Schvoog

Question

I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by non-Jews?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to ... have any currency outside of the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by non-Jews?[/nq]
The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large afro hairdos to toadstools.
...Don't ask me how I know.
Don
Kansas City

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the ... term used in some parts of the USA by non-Jews?[/nq]
[nq:1]The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large afro hairdos to toadstools. ...Don't ask me how I know.[/nq]
I wouldn't dream of it.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the ... term used in some parts of the USA by non-Jews?[/nq]
[nq:1]The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large afro hairdos to toadstools. ...Don't ask me how I know.[/nq]
Cause you are the Shell Answer Man of ethno-religious slurs?

So I was feeding the hummingbirds but not changing the feeder sugar water quickly enough and it fermented into something like that stuff that Hunter S Thompson was drinking in the Rum Diary, anyway, so I had these drunk birds flying everywhere just like mosquitoes in Minnesota, dashing up one side of me, darting down the other, crashing into the windows, falling off their perches, didn't even know they perched, flying backwards, flying backwards, it was like something out of the Exorcist. After a while though, I got bored with it all. Next Summer I'm going to Alaska to feed french bread soaked in Wild Turkey to polar bears. Wish me luck!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the ... term used in some parts of the USA by non-Jews?[/nq]
[nq:1]The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large afro hairdos to toadstools.[/nq]
In one episode of The Sopranos, Tony calls his daughter's boyfriend, who is part Jewish and part African-American, a "ditsoon" (< "tizzone" 'ember, cinder') and a "mullignan" (< "melanzane" 'eggplant').

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]In one episode of The Sopranos, Tony calls his daughter's boyfriend, who is part Jewish and part African-American, a "ditsoon" (< "tizzone" 'ember, cinder') and a "mullignan" (< "melanzane" 'eggplant').[/nq]
"Mulignan'" is probably almost as well-known in the New York region as the Yiddish "shvarze" /SvAts@/, and has a similar degree of offensiveness. Like most semi-assimilated Italian words in the New York area, it is specifically Neapolitan-derived. In Calabrese I believe it's "mulingiana" (with a (dZ)), and the Sicilian equivalent might be similar.
I've started to watch The Sopranos (despite the fact that it deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation(TM) vee-hickle) thanks to my Netflix subscription. The accents (other than those of the younger characters) are actually disappointingly inaccurate, though the problems are pretty subtle, like that failure to adhere to the lax/tense a-split (Tony's mother makes this mistake - her accent otherwise sounds pretty convincing to me). New Jersey dialects don't have the short a split, but I think most of the older characters
depicted on The Sopranos are supposed to have New York City roots in some proximate sense. Indeed, the nice opening sequence that shows Tony Soprano driving from Manhattan through the wastelands and working-class communities of Jersey till he gets to his nize suburban home is supposed, I think, to represent his own sort of path to upward mobility.

A mistake that James Gandolfini makes over and over, and one that I've seen in lots of other Italiansploitation vehicles with New York-region characters, is using (In) for -ing nouns like "meeting", "feelings" ("meetin'", "feelins"). This is totally ridiculous I'm familiar with lots of different accents and registers from the New York City area and I've never heard any speaker with this feature.

Steny '08!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I've started to watch The Sopranos (despite the fact that it deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation(TM) vee-hickle) ... older characters depicted on The Sopranos are supposed to have New York City roots in some proximate sense.[/nq]
I don't think it's ever been suggested on the show that the Soprano clan has New York roots IINM Tony's grandfather emigrated directly to Newark. Tony grew up in Newark and West Orange, according to the HBO website. But that's still close enough to New York to take part in the short-a split.
[nq:1]Indeed, the nice opening sequence that shows Tony Soprano driving from Manhattan through the wastelands and working-class communities of Jersey till he gets to his nize suburban home is supposed, I think, to represent his own sort of path to upward mobility.[/nq]
Yes, from Newark to the Caldwells strictly an intra-Essex County kind of upward mobility. (Cue YJ.)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large afro hairdos to toadstools. ...Don't ask me how I know.[/nq]
... and when drug dealers in a certain city invented a language in which they could transact business by phone without being understood by wiretapping police (until the police deciphered it) the police called it "Nig-Latin".

Mike Hardy

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I've started to watch The Sopranos (despite the fact that it deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation(TM) vee-hickle) thanks to my Netflix subscription.[/nq]
My favorite US TV drama. Doesn't an HBO channel air it once a week? One of the few reasons I signed up for the HBO channels, so I hope so.
Charles Riggs
They are no accented letters in my email address

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I've started to watch The Sopranos (despite the fact that it deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation(TM) vee-hickle) thanks to my Netflix subscription.[/nq]
[nq:1]My favorite US TV drama. Doesn't an HBO channel air it once a week? One of the few reasons I signed up for the HBO channels, so I hope so.[/nq]
If you get HBO2, then you're in luck. They're currently showing an episode every night at 9 pm, making their way through all five seasons. (I believe they're halfway through Season 3 right now.) But you're going to have to wait until March 2006 (!?!) for the sixth and final season to start airing.

Schvoog

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