You are on page 1of 61

Parliamo italiano!

, Edition 5: A
Communicative Approach
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/parliamo-italiano-edition-5-a-communicative-approac
h/
Program Components
The Complete Program
To receive an examination or desk copy of any of these
program components, please contact your local Wiley
sales representative at www.wiley.com/college/rep or
call our Sales Office at 1.800.237.2665.

Student Textbook
978-1-118-59173-4
The textbook includes 12 thematically-based units,
and access to accompanying video and audio in the
Book Companion Site.

Annotated Instructor’s Edition


978-1-119-14700-8
New, updated, and expanded ­a nnotations assist
instructors in management of the material; for example,
some grammar points have been marked for possible
passive knowledge. More suggestions have been provided
for handling grammar points, expanding upon activities,
and referring students to Internet sites for further
information as well as visual and listening opportunities.

Student Activities Manual (SAM)


978-1-119-13994-2
This component is divided into two sections: Workbook, and Listen & Speak.
• Workbook  Activities in the workbook focus on vocabulary and grammar
specific to each section (A, B, C, or D) of the unit. These are clearly marked
according to the corresponding section for easy reference. You’ll also find periodic
review activities that recycle structures from previous units, and, new to the Fifth
Edition are activities based on cultural information found in Lo sapevi che….
• Listen & Speak  The Per la pronuncia section focuses on practice of the sounds
of Italian, while Attività per la comprensione features a wide variety of situa-
tions and activities to develop listening comprehension skills. The audio is housed
in WileyPLUS Learning Space and the Book Companion Site.
WileyPLUS Learning Space
WileyPLUS Learning Space is an innovative, online teaching and learning
environment, built on a foundation of cognitive research that integrates relevant
resources, including the entire digital textbook, in an easy-to-navigate framework
that helps students study effectively. Throughout each study session, students can
assess their progress against study objectives, and gain immediate feedback on their
strengths and weaknesses so they can be confident they are spending their time
effectively. Instructors can use our study objective filtering and pre-built assignments

vi Ins tr uc to r ’s G uide
to efficiently design their course and their syllabus. They can also use the robust
reporting tools available in WileyPLUS Learning Space to track and manage their
students’ performance.

What do students receive with WileyPLUS Learning Space?


Tools for engagement.  With WileyPLUS Learning Space students receive 24/7
access to resources that promote positive learning outcomes. Students engage with
related activities in various media, including:
• Audio Program: The Audio Program includes recordings for the listening ac-
tivities in the textbook, for the Incontro sections, and vocabulary.
• Video Program with additional practice: 12 video segments are available
with auto-graded and manually-graded video manual questions.
• Voice response questions: Recording functionality that allows instructors to
test students’ speaking skills.
• Auto-graded self-tests for additional practice.
• Electronic Workbook and Listen & Speak activities: Allows instructors to
assign Workbook and Listen & Speak activities, which are then sent straight to
the gradebook for automatic and manual grading options.
• Embedded questions and discussions: Assignable electronic versions of select
textbook activities that test students’ understanding of grammar and vocabulary.
• Audio flashcards: Offers pronunciation and English/Italian translations.
Measurable Outcomes:  Throughout each study session, students can assess
their progress and gain immediate feedback. WileyPLUS Learning Space provides
precise reporting of strengths and weaknesses, as well as individualized quizzes, so
that students are confident they are spending their time on the right things. With
WileyPLUS Learning Space, students always know the exact outcome of their efforts.

What do instructors receive with WileyPLUS Learning Space?


WileyPLUS Learning Space provides reliable, customizable resources that reinforce
course goals inside and outside of the classroom as well as tracking of individual student
progress. Pre-created materials and activities help instructors optimize their time:
• Guide to Syllabus and Lesson Planning (with Samples)
• Suggestions for Teaching with Parliamo italiano!
• Guide to the Organization of Parliamo italiano!
• Answer keys to Student Activities Manual
• Lecture PowerPoint Presentations: The PowerPoint presentations comp­
lement some sections of the textbook, and selected activities to do in class.
• Image Gallery: Collection of the photographs, illustrations, and artwork from
each unit of the textbook.
• Prebuilt Question Assignments: Available in a variety of options, these
prebuilt electronic quizzes allow instructors to test students’ understanding of
vocabulary, grammar, and culture, as well as their reading, writing, listening, and
speaking skills.

In s t ru ct or ’s Gu i de vii
• Test Bank: Collection of assignable questions that allow instructors to build
custom exams.
• Ready to print exams with answer keys: There are unit-level, midterm and
final exams. All of the components that instructors need to distribute printed
exams in class. There are two different exam versions per unit.
• Video scripts and Video Instructor’s Notes: Scripts for each of the videos in
the chapter, along with suggestions for the use of videos in class.
• Gradebook: WileyPLUS Learning Space provides access to reports on trends in
class performance, student use of course materials, and progress toward learning
objectives, helping inform decisions and drive classroom discussions.

Student Companion Site


www.wiley.com/college/branciforte/

The Student Companion Site contains access to all the videos referenced in the
textbook, all audio files that accompany in-text content, and audio flashcards.

Instructor Companion Site


www.wiley.com/college/branciforte
The Instructor Companion Site includes the student resources above plus answer
keys, and scripts, to accompany unit level, mid-term, and final exams. It also includes
an image gallery, answer keys for the Activities Manual, and audio and video scripts.

Explore Your Ordering Options


The textbook is available in various formats. Learn more about our flexible pricing,
flexible formats, and flexible content at www.wiley.com/college/sc/branciforte/
options.html

viii Instr uc to r ’ s G uide


About the Authors

Suzanne Branciforte was Il Sole 24 Ore and was responsible for translating the
born and raised on Long Sunday Domenica insert into English for the first time.
Island, New York. She Branciforte has also published a textbook for
completed her B.A. in His- learning Italian in Italy for middle school students
tory & Literature at Har- (Sì, lo so!, Juvenilia Editore, 2004).
vard University. Recipient A cultural and linguistic mediator, Branciforte
of a Rotary Foundation was the interpreter for the Mayor of Genoa at the
Scholarship, she attended G8 Meeting held in that city in 2001. Among her
the ­University of Genoa numerous engagements as an interpreter and translator,
(Genoa, Italy). She sub- she has translated and interpreted for Nobel Prize
sequently completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Italian winners Wole Soyinka, Amartya Sen, and Joseph
Literature at UCLA. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Stieglitz.
Florence, Italy. Over the past 20 years, she has lived between
Her teaching experience includes positions at the U.S. and Italy. She currently makes her home in
Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA), the University Genoa, Italy.
of Michigan and Stanford University programs in
Florence, Italy, and at the University for Foreigners Elvira G. Di Fabio has
in Siena. She has taught Methods of Teaching Italian over 25 years of experience
to Foreigners in a Masters program at the University in the field of ­language ped-
of Genoa, at the Università Cattolica in Milan, agogy. She holds a B.A. in
and at Study in Italy, Genoa. In 2000, she founded Russian from Boston Uni-
Consortium Educational Consulting in Genoa, versity, an M.A. in Slavic
Italy, which became Study in Italy in 2009 (www. Languages and Literatures
studyinitaly.it). A boutique language school, Study from Boston College, and
in Italy offers a full range of language and culture finally came to her senses
courses and study abroad experiences in Genoa, and took an M.A. and
Pavia and Siena. Ph.D. in Italian from Har-
Her research and scholarly writing focus on vard University. She has been the ­director of Ital-
Italian American cultural identity, the experience ian language instruction at Harvard University since
of Italian emigration, the Italian Renaissance, the 1990 and is responsible for training and mentoring
narrative of World War II in Italy, and women’s teaching fellows and teaching assistants.
literature. She has published numerous articles on Di Fabio teaches Italian at every level and most
these subjects. enjoys the energy and engagement found in the
An experienced translator of prose and poetry, ­beginning Italian courses. Her advanced instruction
her translation of Renata Viganò’s collection of covers Italian comic cinema, historical linguistics,
short stories, Partisan Wedding (1999) was favorably and Romance food culture. She has recently
reviewed in the NY Times. Her translation into Italian developed a community-service course that places
of an American short story in the volume Zoetrope: All- undergraduates in local elementary schools to teach
Story (Mondadori, 2001, introduction by Francis Ford Italian to pre-K and Kindergarten children through
Coppola) was cited in La Repubblica newspaper’s arts-enhanced instruction. This experience has since
review of the volume. She collaborates regularly with developed into a partnership with the Harvard Art

