian and sicilian.

[@DLR1976]

Che bello sei Siciliano ! Ho servito una missione per la mia chiesa fra 2001-2003. Ho vessuto nelle cittá di Catania, Marsala, Caltanissetta, Misretta ed Agrigento. Mi manca troppo quel bel paese, la gente e sua cultura 😊

[@josephnardone1250]

Excellent video. Really enjoyed your critique on how well they spoke Italian.

[@Joyceages]

My grandmother was from Palermo on my father’s side and my grandpa is half Sicilian/half Napolitano and my grandmother is half Sicilian/half Scotch-Irish. Was in a big Italian American household growing up but none of my grandparents spoke Italian. My girlfriend is Puerto Rican and came to the US as a little girl and knows fluent Spanish and English. There’s always a part of me that wished my ancestors kept that tradition and I knew the language.

[@blllllllllllllllllllrlrlrl7059]

Learn the dialects then

[@richardmangelmann4975]

Oh I didn’t know you were Sicilian! I’ve only been once and honestly I was really in love with the people I’ve met, it was so nice!! I would love to go again so bad and really get to know it a bit more.

[@lewiitoons4227]

I've been learning Spanish for a good few years and at the start of being able to understand Spanish I could only understand a bit of Italian but that was crazy listening too the Italian I didn't need to read the subtitles, crazy 😂

[@mariocatanese1011]

Great break down of this scene, Raffaello! Your videos are always very entertaining and informative, I love it!

[@MichaelScheele]

How about reviewing the dinner scene in The Godfather where Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) are speaking at dinner? Similarly to The Irishman, it's a conversation between a native speaker (Sollozzo) and a first generation American who learned some Italian, presumably a Sicilian dialect (Michael Corleone).

[@professord6968]

Carry on noble One! Sentirti parlare dialetto mi ha fatto sorridere. Great video as always.

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

At the same time, Raff, young 11/12 year olds being indoctrinated into new cultures often become fully immersed, taking on new accents and languages easily. One would expect the culture-shock to be fairly considerable, moving from provincial Sicily to the hustle and bustle of interwar New Yoik. Whatever the case, it's acceptable to consider that after 30/40/50 years, that his accents (both Sicilian and American) developed specifically due to the accents of those he grew up around. If (as expected) he grew up in an Italian neighbourhood, that the accents he would develop would be an amalgamation of the children he played with, and those of their parents and people in his local community. I find it harder to believe that De Niro's character gained a fluent lexicon from a year and a half in Sicily/Italy. Firstly, the Irish and Italian communities in NY were famously abrasive with each other, so the war would expectedly have been his introduction to the language. The GIs would have had learned phrases, but their interaction with locals would have been massively limited due to the heavy fighting and constant push toward Rome. YES, he could well have learned SOME Italian/Sicilian, but nowhere near as fluently as his character is versed.

[@dangerousdiscourse]

Putting economics aside, this hatred was stoked and perpetuated similar to how white vs poc is today. The protestants needed the italians and irish to build out the infrastructure of the country but they didn't want a catholic power base to rival the protestants. Also, the irish we treated far worse than we were and we came on the seen with alot of baggage, let us not kid ourselves. This baggage was felt by the irish most often do to occupying similar socio economic status.

[@Greggah]

@@dangerousdiscourse "Also, the irish we treated far worse than we were and we came on the seen with alot of baggage, let us not kid ourselves." Would this be honor culture? I know Sicily in particular has a lot of middle eastern honor culture due to moorish and Islamic colonisation holding out longer there than Spain and other parts of Europe.

[@dywirnach783]

I’m Italian as well and from the north I saw my grandparents using wine and bread a few times but they used to mix the wine with a soup of a few veggie ( like onions and carrots ) or with the chest of a chicken sometimes when they were lucky to have it … They told me was a way to make up the tasteless soup to something eatable also because the bread wasn’t the usual one at the time but a sub product .. For example living on mountains they used to make chestnut bread that doesn’t really taste good i tried it What I’m trying to say it doesn’t make sense to me because was a thing that poor people used to do and not for sure wealthy families but hey I’m not from the exact place so I shut up

[@bastardslayer5625]

Chestnut bread actually sounds tasty, did you mix up chestnuts with acorns?

