Linguistic Stereotyping in Hollywood Cinema

Transcription

1 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema A Itroductio to Italia-America Eglishes Touba Bouchl S Eglish Laguage ad Liguistics Faculty of Humaities Leide Uiversity A. Foster D. Smakma 2015 MA Thesis

2 Table of Cotets Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 2 Abstract Itroductio Theoretical Framework Research Questios Chapter 1: The literature o stereotypig 1.1 Itroductio 1.2 Social Stereotypig Social categorizatio Essetialism Prejudice 1.3 Liguistic Stereotypig 1.4 Social Stereotypig of Italia-Americas Chapter 2: Liguistic stereotypig i Italia-America Stage Eglish 2.1 Itroductio 2.2 Dialect mauals Herma & Herma s The Italia Dialect Blut s Brooklyese Newma s New York City Eglish Chapter 3: Liguistic features of Italia-America Eglishes 3.1 Itroductio 3.2 The Italia Dialects 3.3 Characteristics of Italia ad Eglish 3.4 The Wiseguy Eglish Example Wiseguy Eglish 3.5 The Super Mario Eglish Example Super Mario Eglish 3.6 Lexical Features 3.7 ItAmEg vowels i dialect mauals Chapter 4: Liguistic stereotypig of Italia-Americas i Hollywood ciema 4.1 Itroductio 4.2 The role of Italia-America Eglish i Hollywood ciema Wiseguy Eglish i The Godfather Wiseguy Eglish i Doie Brasco Super Mario Eglish i Captai Corelli s Madoli Coclusio Bibliography Appedices

3 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 3 Abstract I outlied two varieties of Italia-America Eglishes used i the easter part of the US. Oe is the Super Mario Eglish, which belogs to speakers who have just arrived i the US. The secod oe is the Wiseguy Eglish, which belogs to speakers who have lived i the US for a loger period of time ad belog to the Italia-America culture. Three films were selected based o their depictio of the Italia-America culture. The purpose of this study was to determie whether these varieties of Eglish exist from a liguistically stereotypical basis or whether these varieties are true-to-life represetatios of the Italia-America Eglish speakig culture. Oe moologue of every mai character i the 3 films has bee phoetically aalysed. The phoetic aalyses were the compared to the theoretical framework aalysis of the aforemetioed varieties of Italia-America Eglishes. The hypothesis is that these three films perpetuate liguistic features i Italia-America Eglishes that border amogst the stereotypical imagery of the Italia-America culture. The results outlie the most saliet features of Italia-America liguistic stereotypes.

4 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 4 Itroductio I geeral, ative speakers of a laguage ofte have very little difficulty recogisig the L1 backgroud of ewcomers to their laguage commuity. Apparetly, each variety of "laguage with a accet" has its ow defiig features, although ative speakers caot liguistically pipoit what these are. A example is the schwa that Italia speakers of Eglish are perceived to add to words with cosoats i fial positio (Duguid 2001). These saliet features may be helpful i recogizig the liguistic backgroud of the L2 speaker, but it ofte happes that they become the oly defiig features of a L2 speaker's L1. At this poit, these features stigmatize or stereotype their speakers, to such a degree that they are ofte parodied ad mocked. This paper ivestigates stereotypig i geeral, defied as "a precoceived idea that attributes certai characteristics (e.g. persoality traits, itelligece), itetios ad behaviours to all the members of a particular social class or group of people (Allport 1954; Bar-Tal 1996; Holliday 2010). This paper is the ivestigatio of liguistic stereotypig ad stigmatizatio of oe class of these L2 accets, Italia-America Eglish. It will show how the Eglishes of Italia immigrats to the Uited States are stereotyped with a four case studies from the world of Hollywood, as a illustratio of liguistic stereotypig. The aim of my aalysis is to establish whether Italia-America Eglish is stereotyped i Hollywood ciema ad if so, which lexical ad grammatical features of Italia-America Eglish are cosidered most saliet ad therefore most stereotypical. To this ed, I will attempt to defie the stereotypical liguistic features of two varieties of Italia-America Eglish that ofte feature i film, viz. that of ewly arrived Italia immigrats to the Uited States ad the Eglish spoke by so-called "wise-guys", or stereotypical Italia mobsters. Firstly, I will discuss the pheomeo of liguistic stereotypig. Secodly, sice descriptios of the grammatical ad lexical features of Eglish of Italia- Americas are scat, I will attempt to make such a descriptio. Fially, I will compare my ivetory of features with those preseted i a umber of Hollywood films. Theoretical Framework The work of Shae Walshe (2009), regardig the perpetuatio of cultural stereotypes i Irish film, has bee a key ispiratio to this research. His work shows that liguistic stereotypig is very preset i movies, likely more preset tha most viewers realise. Walshe describes i great detail how some movies are ot oly liguistically flawed i.e. i his phoological ad