ix
Museums for the integration of visual art into the publications include Republican Ideals in the Selected
curriculum. works of ­Italian-American Joseph Rocchietti, 1835/1845
From 2002-2011, she was director of the (Edwin Mellen Press) and translations from Italian
8-week Harvard Summer Abroad Program in to English including Pope John XXIII: The Official
Abruzzo. ­In addition to classroom instruction, the Biography (Pauline Publishers) and Secrets of the Soul:
­program featured structured interaction with local Padre Pio’s Letters to His Spiritual Directors (Pauline
youth, public lectures by teaching staff, and public Books and Media).
performances by the students as a way of giving back She served on the Board of Directors of the
to the host community. She continues to spend her Massachusetts Foreign Language Association, and on
summers in Italy. the College Board’s Advanced Placement review and
Di Fabio’s research areas comprise second development committees. She most enjoys offering
language acquisition, translation studies, and the professional development workshops for K-12+
­h istory and literature of Italian migration. Her teachers of Italian in the greater New England area.

During the preparation of the Fifth Edition, I was inspired and motivated by the final
users of this text, the students. Over the many years, I have had the privilege and
good fortune to get to know many wonderful people who were my students in Italian
language courses in California, in Massachusetts, in Florence and in Genoa. It is to
them that I dedicate this edition: the people who I learned the most from. Of course
my memories are studded with faces – if no longer the names! – of the people who
spurred me on to be a better teacher, who challenged me to find a better way of
explaining or presenting something, who put a smile on my face at the end of the day.
Some, like Kristi and Gina, went on to become Italian professors themselves, others
may no longer remember a word. One thing is certain, though: we all experienced the
laughter of Ridendo, s’impara!
And to the student from whom I have learned the most, and from whom I
continue to learn, my son Max, who is now the age of my students (how did that
happen?), to whom this book is dedicated.
Suzanne Branciforte

In terms of the professional development that I have undergone since the fourth edi-
tion, I wish to thank the College Board for allowing me the remarkable opportunity
to serve on the Italian AP Development Committee (2010-2013). It was an excellent
learning experience and most of all, I am grateful for the awareness it brought to my
teaching, teacher training and scholarship.
As for my inspiration, I give thanks, as always, to my parents, ever more present
in my memory as the years go by, and whose love of language and tradition remains
alive in me (oh, if they could see me now!); to my husband, who taught me to love
all things Italian worth loving; to my children who are fostering that love in my
grandchildren – siete e sarete sempre nell’anima.
Elvira G. Di Fabio

x AB OUT T H E AUT H ORS


C o n t e n ts

UNITA PRELIMINARE: Unità 1: Visitare: Siamo a Roma!


Unità PER COMINCIARE 1 • Lazio: Roma 17

Communicative ■  reeting people and saying good-bye


G ■  sking what and where things are
A
Goals ■ Introducing yourself ■ Addressing different people
 Asking people their names and where they
■ ■ Describing states of being
are from ■ Negating
■ Asking people how they are ■ Telling someone your age
■ Giving and asking for phone numbers ■ Telling time

A ■ Le presentazioni 2 ■ La geografia 18
Incontro: Roma, Città Eterna! 20
Punti grammaticali:
Il sostantivo singolare 23
L’articolo indeterminativo 23

B ■ I saluti 6 ■ La città 25
Incontro: Benvenuta a Roma! 27
Punti grammaticali:
I pronomi soggetto 30
Il verbo essere 31
C’è, ci sono 31
Il negativo semplice 32
L’articolo determinativo singolare 33

C ■ L’alfabeto 9 ■ Il calendario 35
Incontro: Un po’ di riposo 37
Punti grammaticali:
Il verbo avere e le espressioni idiomatiche
con avere 39
Le preposizioni semplici 42

D ■ I numeri da 0 A 100 11 ■ L’ora 44


Incontro: Caro diario … 46
Punti grammaticali:
Il presente indicativo dei verbi della prima
coniugazione 49

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Scanning for cognates 53


e parole La geografia del Bel Paese 54
Scriviamo italiano! Keeping a journal 55
Come disse… Francesco Petrarca 56
Musica, maestro! 56
Ciak! Italia 56

xi
Unità 2: Studiare: Impariamo l’italiano! Unità 3: Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!
Unità • Emilia-Romagna: Bologna 59 • Sicilia: Palermo 105

Communicative ■ Talking about school ■ Talking about the family


Goals ■ Using the plural ■ Asking questions
■ Expressing possession ■ Describing people and things
■ Expressing likes and dislikes ■ Describing a home
■ Indicating people and things
■ Talking about the weather
■ Talking about what you have to do,
want to do, and can do
■ Running errands

A ■ La lezione 60
Incontro: In aula 61
■ La famiglia 106
Incontro: Preparativi per la festa di
Punti grammaticali: compleanno 108
I verbi della seconda coniugazione 64 Punti grammaticali:
I verbi della terza coniugazione 65 Le parole interrogative 112

B ■ La casa dello studente 68


Incontro: Universitá di bologna 70
■ La casa 115
Incontro: A casa di Luca 118
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il sostantivo plurale 73 Bello e buono 121
L’articolo determinativo plurale 75 Questo e quello 121

C ■ L’università 77
Incontro: Il corso di laurea 80
■ Il tempo 124
Incontro: Il ponte 126
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
L’aggettivo 82 Volere, dovere, potere 129
Gli aggettivi possessivi 86 I verbi irregolari fare, dire, bere 131

D ■ La vita scolastica 88
Incontro: Futuri insegnanti 89
■ In centro 133
Incontro: Un giro in centro 134
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
I verbi irregolari: andare, venire, Le preposizioni articolate 137
uscire, dare, stare, sapere 92
Il verbo piacere 94

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Skimming 96 Leggiamo italiano! Using clues to guess


e parole Gli esami non finiscono mai! 97 content 139
Scriviamo italiano! Using a bilingual Come si vive in Italia 141
dictionary 98 Scriviamo italiano! Using lists to write
Come disse… Edmondo De Amicis 100 compositions 142
Musica, maestro! 100 Come disse... Carlo Collodi 143
Ciak! Italia 100 Musica, maestro! 144
Ciak! Italia 144

xii con te n ts
Unità 4: Comprare: Facciamo delle Unità 5: Mangiare: Tutti a tavola!
Unità commissioni! • Umbria: Perugia 147 • Liguria: Genova 189

Communicative ■ Talking about past actions and events ■ Ordering food and drink
Goals ■ Specifying quantities ■ Avoiding redundancy
■ Talking about food ■ Describing actions
■ Shopping for food ■ Cooking and sharing recipes
■ Shopping in specialty stores ■ Expressing general rules
■ Handling and changing money
■ Avoiding redundancy
■ Expressing there

A ■ Al mercato all’aperto 148


Incontro: Una mattinata al mercato 149
■ Al bar 190
Incontro: Colazione al bar 193
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il passato prossimo 152 I pronomi complemento oggetto indiretto 196
I numeri da 100 a 1.000.000.000 157

