# How do people who say 'gabba-gool' spell capicola? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858 "2014-12-10T17:01:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/21 "2014-12-10T19:25:59Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > If you have HBO now, you can watch the whole thing on HBO GO. Also on Amazon Prime. ---
**Author:** ![Drummond\_Bays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@Drummond\_Bays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drummond_Bays)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/22 "2014-12-11T03:36:49Z")
Had a first generation Italian client who used to say “Sangwich.” Used to drive me nuts. It’s a @#$%^&\* SANDWICH. WITH A D. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/23 "2014-12-11T14:48:05Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > On the Sopranos, they were definitely using a g. It’s not just an Americanized thing, it’s about regional dialects versus “standard” Italian. My father speaks pretty standard Italian, but my mother’s family had some influences from Tuscan and northeast dialects in their speech. And I once had a girlfriend whose parents distinctly said “manigot” instead of the standard “manicotti,” which my family used. Turning c’s into g’s is a southern Italian thing, maybe left over from Arabic or Greek influences? > > Which was a long-winded way of saying I have no idea how they spell it. 🙂 The C-to-G shift (or more generally, changing unvoiced to voiced consonants) isn’t that uncommon. Spanish has done the same thing, starting (mostly) from the same Latin roots. E.g. ‘bodega’ comes from Latin ‘apotheca’, with the unvoiced consonants changed to voiced ones. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/24 "2014-12-11T17:36:32Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > On the Sopranos, they were definitely using a g. It’s not just an Americanized thing, it’s about regional dialects versus “standard” Italian. My father speaks pretty standard Italian, but my mother’s family had some influences from Tuscan and northeast dialects in their speech. And I once had a girlfriend whose parents distinctly said “manigot” instead of the standard “manicotti,” which my family used. Turning c’s into g’s is a southern Italian thing, maybe left over from Arabic or Greek influences? > > Which was a long-winded way of saying I have no idea how they spell it. 🙂 Not Americanized exactly but it is a unique dialect. My grandmother came over from Italy as a baby in 1906. She grew up speaking Italian. But it was Staten Island Italian. Take the current Italian dialect of 1900. Mix in regional dialects of the mostly uneducated from Naples and Sicily. Shake and bake for decades. Then you get a unique dialect that had my grandmother complaining that the Italians in Italy didn’t speak Italian right. She was in her 70s when she visited. My grandmother"s family was from Foggia. She married a man from Naples. A lot of their pronunciation came from Sicilian influences in NY. I have never seen the spelling different than the standard. It’s just the pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/25 "2014-12-11T19:36:02Z")
There are notable regional variations though, just as there are in American English–though of course there was further drift in the Americanized dialects. For example, my cousin from Trieste says “va beng,” with a sort of swallowed g at the end, instead of the standard va bene, or va ben’. And I have cousins in Florence who went the opposite way from Southerners with some of their c’s–“haccia” and “harne” instead of caccia and carne. The words are still as far as I know spelled in the standard way. Never heard any of them say “happicola”…but they might. There’s also a Roman accent too but an example isn’t coming to me now. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/26 "2014-12-11T22:48:32Z")
My sources (i.e. Italian-American family with more imagination than history) say that gabagoul (pronounced and spelled that way) may have originated from capicola, but that it now means “something good to eat” which is essentially the way the speaker on NPR was using the term (as the OP reports it). Thus, a vegan could ask for gabagoul and not be breaking any of their own rules. I’m pretty sure the Sopranos did the same thing If my family specifically wanted a cured ham product, they would have called it coppa or capicola (perhaps depending on what they thought the listener was expecting to hear). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/27 "2014-12-11T23:37:42Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I have never seen the spelling different than the standard. It’s just the pronunciation. That’s how it works when you have regional dialects that differ a lot from the “norm”, but a single written standard. Because, well, what else are you going to do? I’m used to that from Norwegian. Depending on how far out in the boonies you’re from, the way you write and the way you speak can be two completely different things. I’ve had some situations where I have, say, communicated by e-mail with someone, and the writing is perfectly standard. Then I speak to the same individual in person, and I can barely understand what they’re saying. I bet that’s how it works for a lot of languages. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/28 "2014-12-11T23:47:55Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > which is essentially the way the speaker on NPR was using the term (as the OP reports it). Actually, it was KEXP; a station associated with WSU that plays a lot of local music. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/29 "2014-12-12T00:51:21Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > … Then you get a unique dialect that had my grandmother complaining that the Italians in Italy didn’t speak Italian right. She was in her 70s when she visited. … My ancient MIL is similar. She was born here but her parents were immigrants to the Buffalo NY Italian colony at the beginning of the 20th century. She’s convinced she speaks Italian correctly. Those silly folks in Italy have since ruined the language. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/30 "2014-12-12T02:27:19Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I’m pretty sure the Sopranos did the same thing I’m sure they didn’t, having watched the series through a couple of times. Anytime Tony or anyone else was talking about gabbagoul there was always cured ham in the picture. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/31 "2014-12-12T02:30:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Hm… Now you have me checking my memory. Could have been another song. (My iPod is more reliable than my memory, but I don’t feel like listening to Dean Martin music right now. 😉 ) I THINK he sang that in “Mambo Italiano”. ETA: Yep! The line is “Hey! Mambo! No more-a mootzarella!” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/32 "2014-12-12T02:34:37Z")
Also, my mother’s Italian family were Calabrese/Campani and constantly pronounced things like this. Gabbagol, manigot, rigot, motsarel. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/33 "2014-12-12T02:46:49Z")
The Sopranos people talked just like my Italian relatives who were from NJ. That was one reason I liked the show right away. My Irish father also talks like that too since he grew up around so many Italians. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/34 "2014-12-12T03:47:33Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I THINK he sang that in “Mambo Italiano”. > > ETA: Yep! The line is “Hey! Mambo! No more-a mootzarella!” You are correct. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/35 "2014-12-12T03:52:17Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > My Irish father also talks like that too since he grew up around so many Italians. Likewise my Irish-German family speaks Neapolitan dialect when talking about Italian food. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/36 "2014-12-12T04:06:51Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > That’s how it works when you have regional dialects that differ a lot from the “norm”, but a single written standard… I bet that’s how it works for a lot of languages. I’m certainly no linguist, but from both first- and second-hand experience, that seems to actually be the most common case. When you have something like dialects with different grammar, the different grammar is reflected in writing (not so much if it’s a government document, but even then, some differences will be reflected); reflecting different pronunciations is a lot rarer. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/37 "2014-12-12T05:26:46Z")
When I started to read this thread, the “C-to-G” thing sounded weird to me — until I realized that I myself say things like “tayguh hike” or “taygun aspirin” all day long. I have a lot of trouble saying “cookie” distinctly. And I noticed a few years ago that my “OK” often comes out as “ogay.” Ha ha, I’m of Neapolitan extraction too. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/38 "2014-12-12T14:56:23Z")
Can anyone explain the pronunciation of mostaccioli in St. Louis? (Something like MUSK-a-cho-lie.) Does that ST -\> SK switch happen in other Italian-American areas? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/39 "2014-12-12T16:39:23Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’m certainly no linguist, but from both first- and second-hand experience, that seems to actually be the most common case. When you have something like dialects with different grammar, the different grammar is reflected in writing (not so much if it’s a government document, but even then, some differences will be reflected); reflecting different pronunciations is a lot rarer. And you can even see it with US English- depending on the area, “Mary” , “merry” and “marry” might all be pronounced the same or each may have a separate pronunciation. But they are always spelled differently, even by those who pronounce them the same. Now back to the C-G and P-B, thing. My Sicilian family says gabbgol, manigott, rigot and bizza- but to my ear, the sound in manigott etc, is really not the same as an American English G. It’s sort of between a C and a G. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858/40 "2014-12-13T00:50:05Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Now back to the C-G and P-B, thing. My Sicilian family says gabbgol, manigott, rigot and bizza- but to my ear, the sound in manigott etc, is really not the same as an American English G. It’s sort of between a C and a G. Yeah, it’s further back on the palate than “g”. It’s almost a half-g, with the first half almost being a glottal stop, like ri’got. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-who-say-gabba-gool-spell-capicola/706858.md?page=3)