5 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 5 morphological aalysis but also historically erroeous. Oe of the disadvatages of ivestigatig liguistic stereotypig, or eve stereotypig i geeral, is the subjective approach most authors ted to adhere to. Despite a abudace of sufficiet argumets, it seems that the discussio is merely uilateral. Researchers such as Walshe claim that liguistic stereotypig has ot yet receded i Hollywood ciema, although he fails to provide a argumet as to why liguistic stereotypig still exists. Lippi-gree (1997) discusses similar topics i her work. She elaborated o the discrimiatio occurrig i Hollywood ciema, particularly o the ifluece of Disey films towards childre as the target group. Her coclusio is that childre are taught by the use of Disey films to distiguish betwee groups of people ad to behave differetly towards those that belog to other people. More importatly, as we grow older, these films teach us to distiguish people by their liguistic features. These deviat features become so igraied i our perspective of other people that it shifts towards a habitual set of features to defie others. Whereas Walshe outlies the perpetuatio of liguistic features, Lippi-Gree uses Disey to provide a prime example i the motive for this type of categorizatio. The two previously metioed sources are sufficiet to aswer oe of the research questios, although the other research questios still requires explaatio. Chapter 1 is a descriptio of both social as well as liguistic stereotypig. This chapter also provides the historical backgroud of social stereotypig of Italia-Americas. The sources writte by Carevale ad Pagliali have bee very effective i this chapter, i particular o the historical backgroud of Italia-Americas. Jackso (2014), author of Itroducig Laguage ad itercultural commuicatio, was most advatageous i the descriptio of social stereotypig. Oe of the chapters fully elaborates o this topic. The most importat elemet cocerig stereotypig from Jackso is the copious processes of stereotypig. It ot oly occurs betwee cultures, but also betwee geeratios, traditios ad may more. Jackso also describes how stereotypig is experieced o differet levels, which is described i chapter 1. Ufortuately, due to the book s descriptive ature, Jackso teds to provide geeral examples. Additioally, it also lacks iformatio regardig liguistic stereotypig. O the other had, Kristiase (2001) describes the aforemetioed topic i great detail i her article Social ad liguistic stereotypig: A cogitive approach to accets. She provides examples of both social ad liguistic stereotypig ad also uses Lippi-gree to comprehed the two variats together: Both social ad liguistic stereotypes may be associated with social categories ad work metoymically with respect to the category as a whole. (2001:142). Her research led to the coclusio that there is ot oe specific laguage system to utilize i order

6 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 6 to ascertai a certai pheomeo could be i place, due to similar cogitive assumptios or certai aspects i a laguage that a collective would cosider to be correct. Chapter 2 is a descriptio of two varieties of Italia-America Eglishes. These two varieties are derived from two laguages, Italia ad Eglish. However, the combiatio of both laguages also exists. I this thesis, two Italia accets i America Eglish are aalysed ad compared to three movies. Swa s Learer Eglish is a descriptio of how learers of Eglish from differet backgrouds lear the laguage. Duguid is resposible for the descriptio of how Italia learers lear the laguage i this book. Despite ay refereces, Duguid maages to write a full descriptio of the differeces betwee Eglish ad Italia ad what kids of features are exemplary to Italia learers of Eglish. The major issue with Learer Eglish is the fact that there are absolutely o refereces for her accout of the Italia accet. Aother dispute is the lack of uace i her descriptio. As will be apparet i chapter 2, the Italia laguage is richer i its segmetal features, with every part of Italy able to cotribute a completely differet set of features to the laguage. What is described i Swa seems cotradictory to this statemet. Other sources have bee applicable i Chapter 3. Haller (1987) describes the use of Eglish with Italia immigrats. He recorded a umber of Italia immigrats who migrated to the US ad aalysed their speech. This created the coclusio that most Italia immigrats do ot use the stadardized Italia laguage features, although they persist o usig their ow dialectal ligua fraca or the dialect they used from wherever part of Italy they came from. Due to the impopularity of usig a dialect laguage i Italy, most immigrats use their ow dialects i the US. As a result, these dialects prospered i the US. However, due to a lack of a stadardized Italia laguage, most of the secod geeratio Italia immigrats experieced a laguage shift, causig a declie i the use of stadard Italia. Haller (ad Kristiase to a lesser extet) has prove the impossibility of justifyig oe specific descriptio of the perceptio of Italia accets as these accets are most likely descedig from differet commuities. Due to these discrepacies, it would be futile to cotiue this research. Therefore, I have chose to direct this research towards the use of the stadardized Italia laguage. Fortuately, Agard ad Pietro (1965) provide a descriptio of the differeces betwee Eglish ad what they cosider stadard Italia. This book presets some otable differeces betwee Eglish ad Italia, although the book was writte five decades ago. This has led to some differeces i labellig the phoetic ad phoemic elemets ad i ewly foud evidece for similar topics.

7 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 7 As much iformatio as the aforemetioed sources are able to cotribute, dialect mauals prove to be vital i uderstadig liguistic stereotypig, as these ofte describe how to speak a certai variety of a laguage. I chapter 2, dialect mauals are used to aalyse the liguistic stereotypes i varieties of Italia-America Eglish. The sources used for this chapter are Blut (1967), which provides a descriptio of the Brookly variety of Eglish, Herma & Herma (1997), which provides their versio of the Italia variety of Eglish, ad Newma (2009) which cotributed a descriptio of the New York varieties of Eglish. Michael Newma is the author of the book New York City Eglish (NYCE). He wrote about all aspects of the NYCE dialects ad also illustrated the works of Hubbell (1955) ad Labov (1966) as exemplary to defiig NYCE. These sources provide a moderately trasparet image of the use of liguistic stereotypig i Italia-America Eglish. Due to the diversity i sources, most of the topics that are addressed i this research are more accessible to comprehed. Auxiliary sources have also provided a plethora of iformatio regardig the topic of this research. Most of these sources are either complemetary or subordiate to the primary sources discussed i the first few paragraphs. Research Questios Correct recogitio of liguistic stereotypig is a pre-coditio to uderstadig this research. It would particularly prove itself effective i determiig its origis ad whether it applies to the films that were selected for this research. That is why it would suffice to also look ito the history of Italia-Americas. These coditios led me to formulate the followig questios: (1) What is liguistic stereotypig? (2) Where does liguistic stereotypig come from? (3) What is the relatioship betwee liguistic ad social stereotypig? (4) Which features of Italia-America Eglishes are highlighted i America movies i which Italia or Italia-America culture is portrayed? (5) What are the most saliet ad therefore most stereotypical liguistic features of Italia- America Eglish? (6) To what extet does liguistic stereotypig represet the real Italia-America speaker? Because this thesis fuctios as a descriptive accout of the two Italia-America Eglishes ad as a elaboratio of liguistic stereotypig, these research questios will be briefly addressed i the followig chapters (1-4) but aswered i full i the coclusio.