B ■ I soldi 159
Incontro: I ragazzi preparano una cena 161
■ In trattoria 199
Incontro: Una cena fra amici 202
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il partitivo 164 I pronomi doppi 205
Ne 166

C ■ Le commissioni 168
Incontro: Il regalo per Mirella 169
■ Al ristorante 209
Incontro: Una cena squisita 210
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
I pronomi complemento oggetto diretto 171 Gli avverbi 212
Ci 175 Molto e troppo 214

D ■ I negozi 177
Incontro: Che sorpresa! 179
■ In cucina 216
Incontro: Buon appetito! 218
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
L’accordo con i pronomi complemento Si impersonale e passivante 221
diretto nel passato prossimo 181

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Identifying key La cucina italiana: i sapori d’Italia 225
e parole words 183 Leggiamo italiano! Interacting with the
La spesa quotidiana 184 text 226
Scriviamo italiano! Improving writing Scriviamo italiano! Using models 227
skills 185 Come disse… Giuseppe Ungaretti 228
Come disse… Italo Calvino 186 Musica, maestro! 228
Musica, maestro! 185 Ciak! Italia 228
Ciak! Italia 186

co nt ent s xiii
Unità 6: Rilassarsi: Cosa facciamo di Unità 7: Vestirsi: Vestiamoci alla moda!
Unità bello? • Veneto: Venezia 231 • Lombardia: Milano 271

Communicative ■ Talking about things you used to do ■ Talking about routine daily activities
Goals ■ Describing actions, situations, people, and ■ Discussing health and illness
things in the past ■ Comparing people, places, and things
■ Talking about hobbies ■ Buying clothing and talking about fashion
■ Talking about sports ■ Expressing wishes and requests politely
■ Talking about the future ■ Talking about what you and others would do
■ Discussing vacations in different circumstances
■ Giving commands

A ■ Il tempo libero 232


Incontro: Erano altri tempi! 234
■ Il corpo, la salute 272
Incontro: Mamma mia, che stress! 275
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
L’imperfetto 237 I verbi riflessivi 277
I verbi reciproci 280

B ■ Lo sport 241
Incontro: Una partita di calcio 243
■ L’abbigliamento 282
Incontro: Non so cosa mettermi! 285
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Stare + gerundio 246 Il comparativo 288
L’imperfetto e il passato prossimo 248 Il superlativo relativo 291
Il superlativo assoluto 292
Comparativi e superlativi irregolari 292

C ■ La passeggiata 250
Incontro: Una passeggiata 252
■ Fare acquisti 295
Incontro: Nel negozio di abbigliamento 296
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il futuro 254 Il condizionale 300

D ■ Al mare e in montagna 258


Incontro: Una telefonata 259
■ La moda 303
Incontro: Amici come prima! 304
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
I pronomi tonici 261 L’imperativo 307

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Using what you know 264 Leggiamo italiano! Topic sentences 312
e parole Venezia “La Serenissima” 265 Il Made in Italy 313
Scriviamo italiano! Sequencing and Scriviamo italiano! Comparing and
­chronological order 267 contrasting 314
Come disse… Carlo Goldoni 268 Musica, maestro! 315
Musica, maestro! 268 Come disse... Alessandro Manzoni 315
Ciak! Italia 268 Ciak! Italia 315

xiv con ten ts


Unità 8: Lavorare: Lavoriamo insieme! Unità 9: Viaggiare: Andiamo in vacanza!
Unità • Piemonte: Torino 319 • Sardegna: Cagliari 365

Communicative ■  alking about professions and the workplace


T ■ Describing past actions
Goals ■ Expressing desires, opinions, emotions, and ■ Making travel plans
doubts ■ Taking a train or plane
■ Discussing means of transportation ■ Expressing doubts, opinions,
■ Expressing complex ideas by linking phrases and emotions about past events
■ Making negative statements

A ■ Mestieri e professioni 320


Incontro: Dopo l’esame di Stato 322
■ Le ferie 366
Incontro: Un viaggio in Sardegna 368
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Espressioni impersonali 326 Il trapassato prossimo 372
Il congiuntivo presente dei verbi
regolari 328

B ■ I mezzi di trasporto 332


Incontro: In cerca di un passaggio 335
■ Alla stazione ferroviaria 375
Incontro: In partenza 377
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il congiuntivo presente dei verbi Il congiuntivo imperfetto 381
irregolari 337

C ■ L’industria 340
Incontro: Scioperi, settimana di fuoco 342
■ Pianificare un viaggio 383
Incontro: Destinazione: Sardegna! 386
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
L’uso del congiuntivo e le congiunzioni 345 Il congiuntivo passato 389
Il congiuntivo trapassato 391

D ■ Il colloquio di lavoro 348


Incontro: Il colloquio di lavoro 350
■ All’aeroporto 393
Incontro: Benvenuti a bordo! 395
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
I pronomi relativi 354 I negativi 399

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Fact or opinion? 357 Leggiamo italiano! Anticipating and
e parole L’Italia: Paese di grandi manager 358 hypothesizing 402
Scriviamo italiano! Curriculum vitae, Che bello andare in vacanza! 403
Business letters 360 Scriviamo italiano! Writing an e-mail 405
Come disse… Natalia Ginzburg 362 Come disse… Grazia Deledda 406
Musica, maestro! 362 Musica, maestro! 406
Ciak! Italia 362 Ciak! Italia 406

cont ents xv
Unità 10: Divertirsi: Usciamo stasera! Unità 11: LEGGERE: Recitiamo una poesia!
Unità • Campania: Napoli 409 449
• Toscana: Firenze

Communicative ■ Talking about hypothetical situations ■ Talking about the distant past
Goals ■Talking about what we wish would ■ Expressing opinions about literature
happen and writing
■ Modifying words ■ Indicating sequence of events
■ Talking about theater, cinema, and music ■ Reporting what others have said
■ Specifying how long something has been ■ Talking about mass media
going on

A ■ Gli spettacoli, il teatro e il cinema 410


Incontro: Che facciamo di bello stasera? 412
■ La letteratura 450
Incontro: Una relazione di letteratura 451
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il periodo ipotetico 415 Il passato remoto 454

B ■ La musica classica e l’opera lirica 418


Incontro: Andiamo al concerto! 420
■ La libreria 458
Incontro: Intervista 460
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
Il condizionale con il congiuntivo 423 I numeri ordinali 463

C ■ La musica leggera 425


Incontro: Radio Deejay 427
■ La stampa: giornali e riviste 466
Incontro: All’edicola 468
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
I suffissi 430 Che e quale 470

D ■ Il sabato sera 434


Incontro: Andiamo a ballare! 435
■ La televisione 472
Incontro: Una lite davanti alla TV 473
Punti grammaticali: Punti grammaticali:
La preposizione da 438 Il discorso indiretto 476

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! Looking forward and Leggiamo italiano! Figuring out unfamiliar
e parole thinking back 440 words 479
Per ridere un po’… L’Italia e la La letteratura italiana 480
commedia 441 L’Acca in fuga, Gianni Rodari 484
Scriviamo italiano! Expressing opinions 443 Scriviamo italiano! Creative writing 486
Come disse… Carlo Levi 445 Come disse… Dante Alighieri 487
Musica, maestro! 445 Musica, maestro! 487
Ciak! Italia 445 Ciak! Italia 487

xvi con ten ts


Unità 12: Sognare: immaginiamo il
Unità futuro! 491

Communicative ■ Discussing politics


Goals ■ Comparing cultures
■ Talking impersonally
■ Talking about Italy’s future

A ■ La politica 492
Incontro: Un discorso politico 494
Punti grammaticali:
La concordanza dei tempi 498

B ■ L’Italiano medio 500


Incontro: Due mondi a confronto 501
Punti grammaticali:
La forma passiva 505

C ■ L’Italo-americano 507
Incontro: Quanti stereotipi 508
Attività di ripasso 512

D ■ L’Italia in Europa 513


Incontro: Un brindisi al futuro! 515
Attività di ripasso 517

Immagini Leggiamo italiano! What’s in a title? 518


e parole L’Italia, Stato d’Europa 519
Scriviamo italiano! Organizing an essay 521
Come disse… 523
Ministero degli Affari Esteri 523
Altiero Spinelli ed Ernesto Rossi 523
Musica, maestro! 523
Ciak! Italia 523
Come disse… Lorenzo de’ Medici 524

Index A-1

EULA

c ont ent s xvii


A n O v e r v i e w o f Y o u r T e x t b o o k ’ s M a i n F e at u r e s

Parliamo italiano! Fifth Edition consists of a preliminary chapter and twelve units. Each
unit is organized by region and cultural theme and is divided into four sections.

u n i tÀ
AbitAre
3 Andiamo a casa mia!

