EDIZIONE STRAORDINARIA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! – NOTES ON THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE FIRST EDITIONS OF THE GAZZETTA DEL MASSACHUSETTS

In this article, I base my research on Franco Pierno’s 2012 article on “la lingua raminga,” which studies the Italian subcode used in the first ethnic journalistic publications in North America. First, I present some history of advertising in Italy, focusing, then, on how that translated in the ItaloAmerican setting in Massachusetts. In the bulk of the paper, I analyse the advertisements published in the first issues of the Gazzetta del Massachusetts (GdM; from 1903 and 1904), exploring in detail the employment of loanwords, both whole and adapted, over the course of the GdM’s early publications. I break my discussion down into the following sections of linguistic study: spelling and phonetics; morphology; vocabulary; and syntax. I conclude with some final thoughts on whether the increase in loanwords coincides not just with the greater size of the Italian community in Boston, but also the deeper linguistic assimilation of the predominant anglophone culture.