# Speaking Italian on the Sopranos **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283 "2003-03-22T03:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/1 "2003-03-22T03:49:39Z")
Ok…since I’m kinda hooked on this show…how do you spell and define some of the Italian “slang” they toss around… ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/2 "2003-03-22T04:05:17Z")
[This site](http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/wernick/mafiainsider/mobspeak.shtml) is probably what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/3 "2003-03-22T04:10:55Z")
Oh come now, you don’t have to be a mobster or affiliated with organized crime to talk like the folks on the Sopranos. You just have to be from New Jersey. Every time I watch that show I get misty eyed and homesick. Nobody tawks like me out here. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/4 "2003-03-22T04:16:29Z")
We don’t **all** talk that way! I’m rather flat, accentwise, actually. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/5 "2003-03-22T04:22:06Z")
I used to live not five miles from Elizabeth (Union, down on Stuyvesant) and nearly everyone I knew talks like that and being out in the midwest has only reinforced the fact that I have an accent which I was blissfully ignorant of in the first place. I adore it. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/6 "2003-03-22T04:34:40Z")
Wow, I’ve actually been down Stuyvesant. How long ago was this? I might have passed right by you. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/7 "2003-03-22T04:46:21Z")
I left New Jersey in July 2001. Hung around Union, Springfield, Millburn and Summit to a lesser extent. Went to school at Kean. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/8 "2003-03-22T04:59:07Z")
We probably bumped into one another then. I grew up in New Providence and spent a a considerable amount of time in Summit, where I was a volunteer at a local community-access cable station. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/9 "2003-03-22T05:03:18Z")
TV 36??? Yes, I know this topic is now horribly offtopic. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/10 "2003-03-22T05:10:05Z")
Yep, that’s the one. I was a cameraman/engineer/editor/director for them. I directed a segment of _Thiry Legal Minutes_ for them once that won some kind of award. It was weird, because I just piped up with “I’ll do it” when the usual director was a no-show. I did the editing too, on that one. I remember their cameras too. Ah, Sony 1800s. Vidicon tubes were state-of-the-art back in the mid 80s. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/11 "2003-03-22T05:22:21Z")
I remember watching some murder mystery about twins done by high school kids on that channel, watching the computer slides while listening to the music. Whee! Weren’t they the ones who showed images of Neptune from Voyager II or am I thinking of TV 3? Is the Union Plaza diner still open? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speaking-italian-on-the-sopranos/163283/12 "2003-03-22T05:26:13Z")
I dunno about anything that happened on TV36 after about 1987, but yeah, the Plaza Diner is still open, 24/7.