SharonNRayMc

Everyone has heard the addage that the Italians talk with their hands. I'm curious how many of these hand gestures we can come up with. Please describe the gesture and provide a definition. Sometimes learning a language goes beyond the verbal language.

Here is a start. I'm sure there are many, many more than this! http://babel.uoregon.edu/romance/rl4.../italgest.html

- Sharon

SeaUrchin

I love the "what can I do about it?" shrug.

You purse your lips, tilt your head to the left shoulder, raise your shoulders and for more emphasis you can hold out your hands palms up.

sandi_travelnut

I have one! My friend and I traveling in Italy in a rent car. We're on the autostrada and a young Italian man pulled up next to us and started making this hand motion like a wave..you know what I mean? After the hand motion, he pointed to the back of our car. It turned out that he was trying to tell us the trunk was open. Is that a well-known hand signal?

SeaUrchin

I just remembered "maybe, maybe not".

Put your right hand out, palm down, and tilt it back and forth, you can cock your head for better impact.

and

bring your fist into your chest, gently, means you feel very emotional.

ira

Pointing your index finger at a person's face is insulting.

Moving your hand in a forth and back motion is even more insulting.

Pointing your open hand with all fingers extended is extremely insulting.

Holding out your closed hand and opening your fingers one-by-one is fighting words.

gelato_lover

My husband and his family use a modified "OK" sign to say "perfect" either sarcastically or not. It's the "OK" sign (thumb and index form a circle, other 3 straight out) turned sidways - palm facing body, thumb on top - and pulled horizontally in front of your chest from left to right. I pretty much use it sarcastically when he leaves a mess somewhere in the house...

SeaUrchin

One more.....looking at someone move your chin up a little and raise your eyebrows a little, do it very fast and it means "do you wanna?"

Budman

"do you wanna?" Wanna what? Dance naked?

Mathieu

So thats what it means SeaUrchin !

Several women did this to me in Croatia recently and I wondered what the nervous eye-twitch was all about ....

sandi_travelnut

What about the quintessential one; allall fingertips, including thumb are "stuck" together, pointing skyward. Whenever my son see this, he says "mamma mia, my fingers are stuck together".

jfm

have a read of "culture shock: Italy - a guide to customs and etiquette". authors are raymond flower / alessandro falassi. they include a very accurate section of italian hand language with drawings / meanings.

i_am_kane

A flick of the fingers outward under the chin...but I don't dare translate the words on this forum.

P_M

I don't know if this applies to Italy or not, but I have heard that in some countries, the thumbs up sign that we use in the US is like extending the middle finger. Can anyone tell me where it the thumbs up is viewed as obscene?

sognatrice2

didn't have time to check the link today, but here are some more:

holding your hand out and up with the fingers open and bent as if to "screw in a lightbulb" and spiralling them rapidly means "are you crazy?"

holding the hand palm down horizontally in front of your mouth and biting the first finger means: If I catch you....!

a loosely closed fist with the pinky extended and jerked outward means "half"

I love the one where the hand makes a vertical pointing motion and goes up in a spiral to make a strong point.

If you're really sure of something, it's expressed by holding the right hand palm down, fingers tigether, and the left one points up into the palm with the index finger.

pulling down your lower eyelid slightly is "watch out!"

and of course the one where the man "touches himself", always the cause of much wonderment to me and my female friends. My (male) friend from Messina (who never uses this gesture, he assures me) says that, at least in Sicily, this has been used by men in the street for centuries as a symbolic way of warding off danger...

this is one of my favorite things about the Italian way of communicating. Not only is the language poetic and musical, but they also rely just as much on these nonverbal gestures, it always hypnotizes me to watch conversations!

SharonNRayMc

jfm - Thanks for the tip to check out the "Culture Shock - Italy" book.

Good responses one and all. I realized later after I posted this that many of the links from the link I posted don't actually work to show the videos. Oops!!!

I'm having a lot of fun reading these responses and learning a bit more about this special Italian "language".

-Sharon

TopMan

Staring directly at your breasts and pinching your butt at the same time...do I need to spell this one OUT for you?

sognatrice2

Topman,

What you describe hasn't got anything to do with specifically Italian nonverbal language.

I think what you're talking about is more like universally crude male behavior towards females, and isn't the information we're discussing here.

I think that's some other thread perhaps, on some other forum maybe.

LoveItaly

At least in the area of Veneto, putting your right index finger on the right side of your face, the cheek, sort of close to your mouth and turning your finger away from your face means that you think that the person who is annoying everyone is "crazy". Have seen this done at parties etc., does break the tension when someone is driving everyone elso "crazy"

Queenie

Sandi travelnut - that gesture of all fingers stuck together means there is no room, or the place is full.

But I like your sons definition better!

cmt

http://italian.about.com/library/han...turesindex.htm


http://forums.about.com/ab-italian/messages?msg=2981.1


http://forums.about.com/ab-italian/messages?msg=1121.1