8 Chapter 1: The literature o Stereotypig Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 8 Stereotypig, or social stereotypig, is kow as "a commoly held geeralizatio of a group to every sigle perso i the cultural group (Jackso 162:2014). Similar to social stereotypig, liguistic stereotypig is described as the same, although based o a more liguistic level. Liguistic stereotypig is described as structured ad reduced budles of markers are associated with particular social groups; we establish a lik betwee laguage ad social idetities. (Kristiase 132:2001). Most people are familiar with the term used as two separate words (liguistics ad stereotypig), although liguistic stereotypig is a commo variety of prejudice based o the laguage of a L2 speaker. This chapter discusses social stereotypig o three differet levels ad elaborates o the available literature of liguistic stereotypig. 1.1 Social Stereotypig Liguistic stereotypig is part of social stereotypig. Social stereotypig itself ca be take to differet levels, eve to the poit where society is able to reset others based o their accets. Social stereotypig occurs i a system where it is set i three differet stages: 1. People are classified ito certai groups, ofte based o geeral features such as geder or atioality. After they are classified, these people 2. Are the give other attributes ascribed to their particular group. Quite ofte these people are regarded as behavig aki to oe aother ad differet from other groups. 3. Everyoe part of the group will be described as exactly the same as ayoe else i that group. (Hewstoe & Brow 1986:29) (Jackso 162:2014). This process of stereotypig ca differ from oe idividual to aother, based o their experieces with groups of differet cultures. People are able to stereotype o all sorts of features, such as: Cities, regios, dialects, race, religio, ethic groups, atioal groups, age, vocatios, social class, physical attributes, disabilities ad geder. (Jackso 162:2014). These features are ofte stereotyped i mass media, such as films. Social stereotypig is ofte regarded as a approach to categorize people so as to clarify their ow surroudigs. However, this approach causes certai stereotypes to become rooted i society ad fuctio as boudaries to itercultural commuicatio (Jackso 165:2014). Oe example is cosiderig certai features of a group accurate whe these are ot. There are similar occurreces whe people meet someoe from that particular group who obviously does ot meet ay of the features of that group, they ofte choose to eglect this ew iformatio ad be led by their ow cococtios. Oe would thik to chage their perspective o these specific groups, but whe oe is iflueced by images ad iformatio passed o from family,

9 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 9 frieds ad represetatios i mass media, it becomes highly ulikely that people would have the capability to chage their stereotypes as they grow older, despite the discrepacy betwee what they believe ad what they experiece. There are umerous ways i which people are able to stereotype. I geeral, there are three processes to social stereotypig Social categorizatio Social categorizatio is oe of the most socially acceptable forms of stereotypig, because it is a way of groupig people ito categories i order to uderstad our ow costatly chagig surroudigs (Jackso 2014). This is also a geetically predisposed coditio i which we observe ad experiece differet thigs where, i order to maage, we divide iformatio to where we thik it belogs to. Categorizatio teds to be established with people from a youg age ad ca eve be bleded i with much of the elemets that are taught as people grow up. For example: smoke is ofte associated with fire Essetialism The ext form is kow as essetialism. Essetialism is the positio that the attributes ad behaviour of socially defied groups ca be determied ad explaied by referece to cultural ad/or biological characteristics believed to be iheret to the group. As a ideology, essetialism rests o two assumptios: (1) that groups ca be clearly delimited; ad (2) that group members are more or less alike (Bucholtz 2003:400). (Jackso 2014:158). I other words, essetialism is part of stereotypig to such a extet that a fixed umber of features are cotiuously coected to a group of people or a commuity. This causes certai features to be ascribed to people who may seem similar, eve though these people could ot be more differet from the group they are ascribed to. For istace; Muslims are kow to most people for their lack of commuicatio with the opposite geder, eve though persoal experiece ad other examples have taught otherwise Prejudice Prejudice is the least favourable form of stereotypig. It ivolves dislike or hatred of a perso or group formed without reaso. It is culturally coditioed sice it is rooted i a perso s early socializatio (Maude 2011:112) (Jackso 2014: 165). Prejudices are ot oly a way to categorize people, but to hate them for it. This is the oly form of stereotypig where a lack of accurate iformatio ad iflueces from the mass media play a vital role i this form of categorizig people. A costat display of egative imagery ad messages from mass media are particularly resposible for ay boudaries that are made i this type of stereotypig. These

10 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 10 three forms of social stereotypig are the most commoly appearig forms. These forms are also preset i how people stereotype based o the liguistic features of others. 1.3 Liguistic Stereotypig I this costatly chagig society, the average huma hears a umber of varieties of a laguage; whether it origiates from the stadard laguage of the coutry/city they live i or origiated from a completely differet laguage. Similar to social stereotypig, we make the distictio betwee varieties o a subcoscious level, based o our persoal kowledge of laguages. Every variety of a laguage which is ukow to our ears is ofte coected to differet forms of stereotypig. For example: a Idoesia accet i the Eglish laguage ca be described as Asia, which is still a form of social categorizatio. A form of essetialism is whe we describe the aforemetioed accet as Chiese ad associate it with all the Chiese lookig people ad coect it to Chiese stereotypes. I terms of prejudice, liguistic stereotypig ca be utilized for other purposes. Certai liguistic features are associated with groups from various kids of backgrouds which may or may ot work i the advatage of a idividual. These liguistic features/stereotypes ca ecode value systems (Hoey 101:1997), meaig that someoe ca use liguistic varieties of a laguage differet from their ow to give other people the impressio that they come from a differet backgroud, but also to create the idea that they are socially more acceptable tha others ad distiguish themselves from other social groups. I this case, prejudice is ot oly used by people who belog to a superior group, but also by those who do ot. The disadvatage is that this still feeds the otio of dismissig ay other laguage variety that is ot compatible to these superior groups. (Kristiase 2001) 1.4 Social Stereotypig of Italia-Americas Before Italia-Americas were socially stereotyped, they first had to be defied as Italia. (Reyes/Lo/Labrador 327:2009). Iroically, the coutry ow kow as Italy did ot exist at the time whe people from that specific area arrived i America. Additioally, the otio of a Italia idetity was lackig, both i America as well as log after the uificatio of the Italia state. Cosequetly the Italia idetity, or Italia-America idetity, was costructed i America by way of political processes ad mass media. After the Italia-America idetity was established, a umber of stereotypes were formed. These stereotypes iclude the followig: dirty; stupid ad ueducated; violet, always gettig ito fights; backward, uwillig to assimilate; extremely religious, superstitious;

