Learn about two important characters that bore those names: an Italian king deemed to be "the Father of Italy", the founder of the Italian unitary state, and a talented pop singer
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Cinzia: Ciao a tutti and welcome back to Italian Culture Class Lesson number 9. |
| Marco: Italian Names 9 – Emanuele, Emanuela, Irene. |
Lesson focus |
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| Cinzia: Today we will analyse the historical origins, former meaning, onomastici and patron saints on Emanuele and Irene. |
| Marco: We shall also see important characters that bore these names. First an Italian king deemed to be the father of Italy and also a talented pop singer. |
| Cinzia: Yes, let's start. |
| Marco: Emanuele is a masculine name while... |
| Cinzia: The feminine is Emanuela. The historical origin of Emanuele in both its masculine and feminine form is to be traced back to the Jewish proper name Immanuel. |
| Marco: Which means "God is with us". |
| Cinzia: Yes, so this Jewish name was later adopted from the Greeks and used then changed into Emanuel. |
| Marco: So the Italian form Emanuele, comes directly from the Greek Emanuel. |
| Cinzia: Yes, and its onomastico is celebrated on the 26th of March. We celebrate both Emanuele and Emanuela’s on onomastico. It's in honour of Saint Emanuel Martyr, Sant’Emanuele Martire. Would you like to tell us the derivatives about Emanuele? |
| Marco: Certainly. We have altered version like Emmanuele, with two Ms, Emanuello, Manolo… |
| Cinzia: Emanuello? |
| Marco: Emanuello, yes, we have it. And also Manuele, while diminutives like Lele and Manu. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, I love Manuel and I love the diminutive Lele. It's cute, isn't it? |
| Marco: Yes, and also in the name Emanuela the diminutives are Lela and Manu. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes. |
| Marco: While the altered names are just as with Emanuele, Manuela and Manola, but also something Spanish-liking Emanuelita. But there are no compound names which include Emanuele or Emanuela. |
| Cinzia: What about our famous king? |
| Marco: You mean Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia? |
| Cinzia: Yes. Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoya. |
| Marco: Exactly. |
| Cinzia: He's the one that affected most of the Italian History. |
| Marco: Well especially the Italian modern history. |
| Cinzia: Yes because we are actually talking about the 20th century. |
| Marco: He’s also known as the father of Italy, il padre dell’Italia. Because even though he was a rather controversial character, spending lots of his time, having fun, hunting and stuff like that, he did manage to form some temporary alliance with European countries, conquer Italian independent states or reclaim part of Italian territory, it was held by foreign countries such as the Austro-Hungarian empire. |
| Cinzia: But despite the official records, historians agree on saying that without the invaluable contribution of Italian state man, the king would not have been able to achieve such important results. |
| Marco: Very true, very true. I mean it’s always about team play isn't it? |
| Cinzia: Yes of course. |
| Marco: Gioco di squadra- that means “team play” in Italian, gioco di squadra. |
| Cinzia: Si, gioco di squadra. |
| Marco: Good. So what the next names that are Ireneo masculine and Irene feminine? |
| Cinzia: Please, I really can't hear these names, Ireneo. I've never heard it and it so rare. |
| Marco: It is. So since you don’t like it that much, let's start talking about Irene. An etymology of this feminine proper noun, Irene, is.... |
| Cinzia: Oh, let me guess....Greek culture? |
| Marco: Yes, good, good. It comes from the ancient Greek name Eirene, that was the Greek goddess of peace. One of the peculiar traits of this goddess was that she was usually portrayed as a young attractive woman, holding a branch of olive tree and a cornucopia - a horn of plenty in her hands. |
| Cinzia: Oh really, is it her then? Oh, I didn't know that. |
| Marco: And this name entered the Roman tradition when Emperor Augustus adopted it in Latin as Irena wishing to put an end to a terrible civil war that was raging in the Roman Empire. |
| Cinzia: The onomastico of Irene celebrated on the first of April in honour of Santa Irene Martire. |
| Marco: Saint Irene Martyr. |
| Cinzia: And she was one of the many Christians persecuted in third century before Christ. So we have actually also the onomastico of Ireneo. |
| Marco: Yes, it is celebrated on June 28t, in honour of Sant’Ireneo di Lione. |
| Cinzia: Still, I have never met anyone called Ireneo. I don’t know about you. |
| Marco: Nope, no movies with Ireneo that I can remember of. But if somebody is called Ireneo, let us know. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, of course. |
| Marco: Diminutives, altered version of Irena… Well, we have Irena and Irina. It sounds very Russian, isn’t it? |
| Cinzia: Russians or Polish? |
| Marco: Yes. And the diminutive like Ire, Irenuccia and Rina. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, Rina also. There are no compound names which can include Irena or Ireneo but we have… |
| Marco: Yes, what do we have, what do we have? |
| Cinzia: One famous Italian singer - |
| Marco: Called? |
| Cinzia: - who is Irene Grandi. |
| Marco: Very famous Italian singer. She’s a female Italian singer - |
| Cinzia: I love her voice actually. |
| Marco: Very, very nice voice really. So, Cinzia, because you seem to like her so much, what can you tell us about her. What music does she do? |
| Cinzia: She studied almost every musical genre and her songs are a mix, actually, of pop, jazz, rock and blues. Check the links on the post. |
Outro |
| Marco: Yes, we will surely put a few links to the post, especially to her websites. So that's it for today. |
| Cinzia: Yes. Grazie a tutti e ci vediamo la prossima volta. Ciao. |
| Marco: Ciao ciao. |
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