Unit Opener
Each unit opens with
a map of Italy that
highlights the unit’s
regional focus. The
© Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis

opening photograph sets


the scene and introduces
cultural and thematic
information relevant to
the unit content.
▲ Un pranzo in famiglia

COMMUNICATIVE GOALS
▶▶Talking about the family
▶▶Asking questions
▶▶Describing people and things
▶▶Describing a home
▶▶Indicating people and things

▶▶Talking about the weather

▶▶Talkingabout what you have to do,


want to do, and can do
▶▶Running errands 105

Branciforte_c03_105-146hr.indd 105 06/10/15 3:34 pm


Communicative goals establish clear
learning objectives. Learning objectives provide a
framework for reporting and organizing students’
activities, including practice and assessment.

xviii
The WileyPLUS Learning Space next to each
section opener is a reminder to complete the online
Workbook and Listen & Speak activities. These La casa
activities help to reinforce section grammar points B
and vocabulary as well as provide periodic review B.1▶▶▶Si dice così

and recycling from previous units. CASA DOLCE CASA


1.
2.
3.
la scala
il divano
la poltrona
4. la lampada
11
5. la TV a schermo

Si dice così 10
12
14 6.
7.
piatto
il tavolo
il forno
8. la lavastoviglie
Each section begins with a thematic presentation 13
9.
10.
il frigo
il quadro

of vocabulary (often illustrated) followed by 5


1
11.
12.
la doccia
il WC
6 13. la lavatrice
directed, communicative activities (Attività) for 4 9
14. il lavandino

individual, pair, and group work. All vocabulary 2


3
8
7

illustrations have been rendered as clickable


interactive graphics (with audio) in WileyPLUS 3.9 Abbinamenti. Trovare nella colonna a destra la risposta per ogni
1. il giardino
2. l’orto

Learning Space. affermazione


3 a sinistra. 8
2 3. il terrazzo
4. il portone
6 5. il salotto, il
1. Amore mio, non posso vivere a. Si! Voglio dire, soggiorno
quasi sposata.
la sala da
senza di te!9 7
Si sposa fra un6. mese.
pranzo
B.2▶▶▶Incontro 5
7. il bagno
2. Invitiamo anche i bambini b. Anch’io ti voglio bene!
8. la cucina
A casa di Luca. Stefania e Luca visitano la mamma di Luca; sono nella casa di
campagna, fuori Palermo.
alla festa? 4 c. Oh no! Il diciassette
letto
porta sfortuna.
9. la camera da

3. Oggi è venerdì diciassette. d. Perché no? A giugno fa bel tempo.


1
stefania: Permesso! Buongiorno, signora Ianuzzi! 4. Ti piace l’idea di e. Senz’altro! I bambini portano
signora ianuzzi: Avanti, Stefania! Benvenuta!
luca: Ciao, mamma!
fare la festa all’aperto? allegria.
l’edificio building i mobili furniture useful
stefania: Che bella casa! È una villa stupenda! Che fresco°! Non è it’s so cool 5. Tua sorella è sposata?
il palazzo apartment building rustico rustic
utile
affittare to rent
per niente caldo come nel mio appartamento in città.
il piano floor elegante elegant traslocare to move
signora ianuzzi: Qui in campagna c’è sempre un po’ d’aria. Ma prego,
la stanza room comodo comfortable
accomodati°, Stefania! make yourself
stefania: Questo salotto è molto elegante.
comfortable 3.10 La festa di laurea. È il giorno dellaU nlaurea e fai
i t à 3 Abitare: unaa casa
Andiamo festa
mia! insieme
115 ad un tuo ▶

signora ianuzzi: A mio marito non piacciono i mobili moderni. I mobili amico/una tua amica. In coppia, organizzate la vostra festa. Bisogna decidere…
di questa stanza sono di famiglia.Vedi quel quadro? È del
nonno di Luca. Ti piace? — la data della festa
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 115 6/18/15 10:30 AM

3.8 Che bella festa Guardare l’invito alla festa del diciottesimo compleanno
stefania: Oh, è meraviglioso!
luca: Mamma, ho una bella notizia° per te.
news
di Stefania e poi rispondere alle seguenti domandedoesn’tcon
stefania:
una frase completa.
Ma come? Tua madre non sa ancora niente°?
Incontro
— dove e quando (a che ora) fare la festa
— chi invitare alla festa di laurea
know

Incontro
anything yet
signora ianuzzi: Quale notizia, ragazzi? È una buona notizia, vero?
1. Quando è la festa del diciottesimo di Stefania? The— che cosa voleteprovides a lively, realistic context in
come regali (gifts)
2. A che ora comincia la festa? which the unit’s vocabulary, language structures,
AttivitÀ
3. Come si chiama il locale (place) dove Stefania fa la festa? 3.11 Porta fortunaare o porta sfortuna? For Con interest
un compagno/una
3.20 Ascoltiamo!
C.2le4. Incontro
▶▶▶Che Andare su WileyPLUS Learning Space e ascoltare attentamente
tipo di locale è? and culture introduced. and compagna,
frasi che riguardano l’Incontro. Scegliere la risposta che completa decidere quali dei seguenti simboli o azioni portano fortuna e quali portano
5. Qual laè frase.
correttamente l’indirizzo (address) del locale?
Il ponte°. Marco scrive un messaggio di posta elettronica al suo amico Luca per long weekend diversity, the Incontro
sfortuna in Italia e perché. may take the form of
6. dove
Che tipo di festadi è?
decidere
1. A
passare il ponte
B
Pasqua.
an1.interview, diary entry,
Il numero tredici a tavola. e-mail exchange, or
2. A B
A:
Da:3.
Luca <liannuzzi@wind.it.net>
Marco <marco72@tiscalinet.it>
A B
Data invio: lunedì 7 aprile 2016 18.32 conversation.
2. Sposarsi sotto laThe first Incontro shown here is a
pioggia.
Oggetto:
4. APonte di Pasqua
B 3. Il colore viola a teatro.
5. Luca!A
Ciao, B lively conversation. The next Incontro is an
4. Il numero 17.
6. A B Alessandra ed io vogliamo andare dove fa più fresco. Mio zio ha una
Qui a Siracusa fa un caldo bestiale.
casa sull’Etna, ma ad Ale non piace l’idea del vulcano. I suoi hanno un piccolo appartamento alle Isole e-mail exchange
5. Toccare between
ferro (to touch iron). two friends. All
3.21Lipari conhai
quattro posti letto, così potete venire anche tu domande
e Stefania. Dal
conterrazzo dell’appartamento c’è un
Cosa capito? Rispondere alle seguenti una frase
bel panorama. Volendo, possiamo andare tutti i giorni al mare. Lo so, preferisci la montagna, però per una
completa. Incontro
6. Un gattoconversations
nero che attraversa laare recorded
strada.
volta… Allora, cosa dici? Venite con noi? 7. Far cadere sale o vino sulla tavola.
1. Dov’è la casa della famiglia di Luca?
Marco
2. Cosa dice Stefania quando entra? Come risponde la madre?
and are highlighted with
8. Incontrare un gobbo (hunchback). audio icons.
3. Com’è il salotto della casa?
4. Che cosa non piace al padre di Luca? 9. Lasciare un cappello (hat) o soldi (money) sul letto.
A:
5. Di chi è il quadro?
Marco <marco72@tiscalinet.it> 10. Mangiare le lenticchie (lentils) a Capodanno (New Year’s).
Da: Luca <liannuzzi@wind.it.net>
Data invio: lunedì 7 aprile 2016 21.20
Oggetto: Ponte di Pasqua
118 Un it à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!