11 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 11 Lati lovers, uable to cotrol emotios; macho culture (wome are kept prisoers at home ad have to follow a series of sexual taboos); prolific, with large exteded families; Mafiosi, crimials; poor ad lazy; fat, eatig too much, ad especially eatig pizza, pasta, garlic, ad tomato sauce: ad always sigig (Pagliali, 2005). The hierarchical ad ofte archaic roles i the family as represeted i Hollywood ciema cotribute a vital part i the social stereotypig of Italia-Americas. Me are ofte part of the family busiess, whereas the wome are left resposible for the household. Oe of the most commo associatios i social stereotypig of Italia-Americas is orgaized crime. Accordig to Lotardo, a major problem arises whe the majority of the viewig public cosiders certai TV shows like The Sopraos as accurate: The problem with the portrayal of Italia-Americas i the media is that Italia me are beig see as ueducated, dishoest or violet after seeig movies associated with the mob. [ ] me are portrayed as leaders of the house ad have the upper had [...] People watchig this show see what a everyday household of these mobsters is like ad [ ] assumed that every Italia- America is like that. (Lotardo 2011) Most of these stereotypes are used to create the Italia-America imagery i Hollywood. Quite ofte these stereotypes are used for characters like Italia crimials or used i movies about the Italia mafia. These stereotypes may or may ot all be true, but due to the costat use of these features i mass media, they have costructed the reality of the Italia- America idetity ad history, oe where miorities are cosidered void from the superior White (Pagliali, 2005) idetity i America. Social stereotypig occurs i various kids of situatios, places ad coditios. I the most obvious situatio, social stereotypig occurs whe two cultures coicide. I the situatio with Italia-Americas, chaces are that all three aforemetioed levels have bee touched upo at least oce. Ufortuately, it would be futile to aalyse whether social stereotypig of Italia- Americas still occurs owadays or has declied, due to the umber of geeratios of Italia- Americas who still live i the US. The ext chapter discusses two varieties of the liguistic features of Eglish used by Italia-Americas ad establishes the saliet features of these varieties. I this thesis, the liguistic stereotypig of Italia-Americas is used to ot oly iterpret how Italia-America stereotypes emerged, but also to provide a perspective o the Italia accet i America society.

12 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 12 Chapter 2: Liguistic stereotypig i Italia-America Stage Eglish 2.1 Itroductio I the world of theatre ad film, may actors ad directors rely o dialect mauals to speak i a dialect or a accet etirely differet from their ow. For example, these mauals are helpful whe a British actor wats to soud geuiely America (e.g. Hugh Laurie i the TV-series House). The accet that a actor acquires with the help of these mauals is ofte referred to as their stage laguage (Stage British, Stage Frech, etc.). Although these mauals have log bee i use, they are quite ofte cosidered iaccurate by liguists, due to their clear lack of phoetics. I fact, Walshe states that they may be more detrimetal to their [actor s] acquirig a ew accet tha o prior istructio at all" (2009, p. 195). Quite ofte they are desiged to make the actor soud more stereotypical i their stage laguage. Oe of the mauals that has bee used for decades is the maual by Herma & Herma (1997). I this maual, actors are advised o how to soud like a ewly arrived Italia immigrat to the Uited States, oe that has just got off the boat. This chapter is a discussio of two dialect mauals that have bee used by actors for decades, followed by a descriptio of New York dialects i the preset era. 2.2 Dialect mauals There are a umber of approaches to determie whether liguistic stereotypig of Italia-Americas i the literature exists or ot at all. Oe is to look at dialect mauals to show how actors ad other readers are taught the accets. Oe of the most importat skills actors have to possess is the ability to chage ito their character, from its maerisms to its clothig ad quite ofte its speech as well. Actors ca ofte rely o a plethora of methods to help them speak i a differet accet. May actors are fortuate eough to have a dialect coach at their disposal, ofte provided by the director they are workig with. Oe example is the actor Tobey Maguire i Ride with the Devil, workig with Paul Meier as a dialect coach. Those who are ot fortuate eough to be able to work with a dialect coach ofte fid other methods i the media to solve their problem, though these ted to be less useful as they are most likely to lack ay sources. Oe such method is usig other movies with actors who speak i a differet accet. Dialect mauals are ot ew i the idustry; Machli s Dialects for the Stage has bee aroud sice the 1960s. However, i most cases, these mauals are just as ureliable as examples from the ciema, due to their lack of proper ivestigatio.

