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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti and welcome back to Italian Culture Class lesson number 7.
Marco: Italian names lesson number 7, Giuseppe, Giuseppina and Chiara. Today we have three names but the first two Giuseppe and Giuseppina are actually feminine and masculine variants of the same name.
Cinzia: Oh, okay. I see. So I suppose we don’t have the male name of Chiara.
Marco: No, that would mean Chiaro. And chiaro would mean “clear” so I don’t think we have that.
Cinzia: Clear, bright.
Marco: “Hello, I’m Mr. Clear”. No.
Cinzia: “Ciao Clear. Come stai?”

Lesson focus
Marco: And as always in today’s lesson we’re going to be taking a look at onomastico and famous people, right?
Cinzia: Yes. And names etymology and what else?
Marco: Well, let’s jump in and show them right away.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: So, Giuseppe is the…
Cinzia: Masculine name.
Marco: And Giuseppina?
Cinzia: Is the feminine one.
Marco: Why don’t we have Giuseppa?
Cinzia: Actually you know what? We have Giuseppa.
Marco: We do have Giuseppa?
Cinzia: Yes. Even if it’s Very, very rare but there is Giuseppa. It exists.
Marco: But today in modern Italian, let’s say that Giuseppa was taken over by Giuseppina.
Cinzia: Yes. Giuseppina can be heard more often than Giuseppa. Well, I can think about this name as a name used in the ancient times long ago. Once upon a time.
Marco: While we’re here in the studio I can see Cinzia she’s moving her right hand behind her head because this is the way we say “a long time ago” so like you were brushing your hair, but a lot behind…Okay, you got it, anyway.
Cinzia: Yes, so Giuseppa maybe was a name used in the past, but not very common today.
Marco: So what are the historical origins of Giuseppe in both masculine and feminine variants?
Cinzia: Oh, it comes from the Jewish name Yosef.
Marco: And in turn Yosef comes from yasaf that means “to add”, meaning “my God enlarged the family through heir”. And certainly due to its origin fame, I mean after all Giuseppe, San Giuseppe in English, Joseph.
Cinzia: Saint Joseph.
Marco: Exactly…Was the putative father of Jesus Christ.
Cinzia: Si, il padre putativo di Gesù.
Marco: And for this reason it is one of the most frequently used names in Italy.
Cinzia: Yes, that’s true.
Marco: Very, very many people named Giuseppe in Italy.
Cinzia: Yes, it’s true and of course it’s not by chance that some Giuseppe’s day name is celebrated on the Father’s Day.
Marco: You mean that The Father’s day is celebrated on San Giuseppe.
Cinzia: Oh, oh well, yes.
Marco: Well, both together, that’s for sure.
Cinzia: They’re both celebrated on the 19th of March. San Giuseppe is The Father’s Day.
Marco: In Italy San Giuseppe and Father’s Day are on the same date. In other countries it may be different.
Cinzia: Oh, yes, of course. Father’s Day changes, I think, all over the world. It’s not always the 19th of March.
Marco: True, true. And San Giuseppe is also the patron saint of well, fathers, carpenters, laborers, those are about to die, economists, and two countries that are…
Cinzia: Canada and Perù.
Marco: Instead the onomastico of Giuseppina is celebrated on December the 7th in honor of Santa Maria Giuseppa Rossello Vergine.
Cinzia: Oh, wow.
Marco: But let’s take a look at the derivatives of Giuseppe. And Giuseppina.
Cinzia: Yes. And so we have some altered names like: Beppe, Beppino, Pino, Pinuccio. And we have some diminutives like Peppenuzzo, Peppe.
Marco: Bepi. Bepi is famous.
Cinzia: Mmm, Bepi is more used in the north, right?
Marco: I think so, I think so.
Cinzia: Because in the south we use very often Pinuccio, Beppe…
Marco: Pippo.
Cinzia: Pippo.
Marco: Not so much. No.
Cinzia: Like Pippo Inzaghi.
Marco: Yes, yes, famous soccer player.
Cinzia: What’s his name actually, Giuseppe?
Marco: We…after…
Cinzia: Oh, maybe it’s Filippo.
Marco: Filippo, true. Yeah. Filippo Inzaghi. Pippo Inzaghi. True.
Cinzia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, let’s take a look at the altered names of Giuseppa.
Marco: That are…
Cinzia: Beppa, Giuseppina, Pina.
Marco: And the diminutives?
