Italianizing Away
You'd think that after almost fifteen years in this country I would have stopped italianizing English, but no, I'm still doing it.
As Mrs Peterson pointed out today in a comment to my Italian tubular cast-on tutorial, I wrote "pass as if to purl" when, of course, I should have written "slip as if to purl". And I checked and rechecked that entry for typos several times, but I forgot to check for un-englishness. So I'll go back and change pass to slip and I am sure this won't be the last time I italianize English. Even with a good vocabulary and a decent command of the English language, I do occasionally puzzle my friends or make them laugh.
One of my most notorious slip-ups happened a couple of years ago around Christmas when I was trying to explain to a friend how panettone is made and told her that it has to levitate for about 24 hours. You see, the Italian for "rise" in the context of a baking recipe is "lievitare". To this day, whenever panettone is mentioned, I think Janet gets this mental picture of a panettone floating in mid air.
Comments
That's a lovely story! The 'unevenness' of the English language is one of its charms, and so often native speakers don't notice those idiosyncracies - it takes another's perspective to see them and to draw the obvious - but funny - parallels. Probably the same is true of any language.
Posted by: Karen | January 22, 2007 1:38 PM
Your "Italianisms" sound charming.
Posted by: Ava | January 22, 2007 3:03 PM
Oh that story is charming. Having lived in Canada I still say serviette instead of napkin or a spot of tea rather than a cup, I know it's not the same thing.
Posted by: Barbp | January 22, 2007 7:10 PM