13 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 13 What is oticeable i oe of the mauals applied i this study is the umber of accets some authors attempt to teach. It is ot oe accet but a rage of accets, makig these mauals more attractive to a wider audiece, but liguistically dubious. Their credibility would ot be i questio if it was writte by authors with more kowledge of these accets. Yet that seems to be lackig. Quite ofte authors fail to accurately describe each accet: This broad rage of accets which some actors may see as the stregth of such books is also their greatest weakess, as they are ofte so ambitious i their scope that the accuracy of the idividual accet descriptios ievitably suffers. (Walshe, 2009) What, the, are the characteristics of a liguistically reliable accet or dialect maual? Perceptios of the autheticity of accets i laguages ca be differet to everyoe. As oe hears a certai accet, someoe else might be sure that it is aother. Accordig to Lippi-Gree (1997) oe of the commo deomiators that all liguists agree upo is that laguages have the ability to chage i all of the liguistic subsystems, icludig phoology/phoetics. This raises the questio whether laguages chage to a poit where people are able to recogize accets spoke i aother laguage ad whether the accet is true to life or rather a stereotypical represetatio of the accet Herma & Herma s The Italia Dialect I Herma ad Herma s maual Foreig Dialects. A Maual for Actors, Directors ad Writers (1997), the authors discuss at least 30 differet accets, amogst which the Italia accet. Like i may other mauals, the discussio of these accets starts with a impressioistic itroductio to the accet that has more to do with music tha with laguage. I the case of Italia i Herma & Herma, it starts as follows: Like the laguage, the Italia dialect is melodic ad warm. The laguage has a great may vowel souds which are carried over ito the dialect. I fact, about 99 percet of the Italia lexico eds with some vowel soud. The reaso may be that, i sigig, a vowel soud serves as a coectig glide betwee words which, i tur, provide a melodic, rhythmic flow of soud rather tha a staccato jumpig. To compesate for the lack of vowel-soud word-edigs, Italias, i speakig Eglish, isert a aspirate uh betwee their words whe the first word eds with a cosoat ad the followig word begis with a cosoat. This is, perhaps, the most importat distiguishig characteristic i the etire Italia dialect. (Herma & Herma, 1997) As oe ca see from this itroductio, there is o evidece for these claims. What does 'warm ad melodic mea i liguistic terms? A liguist might iterpret this as a way of

14 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 14 explaiig that Italia is a syllable-timed laguage. Walshe (2009) described this lack of sciece as a way to perpetuate the stereotypical perceptio of the listeer ad there is othig that ca prove what Herma & Herma claim. I other words: eve if what is writte i accet mauals might ot be true, it ofte becomes a self-fulfillig prophecy. Walshe also states that these mauals are ot specific o the proper phoetic realizatios ad that they are therefore of little assistace i the prouciatio of dialects. For istace, Walshe shows that mauals like that by Herma & Herma are ofte too ambitious ad discuss a vast umber of dialects, istead of stickig to oe or two dialects. Aother error that Walshe has foud i these mauals is the lack of phoetic descriptio. Without usig proper phoological termiology to explai the uaces i the vowel systems, mauals such as Herma & Herma ofte use letter combiatios to describe vowel souds that evetually look alike, elimiatig ay uace which could show sematic distictios Blut s Brooklyese Oe questio that arose durig this research was whether the Italia-America accet exists, i other words, whether people i New York or the greater East Coast area actually call that what they hear Italia-America. This has to do with perceptios of autheticity. There is a iterview with Fraco Nero, who is kow for his part i the movies Djago ad Letters to Juliet. He was asked questios about the Italia accet, but what stood out as iterestig was the questio itself: How importat are those sort of regioal specificities? As a America we're accustomed to hearig maybe a souther accet ad a Brookly accet ad the everythig else is just kid of ormal (Gilchrist, 2011). What if this accet is more attributed to a specific area with may cultures ad laguages, of which Italia is oly oe? The first questio led to a dialect called Brooklyese. This dialect is described i the maual Stage Dialects by Jerry Blut ad also described i chapter 2 as the Wiseguy accet. His maual Stage Dialects is much older tha Herma & Herma s, but surprisigly more comprehesible. Oe of the differeces is the fact that Blut uses the phoological system to describe the vowels ad cosoats. Brooklyese is a dialect maily spoke i Brookly, but it ca also be heard i other areas of New York ad eve New Jersey. It is ot derived from oe laguage, but rather a combiatio of laguages: Irish, Yiddish ad Italia. Each of these laguages is resposible for a certai aspect of Brooklyese. The Irish cotributio to Brooklyese is most likely foud i the prouciatio of father /fɑːðr/, car /kɑːr/, time /taɪm/ ad like /laɪk/. Italia is resposible for combiig syllables ad/or words together to create a log word. Yiddish takes part i

15 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 15 Brooklyese with the additio of [g] ad [k] i asalized coda positio. For example: ruigga I Brooklyese, may of the distiguishig features are iflueced by the three mai characters i this story: Italia, Irish ad Yiddish. Similar to GA, Brooklyese is a accet which is spoke differetly by differet groups of people i New York, depedig o oe's particular heritage, backgroud ad coutry of origi. As such, Brooklyese is ot the defiig accet of New York: New York city has all the dialectal variatio expected i so large ad complex a metropolita populatio. Cosequetly o oe patter of speech ca be desigated as truly represetative of the whole area; there is o such thig as a comprehesive New York dialect. (Blut 1967). However, Brooklyese ca be defied as iflueced by may other varieties that exist i New York. Blut cocisely describes each vowel ad diphthog, alog with examples to further aid prouciatio. He uses phoological symbols ad describes exactly which Brooklyese vowel is used for which Eglish vowel. Oe of the uusual chages i the vowels is the use of /ɔɪ/ for /ᴈ:/, as ca be idetified i the followig quote: To establish idetity with Brooklyese, all oe has to do, aywhere i the lad, is to utter the words Toity-toid Street [ ] ad the lik is made (Blut, 1967) What is eve more itriguig is the fact that it works the other way aroud as well: /ᴈ:/ is used to describe /ɔɪ/. For example: the word oil /ɔɪl/ becomes /ᴈ:l/. Blut s work was ispired by the work of Ala Forbes Hubbell. Back i the 50s, Hubbell described the use of Eglish i New York ad aalysed it i the smallest detail. Hubbell was refereced by both Blut ad Newma ad was cosidered to be groud-breakig i the documetatio of the use of Eglish i New York City Newma s New York City Eglish Similar to the maual by Blut, Newma's New York City Eglish also describes the multitude of accets available i New York City. Due to the vast umber of accets i such a cocetrated area aloe, Newma wet with oe all-ecompassig descriptio that would touch the surface of all of these accets. The NYCE accet comprises a umber of features, depedig o each of the five boroughs: Mahatta, Brookly, Quees, The Brox ad State Islad. Apart from the differeces betwee the accets of the boroughs, there are also a umber of features to be attributed to several ethic backgrouds, amogst which are Italia ad Irish. As such, there are certai varieties, such as the Brookly Italia accet ad the Log Islad Jewish accet. Despite the vast umber of accets, these NYCE accets suffer