[@dywirnach783]

​@@bastardslayer5625 Not Really, they used to give acorn mixed with other aliment for some animal at the farm but never been a farmer in my all life i Can't really tell also like a said is a kinda Odd bread it macht well with breakfast or sweet product like jelly or similar ; you don't wont to eat it with meat or soups or to do the scarpetta i tried and is not in my cord....

[@philmckenna5709]

Dywirnach Sounds Welsh! 👹

[@scipio7837]

During harvest in Hungary, they would distribute fresh bread to grape pickers who would then eat a piece of bread to cleanse the palate then eat grapes.. then repeat. This is still a popular lunch for us here. The Greek tradition of olive oil and balsamic for dipping are also still very popular, but you would already know most of these

[@TheEXNLounge]

Great vid. Can you see how accurate Robert De Niro’s Sicilian in Godfather 2 or Al Pacino’s Sicilian in Godfather 1

[@davidbraun6209]

I was about to point R.U. to _The Godfather_ scenes where Michael Corleone (American-born) was in Sicily (and, for that matter, to the "locals" there).

[@micheleduritto]

@@davidbraun6209 the locals in the Godfather were all real italians...and even speaked proper dialect if i remember correctly...there is no way for a non-native speaker to be as fluent in it as they were otherwise.

[@jonv8177]

Awesome video Metatron, & thank you for making it available to regular viewers. You should do a collaboration video about Italian mob movies, with Michael Franzese, who was an actual mob boss.

[@Pautasio84]

Outstanding review! Very well explained in deep detail. You did a great job indeed

[@mattiamastrangelo3035]

Madò! bellissimo sto video. Potresti iniziare un format così. Ci sarebbero tanti film da analizzare.

[@damianip]

My parents were from Rome but emigrated to the US literally months before I was born. No bread dipping on either side of the pond in our family. Loved the scene analysis and breakdown. I had to say that the scene hurt my ears a bit, but when you reiterated that neither of them were portraying lifelong native speakers, it clicked. Anyway, keep it up, I love these kinds of videos.

[@jmgonzales7701]

nice, another italian-American

[@cheater00]

If the guy was raised in Sicilly until he was 11, but then he lived in the US, by the time he's 60 or older like in the movie, he would have forgotten most of it. I'm someone who has lived away from my country for all of my recent life and I forget so, so much stuff. I'm an educated person and I can speak 6 languages, but I still forget the one that I use the least, which is my first language, which I used daily until I was about 20, and used a lot until I was maybe 22. I'm now 36 and I forget a lot of the language - so the guy who was 60 and was only in Sicilly until he was 11 and was clearly an uneducated rube would have forgot much, much more. Remember that nowadays you can get italian TV and movies and keep the language alive in your head, you can call people up, go on facebook or twitch to get exposed - this didn't exist back then, at all. All you had was people around you. Anyways, the same thing goes for the accent: you eventually start losing it; I started losing mine maybe 10 years into my separation from the homeland. So even if Pesci didn't have the original accent nailed down, that's fine, because the real person wouldn't have had it either. When the Irishman says Pesci did sound like he had that specific accent, he's only making a vacuous compliment, rather than making a fully rational observation. Italian is one of the languages I speak and I've heard so many Italians speak badly - I wouldn't be surprised about Pesci's character being just as bad or worse.

[@seatonking8136]

My mum's family is from abrutzo and this plays well in the mini dialec changes there too. Much respect mate, should do more of these. Also the wine with bread is akin to vokda and potatoes. Very nice touch haha

[@darthlaurel]

Half my family are Sicilian. I can't speak either Sicilian or Italian but what I noticed is that they didn't sound like the family sounded.

[@Frodojack]

Russell Bufalino was from Montedoro in Caltanisetta in south central Sicily, so not really near Catania. Actually about 16 miles closer to Palermo than to Catania. Anyways, another great scene worth examining is from the first Godfather film where Michael Corleone is dining with Sollozzo and McClusky before he kills them. Actor Al Lettieri, who played Sollozzo, was supposed to be speaking Sicilian in the restaurant scene. He was born in New York and was supposedly the brother-in-law of Genovese mobster Pasquale Eboli (whose family came from the Naples area).

[@Concetta20]

I’m just delighted to hear these two famous Italian-American actors speaking Italian. 😊

[@anitazan7985]

Un po' troppo palermitano il tuo accento per questo personaggio hahaha. Bell video! Saluti da Catania!