Cinzia: Giusy, Pinuccia and even Nuccia.
Marco: Nuccia. That looks far away for a name, doesn’t it?
Cinzia: Yes, yes.
Marco: And what about famous people using the name Giuseppe?
Cinzia: I can talk about Giuseppe Mazzini. Did you study him at high school?
Marco: Yes. I did, I did. Only at high school? I think junior high we’d see him first time. I don’t know.
Cinzia: Ma anche alle elementari.
Marco: Also at elementary school?
Cinzia: Yes. Mazzini, Garibaldi, don’t you remember?
Marco: True, true, true. Well I was in Kenya so…
Cinzia: You had maybe a different…
Marco: Curriculum. I actually forgot. Is anybody out there actually remembering what did they study in the elementary school? If you do, please write to us.
Cinzia: I do remember.
Marco: Everything?
Cinzia: Well, not everything, but the most important things.
Marco: Well, we’re going off topic here. Giuseppe Mazzini. What did he do?
Cinzia: Okay, okay. So he was considered as an active intellectual of the 19th century and he played an important role in the 18th century for the unification of Italy.
Marco: Together with Garibaldi, right?
Cinzia: Yes, Garibaldi and Cavour.
Marco: Exactly. So Mazzini could maybe compared in importance to George Washington in the American revolutionary war.
Cinzia: Maybe because George Washington was fighting for America’s independence and so was Mazzini. Fighting and struggling to give Italy a unified state. And create the essence of the Italian people.
Marco: Yes, because at that time, at half of the 19th century, Italy was still struggling to find unity in both country that its borders and also identity.
Cinzia: Yes, because actually Italy was split into many different states, little states.
Marco: Yeah, we had for example the Spanish crown in the south of Italy, we had the Pope with the Vatican State in the center then we had the Austro-Hungaran Empire in the north east and so on.
Cinzia: Yes. So, okay. Why don’t we take a look at the next name which is Chiara?
Marco: Now, Chiara, only feminine, places its origin from the imperial Latin proper name Clarus which literally meant “bright, clear”.
Cinzia: Its onomastico is celebrated on August the 11th in honor of Santa Chiara d'Assisi.
Marco: Oh, d'asSisi. Wait, wait. She is connected to San Francesco d'Assisi?
Cinzia: Yes. Right.
Marco: Because when she was only twelve she witnessed San Francesco d'Assisi publicly returning his clothes to his father. She was so struck by the sign of utter acceptance of crises poverty as a way of life that she gave away all her money and also self-embraced this way of life that San Francesco had clearly pointed out.
Cinzia: As soon as she left her room, she found the monastic orders of Clarisse.
Marco: The Clarisse, a very famous monastic order of nuns.
Cinzia: Yes.
Marco: They represent, well, the feminine branch of the Franciscan friars.
Cinzia: Yes. They are the correspondent of the Franciscan friars and she’s the patron saint of laundresses, glass workers, weavers, and even television.
Marco: Wow.
Cinzia: You know?
Marco: Well, she was also involved to cure eye illnesses. And maybe that’s why…
Cinzia: Yes, that’s why.
Marco: What about the derivatives of Chiara?
Cinzia: Oh, we have Clara, Claretta, Clarissa, and a name very similar to the Spanish, Clarita.
Marco: Very, very similar. And diminutives?
Cinzia: Chiaretta, Chiarina, Chiarella.
Marco: But there are no compound names comprising Chiara.
Cinzia: Yes. And what about famous people?
Marco: Well, time is running short so I just have to rush it, rush it, rush it.
Cinzia: Okay, okay.
Marco: Chiara Morucci is a famous Italian song writer, composer, music critique. She usually works in Rome, or Lisbon or New York and she’s also contributing to the development of History of Music, working at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Cinzia: Oh really?
Marco: Yes.
Cinzia: I didn’t know her.
Marco: Well, there’s always something you can learn at ItalianPod101.com.
Cinzia: Yes, that’s for sure.

Outro
Marco: So, let’s say goodbye to our listeners.
Cinzia: Okay. Ciao e a presto.
Marco: Ciao ciao.

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