16 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 16 from a lack of recogitio i both literatures as well as i the media. As Newma describes it, there is a epidemic of dialectal deafess of much of the US televisio viewig audiece (Newma, Quoted from Labov). The purpose of the actor is to create a true-to-life represetatio of the accet, as exaggerated as it may soud. If a actor chooses to soud like someoe from the more impoverished part of New York, Brooklyese would be most fittig. Aother feature would be to have the actor preted to come from aother coutry. There is such a differece betwee the prouciatio of whites ad others (Newma, 2014), with Brooklyese better fittig the descriptio of others. This accet is most likely associated with Italia New Yorkers, cosiderig the vast majority of Italia Americas who still call New York home. Michael Newma is the author of the book New York City Eglish (NYCE). He wrote about all aspects of the NYCE dialects ad also illustrated the works of Hubbell (1955) ad Labov (1966) as exemplary to defiig NYCE. However, oe of the most importat aspects of the book is its descriptio of NYCE as it is spoke owadays. Brooklyese is still a part of NYCE, although due to may societal chages, such as immigratio, the dialects have chaged ad are iflueced by the people speakig these dialects i the preset day. Newma coducted his ow research, i which he chose participats who were secod, third ad fourth geeratio from a variety of coutries, icludig, but ot limited to Italy, Jamaica, Chia ad Puerto Rico. He the aalysed their speech ad looked for similar features betwee their ative togues ad NYCE. Oe of the coclusios that Newma drew, was that there is o such thig as oe NYCE dialect. There are a vast umber of features to cosider before oe eve attempts to defie a dialect. There is a dialect for each borough i New York City. To defie oe dialect as the dialect would be udermiig the majority of the ihabitats ad the complexity of the variatios i their speech. The theories behid the vast amout of techiques to comprehed a ewly developig laguage (or variety thereof) are oly capable if these rely o cogitive similarities betwee people. Ufortuately, these theories ted to become archaic i a more brisk maer tha the spoke versio, creatig a mere observatio of a laguage: The writig of a laguage is a reflectio of that laguage ad ot the laguage itself (Agard & Pietro 1967:3). With this i mid, the ext chapter cotais a discussio ad explaatio of the differeces ad similarities betwee Eglish ad Italia, followed by a brief aalysis of the varieties of Italia-America Eglishes.

17 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 17 Chapter 3: Liguistic features of Italia-America Eglishes 3.1 Itroductio Before oe aalyses ay variety of a laguage for its liguistic features, oe first has to defie its features ad lik these to the laguage it origiates from. The liguistic features of a laguage or a variety of a laguage are ofte complemetary to each other, i.e. most of the features of a laguage will resoate i its varieties. However, a laguage such as Italia, will have a variety of a laguage based o its promiet dialect. This chapter is a study of two varieties of Italia America Eglishes: the Super Mario Eglish ad the Wiseguy Eglish. These varieties are based o their laguages of origi: Italia ad Eglish. Both varieties are accompaied with the aalysis of a example of a speaker which closely resembles the variety. Firstly, the Italia laguage dialects are discussed to delieate the dialect to be used for aalysis i chapter 4. Secodly, a aalysis of the lexical features is give to display a impressio of the Italia-America cultures i the US. Fially, the vowels as described i the dialect mauals i chapter 2 are aalysed ad cotrasted to oe aother. The latter was doe i order to defie which dialect maual resembles the saliet features of Italia-America Eglishes i chapter The Italia Laguage Dialects Italy is a coutry with a variety of dialects ad accets (Di Felice 2013). As is the case with may other coutries, each tow ad city has a idetifiable ad distict variety of the laguage. As such, there is Sicilia Italia (Sicily), Modeese Italia (Modea) ad Tusca Italia (Tuscay). They belog to their respective couties, such as Emilia Romaga ad Piemote. These couties belog to groups, ad these groups belog to the orth, the south or the middle of Italy. Dialects i ay sort of laguage differ ot oly i accet, but also i segmets such as sytax ad lexico. Accordig to Di Felice (2013), it is ofte the case that Italias who live i differet areas of Italy caot uderstad each other whe they speak their respective local dialects. As such, there are may divergeces betwee Italia dialects. Due to the vast umber of dialects, I will oly briefly explai the areas that are ecessary i uderstadig the thesis. The orther part of Italy has the biggest umber of dialects preset ad also ecompasses the dialect i Tuscay, the dialect which has bee at the forefrot of the developmet of the stadard Italia accet. This group of dialects i North Italy is also called Gallo-Italisch. A few examples from this area are Piemote, Liguria ad Lombardia.

