Mango Languages

Travel Tuesday: Love Locks

The following post is a guest blog from one of our Mangoes, Alana Wolfman. Alana recently returned from a Mediterranean cruise, where she traveled to Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Turkey. Here is a bit about her time spent in Venice.

Crossing the southern end of the Grand Canal, the Ponte dell’Accademia (aka the Academia Bridge) was the one place in Venice, Italy to make such an impact during my 10-day trip through the Mediterranean.

Rebuilt in 1985, the Ponte dell’Accademia is a busy bridge because it’s one of only four bridges in Venice allowing pedestrians to walk across the main canal. It was designed to replicate the temporary wooden bridge built there in 1932, but the new one was to be built with metal support features to maintain its durability throughout the years. The view from this bridge is absolutely outstanding and, unlike any of the other bridges in Venice, the location almost reaches St. Mark’s Basin and you have wonderful sights in all directions.

It was not only the view that caught my eye; looking down on the inner hand rails on the bridge, I noticed a cluster of pad-locks locked to the railing. Looking around even more, there were multiple clusters of pad-locks, each with writing on them. “Mila + Greg 1998″ and “Dimitri <3 Lena 2003″ and “L + K forever” were just a few.

These “love locks” have been noticed in other cities in Italy, but reportedly started in Hungarian city of Pécs during the 1980s. It is meant to symbolize that lovers’ love lasts forever, where they lock their locks to the rails and throw the key into the waters below. There were so many love locks, I couldn’t believe all of those tourists knew about it! If anyone is going to take a romantic trip to Venice, Italy, head over to the Academia Bridge, but be sure to carry an extra lock with you and a permanent marker.

What other “romantic” traditions have you come across in your travels?

Horse Racing isn't Just for Gamblers

Every year in Siena, Italy, the Palio di Siena is held twice annually.  Known as just Il Palio locally, the race consists of ten horses, representing ten of the seventeen Contrade, or city wards, of Italy.

The race takes place both on the 2^nd of July and the 16^th of August every year, each date corresponding with a religious event.

Before the event, a pageant called the Corteo Storico occurs during which there is a choreographed parade with costumes.  This parade in itself attracts visitors from all over the world.   Right before the competition there are last minute meetings between the heads of the Contrada, in which alliances are made and strategy is discussed.  This is serious business!

The race itself lasts literally about a minute and 30 seconds, and it is entirely possible for a horse to win the race even if its jockey falls off and doesn’t finish the race.   As the jockeys all ride bareback on the horses, it isn’t too much of a surprise that they are sometimes thrown off while making tight turns or movements.

Have you ever been to a horse race?  Was it anything like this?

Sicilian and Italian… What's the difference?

Lately, a few of us around the office have been bugging the product development team (jokingly) to come out with a Sicilian course. This begs the question, isn’t Sicilian just a dialect of Italian? It turns out there is actually a good deal of debate over this subject.

Some linguists believe that Sicilian may have actually been the first Romance Language, arising from a vulgar form of Latin spoken by Roman military men and everyday people. It is placed in the Italiano meridionale-estremo group of languages along with the Greek influenced Calabrian dialects of southern Italy, and actually has at least eleven regional dialects of its own.

The Sicilian language has been shaped by many years of foreign influence, occupation, and conquest. Unlike Italian, which is almost entirely Latin based, Sicilian has elements of Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish. This can be seen in many Sicilian words, like “azzizzari” (to embellish, adorn) from the Arabic “aziz” (beautiful), or “foddi” (angry), which can be traced to the Norman French “fol.”

Grammatically, Sicilian is also very different from Italian. For example, all the pronouns for I, he, she, you, and them are different in Sicilian.  Also, take into account that Sicilian does not distinguish between plural endings for verbs, using the same conjugations for masculine and feminine nouns. In Italian, the plural form differs according to gender, and there is much more concern about agreement between nouns and adjoining adjectives.

A great deal of the actual Italian influence on Sicilian has been since 1860, when, during the Italian Unification, Sicily became a part of Italy. More and more, there is risk today that the Sicilian language will eventually die out due to the influx of the Italian language into Sicily, becoming the preferred tongue among the natives. Even Sicilian emigrants, like my own family, speak a brand of the language which is different from what actual native Sicilians speak, simply because the language has changed so much even in the last 50 years.

So what’s the verdict? Have you met anyone who speaks Sicilian? Do you think that it is a language or a dialect?

Learn Italian

Italy is officially called the Republic of Italy, and is located in southern Europe. The current population is estimated at 58.2 million. Italy has much to offer its citizens and its many visitors. Surrounded by the four seas of the Mediterranean, Italy is famous for its coastline activities. Italy also has a mountain range with elevations over 13,500 feet for the skiing and hiking enthusiast. Interestingly, Italy has no official religion, though the majority of Italy’s citizens are Roman Catholic.

The Italian language is one of the romance languages (Spanish, French and Portuguese) and is derived from Latin. Many consider Italian to be one of the oldest, most romantic languages in the world. More than 60 million people around the world speak Italian. which is the third most spoken language in the United States due to a large immigration after World War II.

The Italian language is one of ancient and historic roots and was standardized for the most part in 1860, when Italy became unified as a Kingdom. The language is comprised of several dialects spoken throughout the country. Today, Italian is the official language of several nations, including Italy, Slovenia, and Vatican City. It is actually spoken by about 60 million people in Italy and Southern Switzerland, and by the little Italian community around the world (Argentina and the US being the largest).

Italy’s culture is very rich and the Italian language is only one small part. Italy is a top vacation spot and offers many cultural activities including wonderful food, art, wine, opera, fashion and people. The Italian language has a reputation for wonderful poetry. Culturally speaking, Italians much prefer keen observation to voluntary self disclosure and would never say the phrase “time is money.”

Many people today, want to learn Italian for traveling or to better understand their ethnic heritage. Are you interested in learning Italian? Why?

Please share your comments on Italian language learning, the culture and travel tips!