Caro Marco,
Non lo so… Abbiamo molte cose da fare — Lo sai, a giugno andiamo in Spagna, a Barcellona, e non
siamo pronti. Beh, possiamo andare a Cefalù. Non è troppo lontana e poi conosco un piccolo albergo
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 118
vicino al Duomo. Aspetto una tua risposta.
6/18/15 10:30 AM
Lo sapevi che…?
Luca
Italy has the lowest birthrate in the world, averaging less than one child per
family. And although it still has one of the lowest divorce rates in Europe (about
Mar Tirreno
Lipari 15%), divorce is on the rise. Yet the family continues to be very important, and
Vulcano
Lo sapevi che…? Milazzo
the extended family constitutes an essential support network. Often families
Messina
work together in business and grandparents furnish childcare.
CulturalEricenotesPalermo
that supply
Cefalù up-to-date and relevant
information about the language, Taormina history, traditions, and
Mt. Etna
customs of Italy appear randomly throughout the unit and
SICILIA
Selinunte Catania
are linked to the unit’s theme or geographical Mar
Ionio
focus.
◀ Puoi trovare i luoghi
(places) nominati
nell’Incontro:
Mar di Sicilia
Agrigento Siracusa, Cefalù, Etna,
le Isole Lipari? Quali
In altre parole Uni t à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia! 111
Siracusa
In altre parole
sono le più grandi
città della Sicilia?
Cos’è l’Etna? Come
Frequently used idiomatic expressions are featured in
ti voglio bene
Mar Mediterraneo
I love you
si chiamano i mari
che circondano la these boxes that give a window onto Italian culture.
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 111 6/18/15 10:30 AM
voglio dire… I mean . . . Sicilia?
Taken from the Incontro sections, the expressions
perché no? why not?
126 Un i t à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!
porta sfortuna / fortuna it’s bad luck / good luck
presented make language contemporary, colorful,
senz’altro of course, without a doubt lively, and natural. Links to audio pronunciation are
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 126 6/18/15 10:31 AM embedded throughout.

An Ov e rv i e w of Yo u r Te xt b o o k’ s M a i n Fe a t u res xix
110 Unità 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!

Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 110 6/18/15 10:30 AM


Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane
U n a f in e st ra sU ll’ ita li a
UNA FINESTRA SULL’ITALIA
This new feature is an opportunity to further
Il dialetto sardo è una lingua diversa dall’italiano e ha un suono
distinto. Andare in Internet per sentire alcune canzoni popolari: Non explore Italian culture on your own, with prompts
potho reposare, una romanza d’amore, e Nanneddu meu, una poesia to search for websites that will bring the sights
musicata. Le launeddas sono uno strumento con un suono particolare: and sounds of Italy’s regions and traditions
che cosa ricorda? Il canto a tenore è una tradizione sarda, classificata
dall’UNESCO come Patrimonio intangibile dell’Umanità. Ascoltare to life. In this way, your computer screen truly
anche Mialinu Pira del gruppo Tenores di Bitti. becomes a dynamic window onto the authentic
world of Italian culture. Embedded discussion
380 Unità 9 ▶ Viaggiare: Andiamo in vacanza! questions are available in WileyPLUS Learning
Space to support this feature.
Punti grammaticali
Explained clearly and concisely in English, grammar
Branciforte_c09_365-408hr.indd 380 A.3▶▶▶Punti grammaticali
04/10/15 1:20 am
points have been streamlined to enable you to focus on Le parole interrogative
essential structures and avoid feeling overwhelmed by Chi viene alla festa?
Dov’è la festa e
Who is coming to the party?
Where is the party and
unnecessary information. All explanations are accompanied quante persone vengono?
Perché non invitano i loro cugini?
how many people are coming?
Why aren’t they inviting their cousins?

by examples of practical use in natural Italian, and by a Quando partite?


Che cosa regali al festeggiato?
When are you leaving?
What are you giving to the birthday boy?

variety of activities that progress from simple to more 1. Italian, like English, has three categories of interrogative words:

open-ended communicative practice, including some realia-


3.29 Quale preferisci? Due amiche sono in un negozio di mobili. Completare
pronouns adjectives adverbs

and illustration-based activities


donatella:
as well as pair and group
la loro conversazione con una forma di questo o quello.
Ti piace _______________ negozio?
chi
che cosa /
who, whom
what
che
quale
which
which
come
dove
how
where
che / cosa quanto how much, perché why
activities (indicated by icons).
valeria:
donatella:
The e-text features embedded
No. _______________ mobili sono troppo rustici per me.
Mi piace _______________ tavolo là, però.
quale
quanto
which
how much,
how many quando when

autograded questions throughout


valeria:
donatella:
each activity section.
_______________ con il vaso di fiori?
Sì. Mi piacciono anche _______________ sedie là.
how many

valeria: No, no! _______________ sedie sono orrende! Invece, mi


piacciono _______________ scaffali: sono molto moderni. 2. The pronoun chi may be preceded by prepositions such as a, di, con, and per.
donatella: _______________ bianchi o _______________ neri? Con chi vai? With whom are you going?
valeria: _______________ bianchi. A te piacciono? A chi parli? To whom are you speaking?
donatella: Mah! Di chi è la bicicletta? Whose bicycle is it?

3.30 Al negozio di antiquariato. (At the 3. Used interrogatively, che cosa, cosa and che mean the same thing and may be
antique store.) Siete il propr ietar io used interchangeably. There is a nuance of meaning in the use of che, which is
(owner ) e un/una cliente di un negozio brusque, curt or emphatic in tone.
di antiquariato. Guardando il disegno,

}
Che cosa leggi?
creare una conversazione tra proprietario
e cliente in cui il/la cliente cerca un
Cosa leggi? What are you reading?
orologio, una sedia, un quadro e un altro Che leggi?
oggetto per un amico.
4. Quale has two forms: quale for singular and quali for plural.
Esempio: — Le piace questo tavolo?
— Preferisco quello. Quanto Quale libro leggi? Which book are you reading?
costa quella lampada? Quali amici inviti? Which friends are you inviting?
— Quella costa… Qual è la tua bicicletta? Which one is your bicycle?
Note that when the pronoun quale comes before the verb form è, it is shortened
to qual. The final vowels of cosa, come, and dove are often elided before the
verb form è: cos’è? com’è? dov’è?

Lo sapevi che…?
The history of Sicily, the largest island
Kevin Galvin/age fotostock/Getty Images

in the Mediterranean, is an endless


series of invasions. Once part of Magna
Graecia (Greater Greece), Sicily was
immAgini e pArole
later ruled by the Phoenicians, Romans,
Immagini e parole
112 Unit à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!
Saracens (Arabs), Normans (French),
the Anjou king of Naples, the House
of Aragon (Spanish), and the Bourbon
kings of Naples. Today it enjoys
great autonomy, with its own regional
This end-of-unit section in a magazine format focuses
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 112 6/18/15 10:30 AM

▶ Leggiamo italiano! Using clues to guess content Parliament in Palermo.


