Riocontra

Riocontra (Italian pronunciation: [rio'contra]) is a type of argot in the Italian language, featuring inversion of syllables in a word or metathesis, and is common in slang and youth language.

Background

The language developed in the 1970s in the neighborhood of Lambrate in Milan,[1] in social fabrics originally composed of small groups of young paninari[2] and made famous by Guido Nicheli and Diego Abatantuono, in the 1983 film Il ras del quartiere. We remember the intervention by some amateurs who appeared sometimes on television in the Portobello program, in which amateurs preferred to reverse the order of the individual sounds and not of the syllables (casa (house)> asac).

Formation rules of neologisms

In spite of insufficient education and non-standard use of the language, Riocontra speakers have produced a rich lexical repertoire. The passage from the official language to Riocontra occurs as mentioned mainly through the inversion of the syllables, but also with the change of the last vowel and truncation and elision in the last vowel of the neologism formed.

Examples

The table below summarizes and gives examples of this formation (the cell is left blank when the change does not apply to that term).

Initial term
phrase in jargon		 Syllable
Division		 Inversion truncation definite article Translation in Italian Translation in English
babbo ba-bbo boba/bobaz (slang suffix) il/i sfigato loser
bambino bambi-no nobambi kid
bella bel-la labbe ciao hi
bestia be-stia stiabe assai beast (means, a lot, very good,
depending of the situation)
capito capi-to tocapi understood
casa ca-sa saca home
cazzo ca-zzo zoca penis (Intensifier)
chesciato chescia-to tocchescia ricco rich (from chesciare (make cash), from cash + -are)
cilotto ci-lotto lotto cilum chillum
cinque cin-que quinci five
culo cu-lo locu ass
crasto cra-sto stocra figo cool
droga dro-ga gadro drug
fattone fa-tto-ne toffa / tofa drogato drug addict
figa fi-ga gafi vulva
figo fi-go gofi cool guy
frate fra-te tefra fratello brother
fumo fu-mo moffo hashish
gabbio ga-bbio bioga gabbia prison (from gabbia (cage))
gergo ger-go gorge slang
grammo gra-mmo mogra gram
grano gra-no nogra money
grasso gra-sso sogra sostanzioso substantial
schiaffo fo-schia foschia/fischia slap
aggiunta iunta-agg' iunta adding a dose to the drugs sold by the dealer
peso pe-so sope heavy (difficult situation)
piazza pia-zza zapia square (neighborhood)
pizza pi-zza zapi
scudo scu-do doscu 5 euros (etim. from Italian scudo)
tipa ti-pa pati girl
troia tro-ia iatro bitch
ladro la-dro drola thief
merda mer-da damer escrement
mezza zza-me zame half (50 euro)
palo lo-pa lopa pole (1000 euro)
madama ma-da-ma mamada polizia madame (police)
madre ma-dre drema mother
mezzo me-zzo zome mezzo di traporto means of transport / vehicle
padre pa-dre drepa father
pere pe-re repe seno breasts
pippare pippa-re repippa sniffare cocaina snorting cocaine (from pipa (pipe))
pula pu-la lapu polizia police (from the Milanese pulé or from pulotto)
pulito puli-to topuli clean
birra bi-rra rabi beer
sbatta sba-tta tasba impegnativo (from sbattimento) challenging
storia sto-ria riasto qualcosa history (something)
selvaggia sel-vaggia gioselva la/le ragazza prosperosa busty girl
sborra sbo-rra rasbo sperma sperm
schifosi schi-fo-se foschi filthy
lurido luri-do doluri Paninaro (sandwich maker) filthy (Food truck)
sgamo sga-mo mosga suss out
To find out something secret
strada stra-da dastra road (neighborhood)
sbirro sbi-rro rosbi policeman/cop
spaccino spa-cci-no cispa drug dealer
soldi sol-di disol money
suono suo-no nosuo money
lavoro lavo-ro rolavo work/job
treno tre-no notre train
zio zi-o ozi man/bro
cesso ce-sso soce toilet (ugly boy/girl)
scopare sco-pa-re rescopa to sweep (to fuck)
pezzo pe-zzo zope pezzo di hashish piece of hashish
prete pre-te tepre priest (guy with a clean record)
vecchio ve-cchio chiove il/la elder
vibrazione vibra-zio-ne vibranezio vibration
vino vi-no novi wine
a caso a ca-so a soca casualmente casually
alla grande alla-gran-de alla degra great
di brutto di-bru-tto di tobru tantissimo a lot
figa di legno fi-ga-di-le-gno gafi di gnole wooden pussy (chaste, restrained girl)
bella di brutto be-lla-di-bru-tto labe di tobru very beautiful
chili di grano chi-li-di-gra-no lochi di nogra kilos of money (a lot of money)
Dio cane dio-ca-ne dio neca dog god (blasphemous profanity)
schifo al cazzo schi-fo-al-ca-zzo foschi al zzoca it sucks
tocco di fumo to-cco-di-fu-mo cotto di moffo piece of hashish

The r move

The pronunciation of the letter "r" at the end of an inverted word risks merging with the next word or even not being pronounced, so it is placed between the two syllables once inverted to make the pronunciation more fluid.

  • Furto - toFu(r) - to(r)Fu............. Torfu
  • Carte - teCa(r) - te(r)Ca............... Terca
  • Morte - teMo(r) - te(r)Mo............... Termo

The exception is the word merda, which although it can become darme, becomes damer or rdame

Some syntactic gemination also happens:

  • chesciato → tochescia → tocchescia
  • Riccone → nericco → nerrico
  • tocco → ccoto → cotto

It should also be noted that, with the inversion, the plural is lost.

  • Babbi → (i) boba
  • Sbirri → (i) rosbi
  • Selvagge → (le) gioselva
  • Tipe → (le) pati
  • Chili → (i) lochi

Developments of the riocontra

The riocontra then gradually spread throughout Italy with the advent of trap music,[3] as the language of the youth groups. Taking up mechanisms similar to those of verlan, similar jargons have also been established in other Western countries. On the other hand, the trancorio[4][5] developed in the Mompiano district of Brescia. The Milanese rapper Nerone[6] is until now the only one to have experienced the possibility of writing a song almost entirely in Riocontra. The song is ironically titled La Miaccade Llade Scacru, or "La Accademia della Crusca" (Album: Max, 2017) or Foschi al zzoca (schifo al cazzo) (Album: DM EP, 2020). The Milanese rapper Lazza usually uses Riocontra in his productions as with the album Zzala. Quentin40 and Puritano's Thoiry piece is also of relevance for its jargon based on apocope or shortenings.

Note
  1. "Vuoi fottere il sistema? Stai calmo e usa il Riocontra". www.linkiesta.it. 14 October 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  2. "Libri, la lingua della mala milanese in un falso Einaudi". lettera43.it. 29 September 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  3. "Rappare "al contrario": le regole del riocontra". Billboard. 19 November 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  4. "Do you speak Trancorio?". Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  5. Il trancorio, storia di una lingua tutta bresciana
  6. "Nerone porta il "Riocontra" ad un altro livello". rapburger.com. 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Bibliography
  • Aldofre e Nigiova Di Nobru, "Il Riocontra illutostra" , Giulio è in Audi editore, 2017

See also
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