Ciao… It’s a word that you hear nearly every day. Whether Italy, France, Germany, England, or the U.S.
It’s one of those words — a popular salutation — that has become a thread in the fabric of our lives. From teenagers to their grandparents, from celebrities to Joe the Plumber, from New York to Los Angeles and every neighborhood in between, even if you don’t use the word, you know what it means…
In English ciao is used exclusively as a salutation when saying good-bye.
In Italian, it’s used as both a greeting and a farewell. And when saying good-bye, Italians will often say it twice: ciao ciao…
The word comes from sixteenth-century Venetian dialect, ciao from the Latin sclavus meaning slave.
It was commonly used at the court of Venice (at the height of the Most Serene Republic of Venice) to express respect as in the saying, “I am your humble servant.”
In English it’s commonly pronounced similarly to the word chow (/ˈtʃaʊ/).
In Italian, the oh in the (letter) o is more prominent (ˈtʃaːo).
The Venetians, who have a five- as opposed to seven-vowel system (like that in Italian), emphasize all the vowels: chee-ah-oh.
Such a small word but such a great legacy. All stretching back to a form of courtesy in Renaissance Venice.
Good article, guys. I suggest to you to correct “Venetian dialect” (it’s wrong) in “Venetian language”. If you want more information, read wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_language
Alessia, thanks for reading and thanks for your comment and insight.
I love the Venetian Wiki and have been planning to do a post on it.
And I agree with you that we should and can refer to the lingua veneta or rather the łéngua vèneta as opposed to “Veneto dialect.” (And I say this as someone who studied history of the Italian language with Gianfranco Folena at Padua and who lived in the Veneto for many years.)
But this blog is intended for American readers who, most likely, wouldn’t understand the finely tuned nuance between “dialect” and “language.”
I agree that veneto and veneziano (or padovano, vicentino, or bellunese) are bona fide languages. And these languages are not Italian dialects but rather Latin dialects.
But the English usage of the word dialect is different than the Italian (or Veneto for that matter).
And so, I believe — as a lover of the Veneto and cultura veneta —that “dialect” is the correct term here, especially considering the readership of this blog.
Armed with a powerful navy and lucrative trading concessions from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I, including trading rights across the Empire and the right to harbour at Constantinople, Venice rose to be the greatest commercial and naval power in the Eastern Mediterranean.
With family and friends, ciao is the norm even as a morning or evening salutation, in lieu of buongiorno or buonasera. When used in other contexts, ciao may be interpreted as slightly flirtatious, or a request for friendship or closeness.
In the later Black Sea slave trade, the Venetians established colonies in the Crimea, and acquired slaves of various religions to sell to Southern Europe via Crete and the Baleares, or to the Middle East directly via the Black Sea.
The Venetians' awareness of their distance from Rome, with its dogma and teachings of the Catholic Church, coupled with humanist influences, particularly on the intellectual strata of the republic, nurtured a climate of relative openness towards European culture and the Reformation ideas emanating from the far side of ...
Although ciao is the most commonly heard greeting in Italy, it's important to notice who is saying it. Italians use this with people they are familiar with… people they know. If you are greeted first with a ciao then you can respond with ciao back.
Ciao is a standard informal greeting in Italian that translates as hello / hi when you meet someone or bye when you part ways. amore. Amore means love. Just like its English equivalent, it can also function a term of endearment.
Introduction: My name is Greg O'Connell, I am a delightful, colorful, talented, kind, lively, modern, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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