▲ Rovine del tempio di Selinunte
on reading and writing skills as well as on expanding
▶ Come si vive in Italia For additional practice (Activities

▶ Scriviamo italiano! Using lists to write compositions


Manual, self-tests, and test bank),
and for access to the video and
your cultural knowledge. It includes a capstone
reading passage related to the theme of the unit,
Ciak! Italia video Un
activities,
i tà 3 go
▶ to
Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia! 123
▶ Come disse... Carlo Collodi WileyPLUS Learning Space.
▶ Musica, maestro! “Casa dei matti”, Sergio Endrigo
▶ Ciak! Italia Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 123 6/18/15 10:30 AM
reading and writing strategies, an excerpt of Italian
literature, and one or more songs linked to the unit
theme.
Leggiamo italiano!
Using clues to guess content
When you approach a text, look at the layout. What sort of document are you
dealing with? What information do you expect to find? Are there useful visual
aids such as photos, headings, highlighted words, abbreviations, or numbers
that lead you to this information? Try to anticipate the content of the text by
paying close attention to these features.

AttivitÀ Di pre-LetturA
3.61 Vediamo… Look at the text below. What kind of document is it? What
types of information would you expect it to contain? Where would you look
for information about the number of rooms, location, and cost?

3.62 Parole analoghe. Skim the text to get a general idea of the offerings.
Using cognates and context, identify the meaning of the following words.
abitabile livelli spaziosa panoramico riservate

xx A n O ver vi e w of Y o ur Te x t b o ok ’s 139
Un i t à 3 Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!
M a i n Fe a t u res

Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 139 6/18/15 10:31 AM


immAgini e pArole

▶ Leggiamo italiano! Using clues to guess content


▶ Come si vive in Italia For additional practice (Activities
Manual, self-tests, and test bank),
▶ Scriviamo italiano! Using lists to write compositions and for access to the video and
Ciak! Italia video activities, go to
▶ Come disse... Carlo Collodi WileyPLUS Learning Space.
▶ Musica, maestro! “Casa dei matti”, Sergio Endrigo
▶ Ciak! Italia

Leggiamo italiano! Leggiamo italiano!


UsingComprensione.
3.66
This section helps you to tackle readings in a new clues to guess Rispondere
When1.you Perché
approach
content alle seguenti domande con frasi complete.
gli Italiani
a text,amano
look atlathe
casa? CosaWhat
layout. significa
sortper loro?
of document are you
language by suggesting strategies to help orient you dealing2.with?
aids such
DoveWhat
3. Come
vive lainformation
si chiama
as photos,
gente per lodopiù?
una vecchia
headings,
you expect to find? Are there useful visual
casa modernizzata?
highlighted words, abbreviations, or numbers

to a text and its content. Related activities support


4. Dove
that lead you tosono
this leinformation?
ville o villette
Trye cosa offrono? the content of the text by
to anticipate
paying5.close
La periferia
attentionè to una zonafeatures.
these dove la gente vuole vivere? Perché?

your efforts to develop your reading skills. 3.67 Che cosa significa per te la casa? Trovare nella lista tre parole che tu
associ alla parola casa. Poi spiegare ad un compagno/una compagna il perché
AttivitÀdelle
Di proprie associazioni.
pre-LetturA
Esempio: Per me la casa significa… perché…
3.61 Vediamo… Look at the text below. What kind of document is it? What
typesgiardino
of information wouldlontano tranquillità
you expect it to quattroyou
contain? Where would mura
look
radici (roots) about the
for information problemi
number of rooms, famiglia memorie
location, and cost?
tradizione sacrifici periferia vacanza
amore
3.62 Parole analoghe. Skim the text to get a general idea of the offerings.
Using cognates and context, identify the meaning of the following words.
Scriviamo
abitabile italiano!
livelli spaziosa panoramico riservate
Scriviamo italiano!
Using lists to write compositions
This section provides writing strategies that guide List writing is a good way to organize your thoughts and prepare for developing
short compositions. There are different kinds of lists: you may make a

you as you learn to express yourself in written Italian chronological list based on what comes first, second, third, etc.; or you may
brainstorm to jot down all the ideas that come to you and then sort them, such

in diverse contexts. Accompanying activities offer a


as a list of actions (verbs), a list of qualities (adjectives), a list of people or things.

Unità 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia! 139

wide range of writing practice supported by thematic AttivitÀ


vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 139
3.68 La mia famiglia. Seguire i suggerimenti per scrivere un tema.
6/18/15 10:31 AM

1. Fare un elenco (list) delle persone nella tua famiglia.


2. Accanto a ciascun (Next to each) nome, scrivere quanti anni ha e due
caratteristiche.
3. Poi scrivere un breve tema di introduzione alla tua famiglia.

3.69 La mia casa ideale. Seguire i suggerimenti per scrivere un tema.

Come disse… 1. Fare un elenco delle caratteristiche (aggettivi) della tua casa ideale. Dov’è?
2. Cosa c’è dentro? Elencare tutte le cose (nomi) e in quale stanza sono.
3. Poi scrivere una breve composizione sulla tua casa dei sogni (dream house)!

This section introduces you to great Italian writers


across the centuries, from Dante to Calvino. You Come disse...

might want to gather these passages into your own Carlo Collodi (1826–1890)
da Le avventure di142 Unità
Pinocchio: 3 ▶diAbitare:
Storia Andiamo a casa mia!
un burattino
literary diary that you can refer to now and then for pinocchio: E dove vai?

inspiration and further reflection. Consider these lucignolo: Vado ad abitare in un paese… che è il più bel paese di
questo mondo: una vera cuccagna°!
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 142 Land of Plenty 6/18/15 10:31 AM

twelve “gems” as a starter, to which you can add pinocchio:


lucignolo:
E come si chiama?
Si chiama il Paese dei Balocchi°. Perché non vieni anche Toyland
more authors and more selections as your journey tu?
pinocchio: Io? no davvero!
through authentic literary texts unfolds. lucignolo: Hai torto, Pinocchio. Credilo a me° che, se non vieni, te Believe me
ne pentirai°. you’ll be sorry

Musica, maestro!
Usando Internet, cercare “Casa dei matti” di Sergio Endrigo e
ascoltare la canzone più di una volta. Ci sono delle stanze o altre parti
Musica, maestro! della casa che riconosci? Ti piacerebbe abitare in quella casa? Cosa
vuol dire matti? © Atlantide Phototravel/Corbis

This feature introduces songs by notable Italian


singer-songwriters and composers. Listen in a
Ciak! Italia
relaxed atmosphere and be inspired to seek out ▲ I famosi pupi siciliani sono marionette (puppets) e fanno parte del Patrimonio mondiale
dell’UNESCO. Pinocchio incontra delle marionette al teatro di Mangiafuoco nel famoso libro di
other songs and music videos by the same artists, Collodi.
Now go to the Parliamo italiano! video and watch the episode for Unit 3 again.
both to enjoy the sound of the language and to Additional activities may be found in WileyPLUS Learning Space.

increase your awareness of Italian musical tastes


and traditions. Embedded discussion questions are
always available in WileyPLUS Learning Space to Uni t à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia! 143

support this feature.


Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 143 6/18/15 10:31 AM
© John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Ciak! Italia
Video-based activities are now found throughout
the unit, encouraging students to view the unit
▲ Qual è il mistero (mystery) della foto? Con un compagno/una compagna
episode more than once and thus maximize the fare due chiacchiere e riportare le vostre ipotesi (hypotheses) alla classe.

benefits of this important component. New pre-,


while- and post-viewing activities are found in
WileyPLUS Learning Space.

