Italian: Talk to the hand

Week 1, Episode 1

The first step on my thousand-li journey into the languages, called Langventure, happened to be taken in the Italian "land" of language. And as you can imagine, almost immediately I found myself in the great midst of all the stereotyped perceptions about Italians: how loud and passionate they are, how much they gesticulate and how deeply they're fond of pasta and espresso —M-m-m-m... I love this about cultures —the differences that make them special!

It would seem that any language can only be represented orally or in a written form, but Italians take it up a notch adding hand movements into the mix. Gestures in Italy are a part of the language, passed down through the generations for centuries, even more so than the language itself —consider this when learning la lingua italiana.

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Rules and words are all good to know, but Italian also has this pretty much unique part to it —gestures. My attempts to find out why Italians use so many hand gestures, led me to a historically rooted answer.

Of course, that whole linguistic thing of our communication had to form in order for people to understand each other. It turned out that Italian has a gazillion of dialects, some of which are so distinguished that one Italian cannot understand another. Literally, like a completely different language!

In addition, Italy was a huge commercial point for many merchants from various countries. And how are you going to sell anything to these foreigners, who don't know even one Italian dialect, without being able to convince them to buy or negotiate on price? Of course, you use the universal gesture language!

And this one, certainly, integrates into the culture, evolves over centuries, and becomes a part of people's daily life, their identity and their communication.

There is a great video from Marco who can show us first hand the most common gestures in Italy (4:49) —quite entertaining and really gives a taste of culture. Check it out!

Bodily movements of the arms and hands that accompany speech are not characteristic to Italians only. Surely, they appear in all the cultures to a different extent. The common observation would be that Asian language speakers produce gestures less frequently and in a smaller gesture space, whereas when it comes to Western language speakers they produce gestures more frequently and in a larger gesture space.

Then what makes Italian gesticulating stand out? I bet if you start talking to a stranger, you will definitely notice if you are speaking to an Italian via the astounding ease with which an Italian will display a whole range of different moods and opinions just using their hands. For example, opening your arms in front of you and shrugging your shoulder means “what?”, and putting your hand together as though praying means that you can’t believe what you are being told.

There are about 250 (!) gestures Italians use on a daily basis, and those are exploited regularly by the folk for centuries!

Those Italian gestures must be copied from one generation to another, just like the nodding in India, or that formal attitude natural to Germans. I mean, if you end up surrounding by some particular way of expressing yourself long enough, you will also adopt that way of talking —that's just how humans work.

But I started this Langventure with Italian, especially with the gestural part of it, on purpose: to show how a language can be more than words, sounds or symbols, how it penetrates our culture and, in a way, defines us, shapes us. The Italian language just happens to show it qui-i-i-i-i-te visually :).

While we are on the topic, it might be a great idea to learn about some of Italian beliefs and unspoken rules. Find out what you'll get in Italy if you ask for a latte, and how to kiss people properly when you meet them (7:53).

Another theory for Italian widely ranged gestures is the need to attract attention in extremely crowded cities of Italy, so the body language became there so particularly important to catch one's eye, to be noticed and listened to. Other experts think Italians developed a special language made of gestures and signs between the 14th and 19th century, when large sections of the peninsula were occupied by foreign powers, namely France, Spain and Austria.

Whatever the reason behind Italian vigorous gesticulating is, chances are it didn't happen overnight and has deep roots. It is also one of the causes why non-Italians find that behavioral feature so peculiar and Italian language so alluring... Allora :) Wait, that's a topic for another Episode.

If you are curious to find out about other explanations as to why Italians gesticulate so much, check out this great The New York Times video (2:07), which will also give you an introduction to the actual language spoken commonly:

It is noticed that Italians on the North side of the country are less flamboyant with their gestures than their Southern counterparts. But to the foreign eye, all Italians are a lot empathetic, and all Italians speak with their hands in the end, without distinction. Some areas may just be a bit more into it than others.

Well, time to get a closer look at the Italian language in terms of sounds and script, and even a bit of grammar. Let's continue and discover what the spoken Italian is about. I see you in the next Episode!

A dopo! Ah doh-poh! See you!

"Umma umma! Langventure is cool!"

Discover more about Italian and other languages at langventure.mystrikingly.com!