Context: Most Italian immigrants who came to the United States (late 1800s–early 1900s) did not actually speak standardized Italian.
At that time, Italy had only recently unified (in 1861), and the official Italian language based on the Tuscan dialect was not widely spoken outside of schools or government.
Instead, people from different regions spoke distinct dialects or even separate languages:
• Sicilian (spoken in Sicily)
• Neapolitan (southern Italy)
• Venetian, Calabrese, Piedmontese, etc.
These dialects were often mutually unintelligible, meaning two Italians from different regions might not even understand each other.
So when these immigrants came to America, they brought their local dialects, not “Italian” as we think of it today. Their descendants modern Italian Americans often assume their ancestors spoke the polished, textbook Italian used now, but that’s historically false.
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Waiting for context
Can someone explain this?
[That’s a bold assumption that their ethnic pride is deeper than modern Italian nationalism.](https://youtu.be/jBD61skoMk8?si=-pAMxINkddzWE20K)
Context: Most Italian immigrants who came to the United States (late 1800s–early 1900s) did not actually speak standardized Italian.
At that time, Italy had only recently unified (in 1861), and the official Italian language based on the Tuscan dialect was not widely spoken outside of schools or government.
Instead, people from different regions spoke distinct dialects or even separate languages:
• Sicilian (spoken in Sicily)
• Neapolitan (southern Italy)
• Venetian, Calabrese, Piedmontese, etc.
These dialects were often mutually unintelligible, meaning two Italians from different regions might not even understand each other.
So when these immigrants came to America, they brought their local dialects, not “Italian” as we think of it today. Their descendants modern Italian Americans often assume their ancestors spoke the polished, textbook Italian used now, but that’s historically false.