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I heard Montreal has the best little Italy in North America, where people actually speak Italian! Maybe it's because French and Italian are both latin languages so retention is easier? Or maybe cause bilingualism is more of a thing than here in New York?
Tell me about Montreals little Italy, and italian culture in Montreal? I wanna visit
It is possible however, on all parts of this forum only English is allowed, even in the title of your thread.
If you want to visit then you can find out about this area when you get there.
Mere words are nothing like actually being somewhere and having the experience in the flesh.
I heard Montreal has the best little Italy in North America, where people actually speak Italian! Maybe it's because French and Italian are both latin languages so retention is easier? Or maybe cause bilingualism is more of a thing than here in New York?
Tell me about Montreal's Little Italy, and Italian culture in Montreal? I wanna visit
The Italian community in Montreal is newer than in New York. Many of it's inhabitants are the result of Italian migration that occurred after World War II rather than before World War II. You are a bit more likely to hear Italian from someone's grandma in Montreal than you are from Italians in the northeast. As a big fan of Italian food I found Italian food in Montreal surprisingly disappointing. Montreal's Little Italy is rather underwhelming and not comparable to New York in size or influence. Unless you are notified otherwise, you could quite easily walk through the middle of Montreal's Little Italy without realizing that you are in it. Most speak English and identify as anglophones at this point.
Oh I see. Actually NYC received post war immigrants from the south of Italy including my grandparents. There are no real little italies anymore (manhattans little Italy is a tourist trap and is half a city block and Bronx little Italy is more like little Yugoslavia nowadays lol) but italian Americans are spread out. I find that BK/SI and NJ Italians seem to be of newer descent where Bronx and queens and Long Island Italians are 4th generation already. My parents didn't pass the language on to me but I am going go start taking italian lessons and I am thinking of switching to a church that does italian language mass services. Italian Americans are everywhere in NYC and if you meet a native New Yorker who is white and swarthy chances are they are italian. I swear everyone I know growing up was italian, irish, Jewish or Greek.
I am very interested in Montreal, and our of curiosity I checked rents and it is sooo cheap!
I heard quite a few people, mostly older folks speaking Italian in areas of Mtl like St Michel and parts of Ahuntsic. Another area with a lot of Italians is St Leonard. If you want to get to know the Italian community in Mtl those areas would probably be better than little Italy.
The Italian community in Montreal is newer than in New York. Many of it's inhabitants are the result of Italian migration that occurred after World War II rather than before World War II. You are a bit more likely to hear Italian from someone's grandma in Montreal than you are from Italians in the northeast. As a big fan of Italian food I found Italian food in Montreal surprisingly disappointing. Montreal's Little Italy is rather underwhelming and not comparable to New York in size or influence. Unless you are notified otherwise, you could quite easily walk through the middle of Montreal's Little Italy without realizing that you are in it. Most speak English and identify as anglophones at this point.
That's not quite true. While Montreal's Italian community has been a huge influence on the city's Anglos, even impacting the local accent in many ways, and many are Anglo, Italian Montrealers have always been something of a middle ground community, between Anglophones and Francophones. A great many are fluently trilingual, and when you hear two people on a bus in Montreal having a rapid fire conversation that constantly shifts between English and French, chances are high that they may be Italians. Italians have always been more likely to be tapped into the Francophone aspects of the city then straight up Anglos, and some are more integrated with that linguistic community, especially in the East end or the off island suburbs. Little Italy itself is a bit of a mix, and is not as homogenously Italian as it once was. The true centre of gravity for Italian Montreal is St. Leonard, and has been for a very long time.
That's not quite true. While Montreal's Italian community has been a huge influence on the city's Anglos, even impacting the local accent in many ways, and many are Anglo, Italian Montrealers have always been something of a middle ground community, between Anglophones and Francophones. A great many are fluently trilingual, and when you hear two people on a bus in Montreal having a rapid fire conversation that constantly shifts between English and French, chances are high that they may be Italians. Italians have always been more likely to be tapped into the Francophone aspects of the city then straight up Anglos, and some are more integrated with that linguistic community, especially in the East end or the off island suburbs. Little Italy itself is a bit of a mix, and is not as homogenously Italian as it once was. The true centre of gravity for Italian Montreal is St. Leonard, and has been for a very long time.
That's cool. My nonna would like Montreal then! She is from sicily but her and her 1 husband immigrated first to a fishing village in France when she was 20 (1945 after the armistice) called Menton so she speaks French, she came here alone at 25 in 1950 for a new life and met my nonno after her first husband passed. She still remembers how to speak French, I wish she would've taught me
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Montreal has pockets of communities that are primarily X or Y, where they are serviced in their language. For instance, many Italians, when they moved to Montreal ("back in the old days"), chose to live in what's now known as Little Italy. (They also chose Park Extension.) Because the vendors in that area were also Italian, there was no need to speak either French or English. Most of them learned to speak one or both, of course, but Italian is also often spoken when doing their daily business and among their neighbors. This is true, also, for other ethnicities and languages in other areas of Montreal.
So, yes, when walking around Little Italy, you will often still hear people talking to each other in Italian. It's lovely.
Take your nonna to La Cornetteria (Baking Montreal's Best Cornetti, Cronetto (Cronuts) and Cannoli) when you're here. And the other dozens of AMAZING pastry shops in the area. There's so much "crema chantilly" in the area that, just thinking of it, I'm starting to drool.
Montreal has pockets of communities that are primarily X or Y, where they are serviced in their language. For instance, many Italians, when they moved to Montreal ("back in the old days"), chose to live in what's now known as Little Italy. (They also chose Park Extension.) Because the vendors in that area were also Italian, there was no need to speak either French or English. Most of them learned to speak one or both, of course, but Italian is also often spoken when doing their daily business and among their neighbors. This is true, also, for other ethnicities and languages in other areas of Montreal.
So, yes, when walking around Little Italy, you will often still hear people talking to each other in Italian. It's lovely.
Take your nonna to La Cornetteria (Baking Montreal's Best Cornetti, Cronetto (Cronuts) and Cannoli) when you're here. And the other dozens of AMAZING pastry shops in the area. There's so much "crema chantilly" in the area that, just thinking of it, I'm starting to drool.
I love that! I'm an Italian food nut so now I have to try. It's funny how NYC and MTL seem similar..both based on island with little European ethnic areas. Unfortunately european languages aside from Russian most languages seem to be fading. Most Italians I know speak a little but not fluent because usually it was different churches that kept the ethnic groups languages, I remember there was 4 catholic churches right next to each other one irish, one italian, one German and one polish that would do mass in those languages but in the past 10 years a lot of those churches have been consolidated into one church.
Even the area that Italians in Montreal moved out of Little Italy to, looks a lot like Staten Island where I live and a lot of Italians from the city have moved too, at least house wise with the two families and big mini mansions and low density retail. I like it!
I really wanna visit!
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