italiese or engliano

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A difficulty that Italians faced when they came to NZ was the inability to understand or speak the English language.  In order to bridge the gap between Italian and English, the new immigrants developed a language which is known as Italiese (a blend of Italiano (Italian) and Inglese (English). The English and Italian words functioned both as a way to settle into a new environment but also as a way to maintain a connection with the Italian language. Italiese are words that stand in the middle of two languages and cultures.
By making English words “Italianized”, they become familiar and easy to integrate into the function of the language they grew up with. I love these altered words used by older Italians and also by my peers. How many of us when we visited Italy for the first time thought we were speaking Italian when in fact it was Island Bay Italian - Italiaese!
I know our parents, family and friends used Italian words for fence or garage, but made the English word Italian sounding. There were no words in Italian to describe these new things… o scioppo is something quite different than an Italian negozio: o checca is certainly not an Italian torta and so on.
Italiese has been part of my upbringing and it is slowly disappearing as younger Italo-New Zealanders learn purer Italian forms. Below I have started making a list of these 'italiese' words. What are your memories of Italiese? What’s your favourite Italian/English word? Email me these to me and I will add these to the list and share your memories.
Also interesting to note that Italy now struggles to stop the infiltration of English, their own Italiese, into the country’s language.
bega (bag)                               
checco from (cake)
fenza from (fence)                
frisare from (freeze)
mascina from (machine)     
screccio from (scratch)
kubbai (goodbye)                  
schiusmi (excuse me)
gherla (girl)
                             
dammaggio (damage)

stritto (street)
                         
scioppo (shop)

giobba (job)                            
pichinicco  (picnic)
ais crima (ice cream)            
ais crima in da cona (ice ream in a cone)
carro (car)                               
custumi (customers)
naise (nice)                            
olrraite (all right)
orrioppo (hurry up)             
marchetta (market)
il billo (bill)                          
​ ringa' (ring)
boocato (booked)
prevalle (Happy Valley)
baba' (baby)
frige (fridge)
rubeesh (rubbish)
scoroppe (squaring up done by fisherman at the end of the day to sell fish)
prevalle (Happy Valley in Island Bay)