The Origins Of “Sopranospeak“

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The Origins of “Sopranospeak”

By now, most people are familiar with the HBO series The Sopranos. The critics’ praise of the groundbreaking drama has been overwhelming. The show, which concerns a fictional Mafia family, revels in the use of Italian dialect. The dialect is commonly referred to as “mobspeak”, a street lingo that uses brutalized Italian-American forms of words. The dialogue I call “Sopranospeak” is a mix of standardized Italian, Southern Italian dialect, Mafia slang, and a few profanities for good measure. In an attempt to break the “Sopranospeak” code, I have gathered some of the more popular words and traced their origin.
The pseudo-Italian they use is most predominately a Southern Italian dialect with a Jersey accent. Southern Italian dialect tends to make the c a g and the g a c. Also, p often becomes a b and d is pronounced as a t sound. Common words like agita, goombah, and skeevy exemplify these mutations. Acidita, acid indigestion, becomes agita. Goombah transforms from compare, meaning compatriot or godfather. This is often
confused with comare, which means mistress, due to the slang pronunciation coomahd or goomahd. Finally, skeevy comes from the verb schifare, to disgust.
With these general rules of dialect I was able to further trace the vernacular of the Soprano family. One of the most frequently mispronounced Italian words is capish, a Tony Soprano standard. This is an incorrect conjugation of the verb capire, which means “Do you understand?” The frequency of the error stems from the irregularity of the verb in the first person conjugation, capisco.
No episode would be complete without derogatory banter. Jamook is a favorite insult for idiots, half-wits, and lamebrains. Ironically, the person using the adjective is mispronouncing giamope. Similar to giamope, gavone translates to idiot and lazy. Characters on the show often use cafone and cavone in its place...