18 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 18 Surprisigly, the dialects of Sicily ad Sardiia are also part of this group. The dialects used i Sicily ad Sardiia are the most iterestig oes for this study, as this ot oly shows how the accets i the Godfather trilogy have bee developed, but also because these islads have bee resposible for providig this type of accet. The cetre of Italy has a limited umber of dialects. These belog to the cities of Umbria, Brads, Lazio ad Abruzzo. Some of these dialects also belog to other areas of Italy, for istace Lazio, which also belogs i the dialectal group of the South. The dialects that are part of the area i the south of Italy ca be divided ito itermediate ad extreme. Those that belog to the 'extreme' group, are the dialects of cities such as Sicily ad Campaia, whereas those i the 'itermediate' group is related to the cities i the cetre of Italy like Lazio but also have other dialects such as those i Molise ad Calabria. Nowadays, a ew stadard Italia has rise. This 'stadard' is based maily o the dialect spoke i Tuscay ad has ow bee dispersed over large parts of Italy ad its correspodig peisulas Sicily ad Sardiia (Agard & Pietro 1936:4). The spreadig of this stadard has bee largely due to learig the laguage through geeral educatio ad mass media commuicatio. The chage towards a ew stadard has occurred oly recetly i the past few decades, which created three groups of people who speak certai dialects. There is the first group who oly speak the dialect of their ow tow or city. This is also the smallest group, ad it is rapidly gettig eve smaller as the chage is still goig o ad this group maily cosists of elderly people. The secod group speaks the stadard laguage, but also maages to either speak ad/or uderstad other dialects. This group is larger, cosistig maily of those from a secod geeratio of people, most likely descedig directly from parets who merely speak a regioal dialect. The last group is also the biggest group of the three ad is oly capable of speakig the stadard laguage. This group cotais a large umber of the youth livig i Italy. The differece betwee dialects i Italy does ot occur i America, because America dialects ted to ot differ etirely from each other: mutual itelligibility is still preset betwee dialects, despite certai exceptios like Chicao Eglish ad AAVE (Africa America Veracular Eglish). There is a mai differece i the social attitudes towards 'regioalism' i speech. I Italy, the stadard dialect ejoys prestige ad it is cosidered favourable to kow how to speak the stadard. I Eglad, the same situatio occurs with RP, or Received Prouciatio. I

19 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 19 America, however, there is o specific dialect that rises above all other types of dialects spoke there. 3.3 Characteristics of Italia ad Eglish Italia vowels vs Eglish vowels The vowels used i Italia are limited to: /i/, /ɛ/, /u/, /e/, /a/, /o/ ad /ɔ (Mamme &Soki 1936: 2). Despite this small ivetory, Italia vowels are ofte used i differet forms. These ofte icorporate the iclusio of /ə/ ad the lack of a off glide (Agard & Pietro 1967:28). The Eglish vowel system is more extesive, ofte applyig differet phoemic or phoetic elemets for every distictio betwee vowels. The followig table features a list of vowels i both Italia ad Eglish, accompaied by a descriptio of its similarities ad differeces. Italia Eglish Descriptio 1. /i/ /iy/, /i/ Both vowels have the same togue height ad lip positio, although there is o off glide i the Italia versio. Eglish also has o off glide, but /i/ is lower i togue positio tha i Italia. 2. /e/ /ey/ Eglish /ey/ is phoetically similar to Italia /e/. Eglish /e/ is phoetically similar to /ɛ/ tha to Italia /e/. 3. /ɛ/ /e/, /ae/ The Eglish /e/ is phoetically closer to the Italia vowel tha Eglish /ae/. 4. /a/ /a/, /ə/, /ae/ Eglish /a/, /ae/ ad Italia/a/ are phoemically similar to each other. I Eglish, the schwa is ofte used to proouce the Italia /a/, i particular whe the Italia phoeme occurs i word-fial positio. 5. /ɔ/ /o/ The Italia /ɔ/ has a higher togue positio. 6. /o/ /ow/ There is o off glide i Italia /o/. /o/ is more rouded tha the Eglish /ow/. 7. /u/ /uw/, /u/ Italia /u/ ad Eglish /uw/ share the approximate togue height. /uw/ has o off glide. Eglish /u/ also has o off glide, but is lower ad cetred tha /uw/. Italia /u/ is more rouded tha Eglish /u/ ad /uw/. (Agard & Pietro 1967:28)

20 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 20 Oe of the differeces betwee Italia ad Eglish vowels is that Italia does ot have diphthogal phoetic elemets. Elemets that occur i a sequece of two vowels both carry the same amout of stress, whereas Eglish oly stresses the first elemet of a diphthog. The distributio of the schwa particularly i word fial positio - is oe of the most commoly recogized features of Italia. The subsequet table features a list of Italia ad Eglish cosoats. Italia cosoats vs Eglish cosoats Italia Eglish Descriptio /c/ /z/ /ts/ /dz/ Sufficietly phoetically similar to each other. The differece is their distributio i both laguages. I Eglish, /ts/ ad /dz/ occur i word-fial positio. I Italia, these sequeces oly appear i the oset or across syllable boudaries /ɲ/ / / Both cosoats are lackig i Eglish. Eglish speakers ca achieve its prouciatio by rapidly prooucig the /ly/ ad /y/, but will still create a three-syllable word i Italia, where two would have bee sufficiet. 5. // or /ŋ/ 6. /z/ or /s/ /ŋ/ /z/ The Italia /ŋ/ occurs as a asal before /k/ ad /g/. The Eglish /ŋ/ also occurs as a asal before /k/ ad /g/, although this ca also be foud i coda positio (for example sig: /siŋ/) The prouciatio of /z/ i Italia is idetical to its prouciatio i Eglish, uless the Italia versio is used i the clusters/sb/ or /sg/, amogst others. 7. _ /zˇ/ These cosoats i Eglish have o parallel Italia couterpart. 8. _ /θ/ 9. _ /ð/ 10. _ /h/ (Agard & Pietro 1967:31) Similar rules apply i this list: Eglish uses more cosoats tha Italia, although the latter uses o phoemic or phoetic vowel elemets for secodary distictios.

