The Meaning of "Novecento" in Italian

"alan" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Jun 4, 11:51 pm, "alan" wrote:
......
Out of curiosity, Roland, I just now checked out Babelfish and novecento
was
translated to "nine hundred". Wonder how you got a different result?

|Good question! I just tried it again. It turned out that "Novecento"---
|with upper-case of N---is translated into "The 1900's", but the lower-
|case version ("novecento") is translated into "nine hundred".

|--Roland

Yes, I see --- interesting. I wonder how the Italians would express "the
900's"?
P.S. I guess the capitalization gives the clue that a preceding "mille" is
to be understood?

alan wrote:
"alan" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Jun 4, 11:51 pm, "alan" wrote:
......
Out of curiosity, Roland, I just now checked out Babelfish and novecento
was
translated to "nine hundred". Wonder how you got a different result?

Good question! I just tried it again. It turned out that "Novecento"---
with upper-case of N---is translated into "The 1900's", but the lower-
case version ("novecento") is translated into "nine hundred".

--Roland

Yes, I see --- interesting. I wonder how the Italians would express "the
900's"?
P.S. I guess the capitalization gives the clue that a preceding "mille" is
to be understood?

For goodness sake, how much longer is it going to take
before you guys accept the fact that the Italian expression
Novecento (literally "nine hundred") usually refers to 1900s?

Somewhat similarly, in English when I say I was born in
the fifties what period of time do you think I meant?
AD 50s or 1950s?

pjk

On 2009-06-05, Harlan Messinger wrote:

wrote:
Dear Everyone:

What is the original meaning of the word, "novecento", in Italian?

I know that "Novecento" is the original title of a 1976 film directed
by Bernardo Bertolucci, and in the English language, the film is known
as "1900".

My first guess of its original meaning was "new hundred", or "new
century", but The Babel Fish translates it into "The 1900's". Is the
word used only to refer to the 20th century?

Yes, that's a way they refer to the centuries from 1200 to 2000 in
Italian. Il cinquecento = the 16th century, etc.

AIUI, there's a slight difference in the precise meanings:

"il cinquecento" = 1500--1599
"16th century" = 1501--1600


--
I could show them the ansible, but it didn't make a very convincing
Alien Artifact, being so incomprehensible as to fit in with hoax as
well as with reality. (LeGuin 1969)

"qquito" == qquito writes:

qquito My first guess of its original meaning was "new hundred", or
qquito "new century", but The Babel Fish translates it into "The
qquito 1900's". Is the word used only to refer to the 20th century?

"New" is "nuovo", not "nove".

So, "new hundred" would be "nuovo cento", not "novecento".


--
Lee Sau Dan §õ¦u´° ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail:
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

alan wrote:

"grammatim" wrote in message
...
On Jun 4, 10:25 pm, Harlan Messinger
wrote:
wrote:
Dear Everyone:

What is the original meaning of the word, "novecento", in Italian?

I know that "Novecento" is the original title of a 1976 film directed
by Bernardo Bertolucci, and in the English language, the film is known
as "1900".

My first guess of its original meaning was "new hundred", or "new
century", but The Babel Fish translates it into "The 1900's". Is the
word used only to refer to the 20th century?

Yes, that's a way they refer to the centuries from 1200 to 2000 in
Italian. Il cinquecento = the 16th century, etc.

|:The cinquecento is the 1500s, ottocento = 1800s, etc. They match the
|:number to the hundreds-number, so novecento is the "900s," not "new
|:hundred."

If cinquecento = the 1500s, and ottocento = 1800s, then how are the 500s
and the 800s expressed?

Sesto secolo, nono secolo (a rare case in italian of the adjective
preceding the noun).
Starting in 501 and 801.

(Although you said that novecento is the 900s, I think you meant the
1900s, although to me it would seem that it actually should be the 900s.)

No.
_Novecento_ *is* 'nine hundred'. It *refers* to the 1900s. 'They match
the number to the hundreds-number', said Peter but was lost on the both
of you.

Wouldn't the 1500s be the "quindicicento" and the 1800s be the "diciotto"?

Sedicesimo secolo and diciannovesimo secolo.

The 'hundred' system only applies to a few centuries before the
speaker's own. In 2756 the 'three hundred' will refer to the 2300s, in
all probability.
--
António Marques

LEE Sau Dan wrote:
"qquito" == writes:

qquito My first guess of its original meaning was "new hundred", or
qquito "new century", but The Babel Fish translates it into "The
qquito 1900's". Is the word used only to refer to the 20th century?

"New" is "nuovo", not "nove".

So, "new hundred" would be "nuovo cento", not "novecento".

Not necessarily. There are languages in which compounds evolve
differently from their isolated elements, you know.
--
António Marques

"alan" wrote in message
...

Wouldn't the 1500s be the "quindicicento" and the 1800s be the "diciotto"?

Italian doesn't count hundreds above ten in dates as we do. 1215 is
"milleduecentoquindici", 1805 "milleottocentocinque" and so on. In naming
the centuries, Italians just drop the "mille". So, where we say "the
nineteen hundreds", they say "il novecento".

Incidentally, using the alternative "secolo" nomenclature, one of the
strange newspaper names in which Italy abounds is "Il Secolo XIX". Probably
conatins rather old news. :-)

Alan Harrison

"alan" wrote in message
...

Yes, I see --- interesting. I wonder how the Italians would express "the
900's"?

"Il decimo secolo", although, as pointed out, the punctilious would place
the year 900 itself in the previous century.

Alan Harrison

Adam Funk wrote:
On 2009-06-05, Harlan Messinger wrote:

wrote:
Dear Everyone:

What is the original meaning of the word, "novecento", in Italian?

I know that "Novecento" is the original title of a 1976 film directed
by Bernardo Bertolucci, and in the English language, the film is known
as "1900".

My first guess of its original meaning was "new hundred", or "new
century", but The Babel Fish translates it into "The 1900's". Is the
word used only to refer to the 20th century?
Yes, that's a way they refer to the centuries from 1200 to 2000 in
Italian. Il cinquecento = the 16th century, etc.

AIUI, there's a slight difference in the precise meanings:

"il cinquecento" = 1500--1599
"16th century" = 1501--1600

As we learned when 2000 rolled around, many English-speaking people
think that the 20th century was 1900-1999. So for their Italian
counterparts it's all the same.

On 5 June, 07:13, "PaulJK" wrote:

For goodness sake, how much longer is it going to take
before you guys accept the fact that the Italian expression
Novecento (literally "nine hundred") usually refers to 1900s?

Somewhat similarly, in English when I say I was born in
the fifties what period of time do you think I meant?
AD 50s or 1950s?

pjk- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Exactly. The sense flows from the context. I have sat in history
lectures in Italy where 'il seicento' meant the seventh century,
unambiguously because it was a lecture on early medieval history.
Similarly when the topic is Florentine art of the renaissance (as it
so often is) Quattrocento can be used instead of a fuller-form Mille
quattrocento for the fifteenth century. I have occasionally heard the
fuller form, by the way, so it's not entirely notional.