nicktonight

Apparently some English schools are differentiating between Italians, Sicilians and neapolitans. Can this really be true and if so why??
https://www.thelocal.it/20161012/eng...nd-neapolitans

Pulaski

If the boot was on the other foot, while the British government might object to regional identities, there are plenty of British citizens who self-identify as Northern Irish, Scottish, or Welsh, and the UK has been one country for a dämn sight longer than Italy!

In fact even the EU divides Italy into five regions, (including "Sicily and Corsica" and southern Italy including Naples) and I suspect that the British division of Italians into Sicilians, Neopolitans, and "other" divides Italian immigrants to the UK into three similar sized groups, with "other" being the smallest.

37100

Yes, it's true. The FO issued an apology.

jonwel

If they really needed to know, for some obscure reason, what part of Italy children came from, they could have simply put a space for "Region". That would have made it less politically charged. And how can they ask you whether you come from the region of Sicily or the city of Naples?
The article says, "the three options were probably motivated by a desire to identify any 'non-existent linguistic needs'." Is that a misprint? How can you identify something "non-existent"? And anyway, what different needs can children learning English have?
Another thing: the English adjective "Neapolitan" comes from the ancient Greek name of Naples - Neapolis - but whoever devised the form spelt it as "Napolitan". Ignorance rules!

We expats live in a country inhabited by human beings, with all their virtues and defects, just like Britain, even if the virtues and defects there are different. We tend to forget that there's still an island mentality back home where they think of "foreigners" as something mysterious and incomprehensible. And presumably Theresa May doesn't give a b****r about us wop/dago/frog/kraut lovers, who'll get the rough end if there are tit-for-tat measures.

modicasa

Until 20 years ago it would be a valid point. i know Neapolitans and Sicilians who cannot speak Italian, only neapolitan or Sicilian. HOwever, not adding, for instance, Sard or Bergamasco appears a little bit racist - at least now. Perhaps a couple of years ago we would have all giggled, but post referendum everyone is more touchy about possible racist overtones. Its not as if they wrote italian, Terrone or polentone. No doubt Salvini and his lot would love a subsection for Padania. Ask a napoletano if he is a neapolitan though and you would get a very blank look - its up there with Florentine for anglicised lunacy.

jonwel

It's no worse than "londinese", which comes from the Latin Londinium. But if an Italian wrote "londonese" I would consider him ignorant of his own language. That's the equivalent of writing "Napolitan".

Also Florentine comes from the Latin, but I don't know where Leghorn comes from!!!

modicasa

leghorn has always been a mystery to me except that it was called Legorno at some point...

ononno

I would remind forum members that Italy was not 'unified' in 1861. The Kingdom of Naples and the 2 Sicilies was brutally annexed by the Garibaldini and the Piemontesi Savoys. The invading troops needed interpreters in Sicily.
The referendum held by Garibaldi in Naples was fixed. A true Neapolitan will always consider himself Neapolitan first and Italian second. The vilified form is actually quite right.
So spake De Crescenzio
bye bye dicette l'inglese