Sandwiches Sandwiches
The menu-naming geniuses have done it again. As if "panini sandwiches" (sandwiches sandwiches) weren't enough of an egregious grammatical error (advertised and available at virtually every other fast food restaurant in Midtown Manhattan), the Subway chain of sandwich shops now offers chicken pizziola [sic]. Was their food marketing department too lazy to look up the word?! It's spelled: p-i-z-z-a-i-o-l-a (a tasty, zesty tomatoey sauce).
Then, of course, there are pressini—a pressed sandwich. Again, it's one sandwich, not two, and means something entirely different in Italian (a pressino is an implement for measuring the amount of coffee for grinding). And if you want more than one, order "pressinis"—which of course means absolutely nothing in Italian.
Comments
As a linguist, I so appreciate your mention of ‘panini sandwiches’ (sandwiches sandwiches)… (C-R-I-N-G-E) I recently pointed this out myself at our local Italian restaurant… incorrectly rendered menues are one of my pet peeves. Why don’t they use this as a teaching opportunity instead and list it on the menu as Panini (Sandwiches) instead?
Menus, not menues.
I know a place that offers “panini’s”.
have you forgotten the american plurals, “pizzas”, “lattes” etc? americans have a tendency to hook onto something that is foreign & change the pronounciation & call it american. when i was teaching english to vietamese refugees, i asked what was their favorite american food. they all answered, pizza! so, you see, as far as we americans are concerned, pizza is an american food! the only abomination to me is: pineapple on my pizza. porca miseria! i love this blog & i love michael san fillipo. amore a tutti, marianna ricci
here’s an addendum to the previous comment i left: who among us hasn’t heard uninformed americans say eXpresso for the italian coffee, espresso? {mi dispiace, michael, i misspelled your name…it’s san filippo &
NOT san fillipo as i spelled it.} allora, ancora amore a tutti….marianna ricci
Thanks very much for your kind words. My goal is to make the About.com Guide to Italian Language the premier destination on the Web for Italian language learners.
Un salutone,
-Michael