21 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema The Wiseguy Eglish I the mafia, a wiseguy is someoe who raks i oe of the high orders i the family. The Wiseguy Eglish is ot its official ame, but is the most widely used ad recogized accet of the mafia, icludig the mafia-gere i Hollywood. Due to the cootatio betwee Italia Americas ad the mafia by the majority of the maistream America society (Tricarico 2008), the accet also fuctios as the go-to accet for may ovices of the Italia America accet Example Wiseguy Eglish The speech used to aalyse for NYCE Eglish is a 48-year-old male from New York (Appedix C). He has a high pitch i his voice. There is a low resoace ad there is a lax use of the tip of the togue. This explais why the speaker replaces most of his fortis plosives with leis plosives (for istace, sayig /sidi/ istead of /siti/). He has strog r-colourig, which meas that he clearly proouces the /r/ after vowels i the same syllable. As is visible from the aalysis of the speaker, the features of NYCE Eglish barely coicide with that of the speaker. The ext chapter is the aalysis of both accets of Italia America Eglish, compared to a IPA descriptio of Geeral America. 3.5 The Super Mario Eglish Super Mario refers to the game Super Mario Bros., which cotais two brothers Mario ad Luigi who ofte speak i a exaggerated Italia accet i America Eglish. The title might seem cofusig (as ot everyoe grew up playig video games), but perfectly describes the way most people imitate the Italia America Eglish accet. Not oly i the US, but the majority of the Hollywood audiece (which reaches all the way i Europe) cosider this versio of Italia America accets as the accet to idetify a Italia America Example Super Mario Eglish The speaker, whose speech is aalysed for this example, is i his 60s ad was bor i Italy. He came to America 30 years later after World War II. He is a first-geeratio Italia America. He uses a chagig stress patter, meaig that he uses iflectio i various areas i his seteces, because his toe rises whe he is emphasizig a word. He has a tedecy to make light use of r-coloratio ad it is very difficult to hear the rhoticism i his speech, for istace whe hearig /ha:p/ to proouce harp ad /heh/ to proouce her. This lack of rhoticity is more like Italia, as r-colourig is oly used i coutries where Eglish is the ative togue. He has a tappig /r/ soud whe it occurs i medial positio ( Amedica istead of America). The /h/ is dropped whe a word cotais a /h/ at the oset (/api:/ istead of

22 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 22 /hæpi:/). His use of diphthogs is miimal ad he uses mostly ope vowels. Oe of the most idicative features of this speaker, is the use of the itrusive schwa. It is imperative to remember that he was bor ad raised i Italy ad shows o frequet use of the schwa whe he speaks. 3.6 Lexical Features The lexical features of Italia America Eglishes exhibit a vast quatity of iflueces, varyig from coutry of origi to cococtios from differet commuities. I geeral, most of these words are part of two processes i laguage shifts. Oe of these processes is coiages. Coiages are derived from other laguages. For istace, the word Colgate, the ame of a brad of toothpaste i America, is used as a word for all kids of toothpaste. The same ca be said about the brad Pampers, which is used as a word for all disposable diapers, despite the differet brads (Dayag: 2012:95). Aother process is borrowigs. Borrowigs i a laguage are a atural effect of coloisatio. Motivatios for borrowigs are coveiece ad force of habit. The lexical items of a laguage are the most promiet to chage whe two cultures meet. Two cultures will have to discover a method to coverse with each other, makig the ifluece i their lexical idexes all the more superior to other features. The followig tables provide a umber of lexical features that are part of loawords. I this research, four methods of loawords ca be made. Loawords: ew forms promoted by the importatio of part or all of the phoemic shape of the model. These are adapted morphologically to the iflectioal system of the receivig laguage. Loa bleds: partial substitutio of stems or derivatioal morphemes. Loa shifts: forms which do ot import the phoemic shape of a foreig word. Hybrid creatios: the importatio of foreig material, but the product resultig from itegratio does ot have a model i the source laguage. These four types of loa methods are utilized i order to provide a motive for the chage i the lexical features. Aother purpose is to lear whether the lexical item required a explaatio. The there is the case of gaps. Most of the gaps occur i oe of two istaces: Lexical gap: lack of a lexeme for a familiar cocept. Coceptual gap: the lack of a cocept i a speech commuity ad, cosequetly, the lack of a lexeme to express it.

23 Liguistic Stereotypig i Hollywood Ciema 23 The ext table features a list of lexical items used i either Italia or Eglish. Loaword Origial Meaig Method of loa Coceptual / lexical gap Meaig Today Laguage of Origi Rat Rodet Loaword Coceptual Traitor or mole Eglish Gumare Comare Secod mother Borrowig Lexical A logtime mistress Italia Square A four sided Loaword Coceptual idiot, lawyer Eglish polygo Broad Spacious Loaword Coceptual Woma Eglish Fugazy - Hybrid creatio/ coiage Lexical Someoe who lies (fake) - Shem Shemaoodaa stupid perso Borrowig Coceptual Someoe who is selfish Italia Whack Stupid Loaword Coceptual To rub someoe Eglish out/kill someoe Weiseheimer Surame Loashift - A Wiseguy Eglish Skeeve Schifoso - disgustig borrowig lexical Geeral aimosity towards someoe Italia or somethig Goombah Compare Loabled - Family Italia old fried Goof A joke Loaword Lexical A good time Eglish Fazoos - Hybrid Lexical - creatio/ coiage Aother term for moey by members of the mafia This table does ot represet the etire ItAmEg vocabulary list. These lexical items are a combiatio of words spoke i the movies i chapter 4 ad a wordlist of Brooklyisms which ca be foud olie (