Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Italian term or phrase:
I bogianen ch'a l'han prô bogià
English translation:
The reluctant movers who finally moved
Italian term
France
I "bagianell ch'a l'han piu bogin" dell'[firma] di Torino...
NB I may have mistranscribed the 64-year-old scrawl so it may not be 100% accurate, but if anyone can help I'd be very grateful. This is a personal article, presented to my father, rather than a professional job.
| 4 | The reluctant movers who finally moved |
Giles Watson
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May 23, 2014 13:08: texjax DDS PhD changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
May 23, 2014 15:29: luskie changed "Field (specific)" from "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters" to "Slang"
May 28, 2014 08:59: Giles Watson changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/1678192">Amanda Haste's</a> old entry - "I \"bagianell ch\'a l\'han piu bogin\" dell\'[firma] di Torino..."" to ""The reluctant movers who finally moved""
PRO (3): P.L.F. Persio, Francesca Casanova, texjax DDS PhD
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Proposed translations
The reluctant movers who finally moved
I bogianen ch'a l'han pro^ bugià
and translate into Italian:
i "bugianen" che si sono alla fine mossi.
NB Pro^ è un'espressione per rafforzare il concetto.
So the wordplay on the verb "bogè" was in fact the key to the message. My friend had to see the handwriting to decipher that "pro^", though!
| Thank you so much for working on this for me. I am constantly astounded at the generous cooperation in the translation world....though it's partly because we are so curious and passionate about solving language-related problems! |
Discussion
Bogianen can certainly mean conservative, cautious, and set-in-their-ways, but it means also steadfast, constant, loyal, reliable, a kind of "Keep calm and carry on" attitude, so unlikely that of their fellow Italians.
Is there any change of Amanda posting a scanned image somewhere?
I think Amanda's father could solve this "puzzle". Trying to read a scrawl is difficult but, I have to say, both versions have a certain ring to them.
The above Piedmontese proverb, quoted in Vittorio di Sant'Albino's 1859 Gran Dizionario Piemontese-Italiano, reminds us that "if you're OK where you are, don't move".
The key verb is "bogè" (cf. French "bouger", to move), hence "bogia nen", which is also apparently a nickname for the notoriously set-in-their-ways residents of Turin. A free translation of your phrase might be something like "the reluctant movers who did most moving" (the noun and the verb, which isn't negated, seem to be in the plural).
By the way, most of this comes from long phone call with a Turin-born friend, as well as the above Piedmontese dictionary. I claim no expertise and offer the information "as is"!
>a humorous reference to something along those lines?
Highly likely! This was presented to my father by his colleagues when he left the USIS (US Information Service) in the 1950s to go back to the USA. It was obviously a very warm working relationship.
I voted Pro, because you can't find those words in a dictionary. It could be useful to know a bit more about the context; however, bagianell is probably baggiani, which means dumb, simpleminded; bogin is probably bocin, which is a very small lead bullet.
Ch'a l'han pi means che non hanno più, who don't have anymore. Could this be about a group of soldiers who had run out of ammunitions, or a humorous reference to something along those lines?