[@kikiasmr8]

BELLISSIMO questo video Raf l'ho adorato ! 😊

[@metatronyt]

Grazie!

[@IceManBgd]

I absolutely love your content, keep up the great work!

[@alessandroguarrera2203]

Insegnare's a funny one, I've often heard someone say that someone had taught them, or "mi ha insegnato", or even in Catanese "mi 'nsignau", and then use that phrase so often that "to learn" is almost forgotten. Even so, I've heard a few Catanese say that "chiddu min' parrau u mistere", and other sorts of phrases. That's the hard part with dialects, there's often little standardisation.

[@Oneleven1]

Given that those scene highlighted Catania, worth noting that Rosario “Russell” Bufalino was not from Catania (neither the city nor province), but rather from Montedoro, Caltanissetta. Montedoro had a significant colony in the Pittston-Scranton area of PA and the core membership of the mafia Family there was largely made up of Montedoresi (Montedoro being in what was historically a sulphur mining region, many locals emigrated to work in the coal industry in PA). Thus, apart from having spent much of his formative childhood years in Sicily, Bufalino’s life in the US was also one surrounded by compaesani, which would presumably have also served reinforced his accent (the accent typical of the Caltanissetta/Agrigento interior, rather then that of Catania in the east).

[@ettoredipugnar6990]

Also their is an “ American Italian dialect “ that consists of Sicilian , Calabrese , Naples , Abruzzese , dialects. Mixed together .

[@ROFTN]

01:25 In many Italian *paesi* people use to dip bread in wine, not only at home. Many say that it is something of "peasant" people.

[@NoFormalTraining]

There was at least one scene in a Columbo episode where Columbo is having a conversation in Italian with another Italian American. I've no idea what the episode is called, who the other actor is, or if he was in any way Italian, but Peter Falk who played Columbo was actually Jewish, whereas Columbo made a big deal of both sides of his family being Italian. So it would be interesting to see how accurate both actors were in that scene, or any other Columbo scenes.

[@FlagAnthem]

In Italy is "Colombo" and it was really popular in my family

[@dragonsword7370]

If you have anymore info on that episode plot to try and track down What episode and season it was. You're more likely to get it reviewed if they don't have to try and hunt for it.

[@americangangster1911]

I think that was a Columbo movie for TV called "Strange Bedfellows". I have the whole Colombo box set on DVD.

[@michaelpj7913]

This was so good loved the video, and even going into detail about how class and region effects accent. I will echo others and say please review inglorious Bastards next

[@kathleenhensley5951]

I love you dip your bread! I do that all the time. It's a special treat to have a good red wine .. chianti is almost impossible to find where I live, I have to drink a wine I wouldn't inflict on a person I hated. I also dip it in olive oil and salt.. better than butter

[@fuferito]

The _learn/teach_ terms being used interchangeably by rustic people can even be found here in North America by the great, Yosemite Sam when he says, “That'll _learn_ ya!”

[@Laurelin70]

Even Tolkien used this slang writing Gaffer Gamngee's (Sam's father) speaking, so it was present in England too.

[@stereodevil704]

Some Americans sometimes switch the verb “teach” to the verb “learn”. My Dad used to say “I’m gonna learn you how to do that.” Drove me nuts.

[@fredazcarate4818]

I agree with your assessment regarding the grammar and dialects. You are still the Mighty Metatron.🤔👏👍👊

[@scrappydoo7887]

For a terrible moment I thought you were opening a twist top bottle of red lol

[@matthewmurdock7329]

12:37 “...that I’ll show you in a second” Cit

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Pittston PA where Bufalino lived is only about a town or two away from my town.

[@markfergerson2145]

I've read that in the Wesley Snipes/Sean Connery film "Riding Sun" the Japanese language Snipes used was somewhat... creative. Can you give a critique?

[@josephmarzullo]

My grandfather came from near Napoli and he dipped bread in wine and he would also put bread and milk with sugar in a bowl as a night cap

[@lamwen03]

Such a good presentation and critique.

[@LPChipi]

I always took the bread and wine thing as Pesci's character not being able to chew the bread without softening it with wine.

