language, Genoa

The local dialect of Genoa (Zena) is most interesting. Coincidentally, Genoese is spoken in 2 towns in Sardinia, one of which is Calasetta, so i grew up speaking a little Genoese. In Genoa, as in all of Italy, the local dialect is the very much the local flavor and the life blood of the local culture. Increasingly and awfully the local dialects are being lost as children are often no longer taught dialect (or discouraged from it for class reasons) and as their consciousness is increasingly formed by TV and other mass media. I consider it a tremendous loss. Growing up, some of my richest experiences was hearing the old old dialects in Sardinia (Sardinian and Tabarkino Genoese) and in the Trentino. Some of my greatest amusement was jokingly translating between homely dialect to made up English words. For example..my friends in Sardinia would sometimes greet me with, "The Spiag is super-affolated." That's why I loved this shirt which jokingly translates a Genoese saying into mock English. (the joke here is to hear your homely hometown dialect expressed as international english.) This means something like 'you can't have you cake and eat it too.'