when did the italians that immigrated to the us back in the day(1900-1940) stop speaking italian?(cont'd)?

Question

Theres hella italians in nyc and chicago but pretty much nobody speaks italian. the only ones that do just got into the country not too long ago and aren't really americans per say.

Answer 1

many of them NEVER spoke italian in their life. they spoke their local dialect that in some cases wasnt even intelligible to italian-speakers. this because the immigrants came from the poorest strata of the italian population, and thus were not educated. italian was for centuries the literary language while dialects were used for everyday purposes. in the xx century school and tv have changed this, but still nowadays some people in italy wont speak italian.
once an italian american that went back to italy to see the village of his grandparents told me that he was sure that he knew italian because he spoke it with his grandparents, but when he arrived at the airport in milan nobody could understand him. only when he reached the region of his grandparents people (mainly aged people) would get some of the words he spoke, and then the more he got close to the village the more people would understand him!!

Answer 2

My late father was the son of an Italian immigrant and a first-generation American-Italian; he had to re-learn Italian in his middle age, because, he told me at the time, NO ONE wanted to be heard speaking Italian when he was a child. It was the cool thing to do to only speak English; thus, he lost this beautiful language. I see the same thing today, BTW, with our Hispanic families. The kids do not want to be bilingual. So very sad.

Answer 3

Most immigrants back then wanted their children to be non-hyphenated Americans and so discouraged them from speaking anything but English. Some learned Italian (or whatever other language) to be able to speak to grandparents who spoke no English, but they saw that the road to acceptance and opportunity required English to be their main language. During World War II many people of German, Italian, and Japanese descent unfortunately felt ashamed of their heritage and abandoned those languages as a result.

Answer 4

Why are we so intolerant?
People that emigrated around the world those years had nothin' else to carry over except their luggage of traditions> Those same people (whoever is still alive) cannot understand the language back home because nobody speaks local dialects anymore...
Adjusting a new language is always difficult when you have no education: what would you do if you were one of them in the same situation?

Answer 5

Pretty much when they became second generation and were citizens of the USA.

Answer 6

ASPETA!!