144 U ni t à 3 ▶ Abitare: Andiamo a casa mia!

An Ov e rv i e w of Yo u r Te xt b o o k’ s M a i n Fe a t u res xxi
Branciforte_c03_SE_105-146HR2_pv4.0.1.indd 144 6/18/15 10:31 AM
An easy way to
Parliamo Italiano, 5e

PARLIAMO ITALIANO!

85%
A COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

S U Z A N N E B R A N C I F O R T E • E LV I R A G . D I FA B I O

help your students


5TH EDITION

learn, collaborate,
and grow.

Diagnose Early Facilitate Engagement Measure Outcomes


Educators assess the real-time Educators can quickly organize With visual reports, it’s easy for both
proficiency of each student to inform learning activities, manage student educators and students to gauge
teaching decisions. Students always collaboration, and customize their problem areas and act on what’s
know what they need to work on. course. Students can collaborate most important.
and have meaningful discussions on
concepts they are learning.

Instructor Benefits Student Benefits


• Assign activities and add your own materials • Instantly know what you need to work on
• Guide students through what’s important in the • Create a personal study plan
interactive e-textbook by easily assigning specific • Assess progress along the way
content
• Participate in class discussions
• Set up and monitor collaborative learning groups
• Remember what you have learned because you have
• Assess learner engagement made deeper connections to the content
• Gain immediate insights to help inform teaching

www.wileypluslearningspace.com
u n i tÀ
Preliminare
P Per cominciare

lightpoet/Shutterstock
▲ Studying a map of Rome

Communicative Goals
▶▶Greeting people and saying good-bye
▶▶Introducing yourself

▶▶Asking people their names and where

they are from


▶▶Asking people how they are

▶▶Giving and asking for phone numbers

1
Le presentazioni
A

Informale Formale
— Ciao, mi chiamo Roberto. E tu, — Buongiorno, mi chiamo Antonio
   come ti chiami?    Martelli. E Lei, come si chiama?
— Mi chiamo Francesca. — Buongiorno. Mi chiamo Lidia Segre.
— Piacere! — Piacere!
— Piacere! — Molto lieta.

A.1 ▶ Si dice così


Ciao Hi, bye Come ti chiami? What is your name?
Salve Hello   (informal )
Buongiorno Good morning, good day Come si chiama? What is your name?
Buonasera Good evening   ( formal )
Buonanotte Good night ( for leave-taking) Mi chiamo… My name is . . .
(Tanto) Piacere (So) Nice to meet you E tu? And you? (informal )
Molto lieto/lieta Very pleased to meet you E Lei? And you? ( formal )
Scusa Excuse me (informal )
Scusi Excuse me ( formal )

Lo sapevi che…?
Italians commonly greet one another by shaking hands. When friends meet,
they often kiss each other on both cheeks. The word ciao means both hello and
good-bye. It comes from the Venetian dialect for schiavo, which literally means
slave or I am your servant.

2 Un ità Pr el i m i n ar e ▶ Per cominciare


U n a fin estra su ll’Itali a

Go to the Internet and look for Luciano Pavarotti’s rendition
of Buongiorno a te. How many times can you hear the word
‘buongiorno’?

Attività

P.1 Ciao! Come ti chiami? Introduce yourself in Italian to several classmates,


shaking hands as you do so. Follow the model.
Esempio: — Ciao! Mi chiamo (Antonella). E tu, come ti chiami?
— Mi chiamo (Paolo).
— Piacere!
— Piacere!

P.2 Buongiorno, professore/professoressa! With a partner, imagine you are


meeting your professor at the beginning of the academic year. Using the
pairs of names listed below, greet each other as in the example. Be sure to
use Lei (polite form) to address a professor and tu to address another student.
Esempio: — Salve, professoressa!
— Buongiorno! Come si chiama?
— Sono Renato Dini.
— Piacere.
— Molto lieto!
1. Professor Zeri / Paola Ristori 3. Professoressa Lustro /
2. Professoressa Barca / Nico Calvi
Antonio Reti 4. Professor Necco / Marta Abate

Lo sapevi che…?
Italians generally use the formal form Lei with everyone except family, close
friends, classmates, and children. The tu form denotes familiarity and can also be
used to express group solidarity, for example among people belonging to a club.
David R. Frazier Photolibrary, Inc./Alamy

◀ A conversation
per strada, Milan

U n i t à P re l i m i n a re ▶ Per cominciare 3
P.3 Persone famose. You are a famous political leader, actor, singer, etc.
Introduce yourself to classmates and meet as many other “famous” people as
you can! Be sure to use the formal Lei.
Esempio: — Buongiorno! Scusi, come si chiama Lei?
— Buongiorno, mi chiamo Bond, James Bond. E Lei?
— Mi chiamo Eve Moneypenny. Molto piacere, signor Bond.

P.4 C’è posta per te. You are the new mail carrier and are introducing yourself
to the tenants of a condominium complex.
Esempio: — Buongiorno, sono il nuovo postino. Mi chiamo… E Lei, signora?
— Salve. Mi chiamo Anna Selce. Molto lieta.
— Tanto piacere, signora!
1. Stefano Ardore 3. Sonia Tessi 5. Giuseppe Trota
2. Rita Pico 4. Marco Lotti 6. Angela Gatto

Nomi italiani.   Can you give the English equivalents of these Italian names?

maschili femminili

Alberto Enrico Luca Alessandra Elisabetta Luisa


Antonio Giorgio Marco Anna Giovanna Maria
Andrea Giacomo Matteo Caterina Giulia Patrizia
Carlo Giovanni Riccardo Cecilia Ilaria Susanna
Claudio Giuseppe Stefano Chiara Lucia Teresa

A.2 ▸ Di dove sei tu? Di dov’è Lei?

Informale Formale
— Ciao, mi chiamo Kristi. — Buongiorno, mi chiamo Paolo
— Ciao, sono Chiara. Scusa,    Ferrari. Come si chiama?
   Kristi, di dove sei? — Sono Chiara Rizzo. Scusi, di dov’è?
— Sono di Los Angeles. E tu, — Sono di Bologna. E Lei?
   di dove sei? — Sono di Palermo.
— Sono di Napoli.

4 Un ità Pr el i m i n ar e ▶ Per cominciare


A.3 ▸ Si dice così
Di dove sei (tu)? Where are you Sono di… I am from . . .
from? (informal ) Dov’è…? Where is . . .?
Di dov’è (Lei)? Where are you Ecco… Here is . . .
from? ( formal )
William Perugini/Shutterstock

◀ A relaxing moment,
Pisa

Attività

P.5 Di dove sei? Ask your classmates where they are from and tell them where
you are from.
Esempio: — Di dove sei, Kevin?
— Sono di San Francisco. E tu?
— Sono di Dublino.

P.6 Di dov’è Lei? At a conference, a number of people are becoming


­acquainted. With a partner, use polite forms and the cities listed below to
create four short exchanges.
Esempio: Catania / Bari
— Buongiorno! Di dov’è Lei?
— Sono di Catania. E Lei?
— Sono di Bari.
1. Roma / Parma 3. Pisa / Verona
2. Milano / Palermo 4. Napoli / Firenze

Lo sapevi che…?
Italian is spoken on five continents. It is an official language in Italy, Switzerland,
the Republic of San Marino, and the State of the Vatican, and there are
large Italian communities in Canada, the United States, Germany, Australia,
Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela.