[@Bender_B._Rodriguez]

Strange seeing 2 people who are never in a film about what they actually are and me an IRISHMAN is sitting here watching an Italian man review a movie, Im eating a quesadilla I made topped with picante salsa verde (I didnt make) and sour cream (that I also didnt make). Wash it down with a steel reserve and OJ

[@NequeNon]

Excellent Metatron! Just one thing, when Pesci says "Irish" he's saying it like many Italians of that generation would say it in North America (and some still do). It's borrowed from English and has its own variation, but it generally sounds something like "eereesh".

[@Overlord99762]

When you mention about watching it and having your suspension of disbelief broken, happened to me with Breaking Bad and any Spanish spoken in the other series adjacent to it. Gus Fring, a Chilean, has the shittiest least believable accent, Lalo is about the only one who speaks it properly, and that's because he IS Mexican. Another place I found the Spanish in Sicario (both) lacking at times.

[@jacobpeters9919]

Yup I’d love the shows more if I had no idea how Spanish should sound

[@mrbouncelol]

7:24 don't think I've heard you drop the F bomb before. Slipped thru editing? Lol

[@marcello7781]

Bel video, picciotto! After hearing many dialogues in butchered Italian in different pieces of entertainment, this one sounds almost excellent to me.

[@arrowackskorsou8194]

Yeah like some common useful / colloquial / slang phrases comparing Italian with Sicilian would be nice! 🐶😊👍

[@antonicv88]

It's funny, my grampa from Andalucía (south Spain) also dipped the bread in wine, and my other grandpa from Catalunya in Christmas used to dip "neulas" ( a sweet roll of thin bread) in whine. Also most of your grammar corrections are the same in Catalán and spanish. Cool video se how "far" and "close" are our Mediterranean cultures

[@equesdeventusoccasus]

I am close friends with several older people who are Italian, but lived in New England for many years, and very often they will take an English word, and as they put it, give it an Italian flair. Therefore it's possible that was what was happening with "combato." (Intentionally or accidentally, who can say)

[@RaineriRi]

It would be nice if you did an episode or episodes based on the Il Capo dei Capi miniseries. Toto Riina is played by Claudio Gioè and the other main actor is Daniele Liotti. It would be nice to see examples of Sicilian phrases used by actors or expressions related to culture and the underworld. Courtroom speeches in maxi trial during 80s would also be interesting because there are old school sicilians speaking there.

[@anthonyc7116]

Metatron, can you make a video on how to make real Italian food? I know it’s not your usual content but I’m of Italian descent in the US and always hear the food is different in Italy. Some real recipes would be awesome 👍🏻

[@CalogeroPeritore]

Hi, I'm from Italy and I can tell you that the difference is not just a matter of recipes (because also in Italy a lot of tradional recipes have multiple versions from different regions), but mostly of ingredients. I think that find in the US the right ingredients useful for an authentic Italian recipe is not a really simple task. So the simple way to taste authentic Italian food is to come here in Italy ahahah

[@iota-09]

@@CalogeroPeritore to be fair, with globalization some ingredients have become more common oversea so while definitely not easy, i wouldn't say it's impossible to make genuine italian food oversea, although there's naturally going to be less choice in what one can make. i mean, i'm pretty sure one can make some spaghetti aglio e olio in the us too.

[@eranshachar9954]

I advice to watch Chef Vincenzo Prosperi for that. Vincenzo Prosperi is an Italian Chef who now lives in Australia but he was born and lived in Italy for many years. His channel called "Vincenzo's Plate" and he has real pure authentic Italian recipes and they all taste great. Sometimes he brings experts on specific Italian dishes always fun to watch. He is a funny, intelligent, heart warming real person. You will love it.

[@CalogeroPeritore]

@@iota-09 I said it because I know that some types of food that you can find in US supermarkets, even if are produced by Italian companies, are conceived for US' market and can be slightly different from their Italian counterpart. For example Barilla uses for the pasta that is sell in the US different varieties of grain from which are used in order to produce the pasta that is sell in Italy.

[@CalogeroPeritore]

@@eranshachar9954 you can trust him only if uses just authentic emilian Parmigiano and not the fake awful australian Parmesan

[@markiangooley]

In English the uneducated sometimes say “That’ll learn you!” to mean “that’ll teach you!”

[@verandi3882]

Holy shit so you are a real ragazzo del sud? I like your channel even more now

[@rsacchi100]

I love your break down of things.

[@yellowgut]

Good video, thanks for sharing.

