Comments on: Trageghiaturi

By: Ellis Goldberg

Ellis Goldberg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:45:31 +0000

Perhaps off the wall but the original orthography suggested an Arabic origin to me with the “g” sound being the Arabic ghayn and the “gh” sound the Arabic r (=French “r”). This is a little confusing since the standard English transcription reverses these sounds and “gh” = ghayn while the English “r” is used for the Arabic “r.” Anyway there is an Arabic word gharir (plural aghirra) that means deceived. This seems close to the meaning involved in the Italian and might work as a sicilianification of an underlying word drawn from Arabic. Or again perhaps not.

By: SG

SG — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:55:59 +0000

roac: so the English can have claim to have 2 sports they are passably good at. And so they can lose the game to only 1 southern hemisphere nation, not all of them.

By: roac

roac — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:28:26 +0000

Question asked from a position of near-total ignorance: Why is there more than one brand of rugby, anyway?

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:49:21 +0000

thanks to all above again – very helpful (esp. the link to the article).

By: engels

engels — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:51:24 +0000

Strictly speaking, there was no St. Patrick's day this year, at least in England.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:57:05 +0000

I still do think League is superior to Union, but we can have that conversation when Ireland unaccountably sacks the coach of their winning Rugby League side on the say-so of a few over-mighty players with dodgy knees and then implodes.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:20:38 +0000

The Welsh winning the Grand Slam. (Had they lost I am sure we’d be hearing the usual line about League being superior to Union, but adaptability to circumstances is an important skill.)

By: Bernard Yomtov

Bernard Yomtov — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:32:58 +0000

the traditional Welsh holiday of “Ail Dydd y Gamp Fawr”

Before planning the party, may we ask what Ail Dydd y Gamp Fawr celebrates?

By: SG

SG — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:38:17 +0000

So would the direct English translation of this be “Tragedarian”?

By: dsquared

dsquared — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:50:59 +0000

one Warren Gatland, there’s only one Warren Gatland.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:04:19 +0000

“Ail Dydd y Gamp Fawr”

I’ve heard of this holiday. My understanding is that it falls twice in five years every thirty years or so.

By: gs

gs — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:27:34 +0000

hope this isn’t too much information:

from a quote (taken from http://www.vigata.org/bibliografia/prolegomeni.shtml) by a prominent Sicilian writer (Camilleri)

in the dialect spoken around porto empedocle, “tragediatori” is a big prankster;

Camilleri also mentions Sciascia’s Kermesse in passing, where it is said that a tragediaturi, in Palermo, is someone who “worries their family,’’ while around Sciascia’s Racalmuto is an “enemy of oneself.’‘

By: dsquared

dsquared — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:16:32 +0000

By the way, what a coincidence that this year St Patrick’s Day should fall on the traditional Welsh holiday of “Ail Dydd y Gamp Fawr”, we can have a double celebration.

By: dario

dario — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:54:04 +0000

Tragediaturi in this context means “lier”.
Such is who makes “tragedies”, i.e. makes up stories, so lies, in brief.

It seems though there are many flavors for this word, depending on the Sicilian province.

You can find more on the following link.
http://www.webalice.it/franceman/contenuti/pdf/allotropiatragediatore.pdf

By: edward barker

edward barker — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:05:59 +0000

It’s sicilian dialect of the italian word ‘traghettatore’, which means ‘ferryman’. A traghettarore can be a negotiator or a betrayer.