Mr. Kontilai, a native of Des Plaines, Ill., a Chicago suburb, was born Michael Contile to Italian immigrants, but changed his name in 1998, he said, so that phonetically, it would mimic the Italian pronunciation.
The only way an English speaker can mimic the flow of the Italian language is to slur words together lazily: "on the" would become "ontha".
Bull's less wordy version is smoother English and also better mimics the punch of Machiavelli's Italian: "So, as a prince is forced to know how to act like a beast, he must learn from the fox and the lion; because the lion is defenceless against traps and a fox is defenceless against wolves").
She polished off her beer, jogged up to the stage and began what was, by a wide measure, the most amazing song I heard in my Portland karaoke odyssey: "Prisencolinensinainciusol," a 1972 epic written in gibberish by the Italian performer Adriano Celentano, supposedly to mimic how English sounds to the Italian ear.
After the video was aired by state-run media and condemned as subversive, the Russian Internet was flooded with amateur clips supporting and mimicking the student video, a parody of the 2002 clip "Satisfaction" by the Italian d.j.j
Gil Robles' CEDA continued to mimic the German Nazi Party, staging a rally in March 1934, to shouts of "Jefe" ("Chief", after the Italian "Duce" used in support of Mussolini).
The Italian tragedy continues.
The Italian writer Elena Ferrante.
Certainly… The Italian Election.