U n i t à P re l i m i n a re ▶ Per cominciare 5
P.7 La presentazione. On a train in Italy,
you strike up a conversation with three
other young people. Find out their names
and where they are from. Use the model
dialogue and choose cities from the map.
Esempio: — Ciao, mi chiamo… E tu,
come ti chiami?
— Mi chiamo… Piacere!
— Di dove sei?
— Sono di… E tu?
— Io sono di…

P.8 La sfida (The challenge). With a partner,


take turns finding the cities listed below
on the map.
Esempio: — Dov’è Genova?
— Ecco Genova!
Napoli, Torino, Milano, Palermo,
Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Reggio Calabria,
Venezia

I saluti
B

Informale Formale
— Ciao, Stefano. Come stai? — Buongiorno, signora Paoli. Come sta?
— Benone! E tu? — Bene, grazie. E Lei, professoressa?
— Non c’è male, grazie. — Sto così così.
6 Un ità P r el i m i n ar e ▶ Per cominciare
B.1 ▸ Si dice così
Come stai? How are you? (informal) Non sto bene. I’m not well.
Come sta? How are you? ( formal) Non c’è male. Not too bad.
Come va? How’s it going? Bene, grazie, Fine, thank you, and you?
Sto… I’m . . . e tu?   (informal )
  bene   fine
Bene, grazie, Fine, thank you, and you?
  benone   terrific
e Lei?   ( formal)
  benissimo   very well
  molto bene   very well
  abbastanza bene   quite well
  così così   so-so
  male   badly

Attività

P.9 E tu, come stai? Ask a few classmates how they are, following the model.
Esempio: — Ciao, come stai?
— Sto bene. / Sto benissimo. / Sto così così. / Non sto bene…
E tu?
— Sto…, grazie!

Lo sapevi che…?
Italians tend to be quite formal and often use titles in addressing each other.
Here are some of the most common courtesy and professional titles and their
abbreviations.
signore (Sig.) Mr.
signora (Sig.ra) Mrs.
signorina (Sig.na) Miss
avvocato (Avv.) lawyer
ingegnere (Ing.) engineer
professore/professoressa (Prof./Prof.ssa) professor
dottore/dottoressa (Dott./Dott.ssa) doctor
architetto (Arch.) architect
Note that masculine titles ending in -ore drop the final e before a proper name:
signore: signor Bianchi; professore: professor Ricci. Feminine titles remain
unchanged. When people greet one another, they may use only a title:
— Buongiorno, Avvocato!
— Buongiorno a Lei, Ingegnere!

U n i t à P re l i m i n a re ▶ Per cominciare 7
P.10 Come sta? Using the following names, greet your partner and ask how
he/she is feeling. Be sure to use formal forms.
Esempio: Sig. Moretti / Prof.ssa Simonelli
— Buonasera, professoressa Simonelli. Come sta?
— Buonasera, signor Moretti. Sto molto bene. E Lei?
— Bene, grazie.
1. Dott. Rossi / Sig.ra Testi 4. Prof. Croce / Sig.na Carlini
2. Sig. Biagi / Dott. Bellini 5. Avv. Raimondi / Prof.ssa Carbone
3. Ing. Testori / Sig. Landolfi 6. Sig.ra Bertolini / Arch. Piano

P.11 Nel campus. Greet four different friends on the way to class and ask how
each of them is. Vary what you say, using the following expressions.
To greet: Ciao / Salve / Buongiorno
To ask how a person is: Come stai? / Come va?
To answer: Bene / Non c’è male / Così così / Benissimo, grazie, e tu?

B.2 ▸ Arrivederci

Informale Formale
— Ciao, Anna! — ArrivederLa, signore!
— A presto, Marco! — Arrivederci!
— Ci vediamo!

B.3 ▸ Si dice così


Ciao Bye (informal ) Alla prossima Until next time
Arrivederci Good-bye Ci vediamo See you
ArrivederLa Good-bye ( formal) Addio Farewell
A presto See you soon

8 Un ità P r el i m i n ar e ▶ Per cominciare


Attività

P.12 La festa è finita. Your party is over and it’s time to say good-bye to your
guests. With a partner, play the parts of host and guest, using the phrases
­provided.
Esempi: Marco / a presto
— Buonanotte, Marco, e grazie!
— Prego! A presto!
Sig.ra Rosi / arrivederLa
— Buonanotte, signora, e grazie!
— Grazie a Lei! ArrivederLa!
1. Dott.ssa Rossi / ArrivederLa
2. Laura / Ciao
3. Sonia / Ci vediamo
4. Lia / Arrivederci
5. Sig. Manin / A presto
6. Ing. Leoni / ArrivederLa

P.13 All’università. It’s the first day of classes and you and your partner meet
for the first time outside a classroom. Create a conversation in which you
• greet each other and introduce yourselves
• express pleasure at meeting each other
• ask how the other person is feeling
• say where you are from
• say good-bye

L’alfabeto
C
a a h acca q cu j i lunga
b bi i i r erre k cappa
c ci l elle s esse w doppia vu
d di m emme t ti x ics
e e n enne u u y i greca, ipsilon
f effe o o v vu
g gi p pi z zeta
The letters j, k, w, x, and y are not regularly used in Italian, although they have
become part of the alphabet with the influx of foreign words: jeep, jet, jogging; koala,
killer; western, windsurf; taxi, extra; yogurt, yacht.
U n i t à P re l i m i n a re ▶ Per cominciare 9
Lo sapevi che…?
Some abbreviations are read as words, such as FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana
Automobili Torino), DOC (Denominazione Origine Controllata), IVA (Imposta
Valore Aggiunto), ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale), RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana),
ACI (Automobile Club Italiano) and ONU (Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite).
©Bahnmueller/Age Fotostock America, Inc.

◀ A sunny day in the piazza,


Piazza Duomo, Siracusa
(Sicily)

Attività

P.14 Le sigle. State the following acronyms in Italian.


1. USB 3. CD 5. CGIL 7. DVD  9. ZTL
2. SMS 4. WWW 6. TV 8. BMW 10. OGM

P.15 Parole italiane. Go to the Italian-English glossary. Choose five new words
and spell them out in Italian to your partner, who will write them down and
then pronounce them. Then switch roles.
Esempio: — Elle, a, ti, ti, e
— Latte!   (Latte means milk.)

P.16 Come si scrive? (How do you spell that?) Take turns asking your partner’s name
and hometown and how each is spelled.
Esempio: — Come ti chiami?
— Mi chiamo Gina Smith.
— Come si scrive?
— Gi-i-enne-a Esse-emme-i-ti-acca.
— Di dove sei?
— Sono di Detroit.
— Come si scrive?
— Di-e…

10 Un ità Pr el i m i n ar e ▶ Per cominciare


P.17 Quale città? Choose a city from the map of Italy. Slowly spell its name
for your partner, who will try to guess the city after hearing as few letters as
possible.

Lo sapevi che…?
The Italian language borrows words from several other languages. From Latin, it
uses ultimatum, agenda, curriculum; from French, chef, chalet, élite, buffet; from
English, stress, leader, show, business, part-time, fitness, etc.

I numeri da 0 A 100
D
0 zero 14 quattordici  26 ventisei
1 uno 15 quindici  27 ventisette
2 due 16 sedici  28 ventotto
3 tre 17 diciassette  29 ventinove
4 quattro 18 diciotto  30 trenta
5 cinque 19 diciannove  40 quaranta
6 sei 20 venti  50 cinquanta
7 sette 21 ventuno  60 sessanta
8 otto 22 ventidue  70 settanta
9 nove 23 ventitré  80 ottanta
10 dieci 24 ventiquattro  90 novanta
11 undici 25 venticinque 100 cento
12 dodici
13 tredici

1. Numbers in Italian are written as a single word.

2. The numbers venti, trenta, quaranta, and so on drop the final vowel before
uno and otto, both of which begin with a vowel: ventuno, ventotto, etc.

3. In the numbers 23, 33, 43, and so on, tre is spelled with an accent: ventitré.

U n i t à P re l i m i n a re ▶ Per cominciare 11
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least


the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,


some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR


MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO


This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second


showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I


came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE


FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE


BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE


LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI


Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK


BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT


SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA


To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

You might also like