I am inaugurating the TRADITIONS theme with a column I care so much about, it is called Dicciusu e Frastimmusu🙂
It stems from the fact that since my childhood, as a native Sulcitan, I have always heard Sardinian spoken in my family.
Whenever there was some funny anecdote from the past to tell, some nervous situation or particular outspokenness, automatically we spoke in Sardinian. It rendered better. It still does to this day.
In fact, with a few words in Sardinian, one can express multiple nuances of a concept, often with an edgy meaning. Especially if you spice up the tale with idioms and some “phrasing.” Actually “is frastimmusu” were expletives usually addressed to Sa Giustizia or Su Boginu, rather than actual profanity.
Sardinian idioms and proverbs, a constant presence in my family, spring from lived experiences throughout the community, and are a reflection of folk wisdom. Dicciusu then are also ways of renaming someone, or a family. So much so that still in the island of Sant’Antioco, for example – but not only there, if you don’t know the nickname of who you are looking for rest assured, you won’t find it 😀 We will also see these nicknames that have always made me laugh so much! 😀
The first way of saying I chose is also one of the simplest, SALUDI E TRIGU! A phrase that if you sneezed my grandmother would say with an affectionate smile, “SALUDI E TRIGU,” but in the past had a more complex meaning. This is the so-called good wish of the farmer, an ancient wish that is widespread in the lower Campidano region which was used in hard times as people left the country in search of greater wealth. Health and grain then were the two most important things one could wish for: health to be able to reap and harvest grain capable of bringing sustenance to the worker.
There is also the ironic variant “Saludi e trigu, e tappu ‘e ortigu. Su tappu a nosu e is buttiglias buidas a bosatrus.” Tappu ‘e ortigu stands for wine, and thus means “Health and grain and wine. Wine to us and empty bottles to you.”
Do you guys know of other variations? I look forward to suggestions for sharing and preserving our idioms! 🙂
In the meantime, Saludi and Trigu! ❤️
