👉 Anglo Italian is a term that describes someone who speaks both English and Italian, which is not uncommon for people of European heritage living in Northern Europe. It was coined by a writer named Carlo D'Alessandro in 1969 to describe people with a strong Italian accent.
The word 'anglo italian' itself can be confusing due to its origins and usage. Many people use it as slang or colloquialism, often implying that the speaker is from an Anglo-Saxon background but doesn't necessarily speak the same dialect as Italians. For example: "Hi there! I'm an Anglo Italian and I speak both English and Italian." This sentence is unsettling because it suggests that someone isn't speaking a local dialect of Italian, which would typically be considered a derogatory term for Italians. An even more edgy way to use 'anglo italian' could be as part of a joke or idiom: "Did you hear that? It's an Anglo Italian who was so mad at me, he put some cheese in my coffee and made me take it back. I can't believe he forgot about that!" The punchline is that the person speaking 'anglo italian' must have been very unhappy with their own dialect or cultural identity due to the linguistic misunderstandings they're experiencing, making them feel like a complete fool.