[@robertboyer5498]

My family left Mistretta in 1905. It's really sad but my mother's generation was the last one to speak Italian. I never had a conversation with her mother because she didn't speak English and I only knew a few words. Tried a few online language apps, but I just can't seem to get it. I think I'm too old to pick it up now, lol. I wouldn't be too hard on them. Their families probably left Italy around the same time mine did and at least they preserved some of their heritage.

[@Valettam]

Don't give up I'm trying to learn my fifth language now and I'm 45

[@robertmartinez2790]

It’s fun listening to Italian conversation for me because I only speak English and Spanish but I pick up every few Italian words because the languages are actually very similar.

[@Gothtecdotcom]

Same in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, they switch teach and learn regularly!!

[@karkonsairthelordling9437]

I love the patreon content! thanks for sharing, Wish I could pay for it. Love your content!

[@Professor_Fate]

Would a non-native speaker be able to distinguish a Catanian accent? My mother was a native Spanish speaker and she could, generally speaking, distinguish between an American and a British accent; but no further than that. She couldn't tell the difference between New York and Southern American or between Cockney and Scouse. I've studied German and have always heard that Hitler spoke with a marked "Southern"/Austrian accent, but I can't really tell.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

I am familiar with multiple French/Québécois accents.

[@Professor_Fate]

@RoryCt I was referring to the Irish-American character being able to distinguish specific individual Italian dialects.

[@Professor_Fate]

@RoryCt OK. That misses my point entirely and has nothing to do with what I was asking. But, OK. Whatever you say.

[@michaelm-bs2er]

Good point you make. There's no way he'd be able to distinguish. I think it's just poor screen writing.

[@micheleduritto]

It really depends, italian dialects are not like the english ones....(bar the irish and scottish one) most of them are almost entirely other languages...with even different grammar all together....now, being able to distinguish the specific dialect from a specific city compared to another one in the same region...now that is more unlikely...possbile but unlikely.

[@Seacae]

My grandmother and grandfather dipped bread in every kind of liquid. They retained this habit until their last day. Bread dipped in water was their most consumed breakfast aswell with bread dipped in wine. My family is from really poor descent, and after the ww2 this was their way to keep themselves full. (my family and I are from puglia)

[@joeblow9657]

My grandparents also had a sort of worship of bread being the source of life (mainly because it was the main food they got when growing up in depression and war time Italy). Although I don't think they dipped it in wine, I wouldn't be surprised if they dipped it in olive oil. When all you have is bread you must make do with what you have now what you want

[@Seacae]

@@joeblow9657 Of course! Being pugliese, the Land of Olive Trees (Puglia Is one of the best producer of Olive oil region in Italy, if not the best) we also worship bread and olive oil together, and we still have fireplaces in our houses and without a doubt, a slice of bread with salt and olive oil on top cooked on live fire is one of the best comfort food you'll ever have! We also accompany that with garden fresh whole tomatoes squezed on top of the bread

[@thebigone6969]

Is there anything the Metatron doesn’t know or can’t do???? The answer is no!!!!!! He’s the best there is and the best there ever will be!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@nicolograssi141]

A questo punto sarebbe molto bello vederti analizzare delle scene del "Padrino"! In particolare la scena nel ristorante, poco prima che Michael spari al capitano della polizia, dove parlano tra loro. È interessante anche perchè nella scena recitano un attore americano (penso irlandese), un attore Italoamericano e uno completamente italiano.

[@chasechiamulera7704]

Yeah

[@philmckenna5709]

Innit

[@BewilderedBird]

I’m an American that speaks only English, but I am utterly fascinated by the Italian dialects/languages. My grandparents were Italian, and they spoke “Italian”, but I later learned they was most likely Neapolitan and central Italian(Perugia) dialects. This is one of my favorite videos I’ve ever seen on KZbin. It was so cool to see a native Sicilian and native Italian explain what’s going on with this scene. If you could give the same treatment to the Italian speaking parts of the Godfather and the Godfather part 2, I would absolutely love that! As a huge fan of those movies, I’ve always read that DeNiro learned actual Sicilian dialect for his parts in Godfather 2. I would really love to see how you would rate them. By the way, your English is incredible, and you sound nearly native! Thanks man, you definitely earned a subscriber from me.

[@MarcvsClavdivsMarcellvs]

my aunt from Rome used to dip bread in white wine, considering she died at 94 i think it was pretty common back then