The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #70537   Message #2377780
Posted By: Azizi
30-Jun-08 - 05:46 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Chi-Baba Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chibaba, Chibaba, Chiwawa
I've never heard this song before, and don't know whether this information is relevant or not, but I'll share it in case it is:

Regarding the line "An' chi-lawa kook-a la goombah ( la goombah! )"

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goombah

"Goombah is a US slang term used to describe a stereotypical Italian-American. It stems originally from the pronunciation of the word «Cumpa'», which is dialect for the Italian word compare.

Goombah can also refer to:
Goomba, a fictional creature in the Mario Bros. video game series
Goomba (emulator), a Game Boy emulator named for the Mario creature
Goombah, alternative spelling of gumbe, a Jamaican drum. See List of Caribbean drums and Music of Jamaica"

-snip-

Apparently, "goomba" is an insulting referent for Italian Americans. See this entry from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=goomba

"Goomba: An Italian American, and only an Italian America, who has ties with the mafia or any goodfellas. He is in no way a gangster or a mobster himself. He sits down eating only pasta wearing vinyl suits and massive jewelry."...

-snip-

I also found information online about this book

A Goomba's Guide to Life
by Steven R. Schirripa (Author), Charles Fleming (Author)

There are a number of online reviews from readers about this book. Here's an excerpt from one of them:

..."Contrary to the image presented by Schirripa, the majority of Italian-Americans tend strongly to seek steady employment. We don't wear sweat suits all damn day long, we're not particularly inclined to sport gold chains and pinkie rings, and we don't hang out with mob thugs. Don't mistake Las Vegas and New York City for the real world, or confuse Brooklyn (much less the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn) with the honest-to-ghod America where most of us live and work and bring up our kids.

A lot of the "Goomba" language Schirripa spouts about is simply creolized elements of the dialects - principally Sicilian - of the impoverished southern Italian provinces ("il Mezzogiorno") from which most of our ancestors emigrated. When an Italian-American drops the final "o" from "prosciutto," for example, it's because that's a fairly common pronunciation characteristic among Sicilians. Think of it as the Italian equivalent of a Texas drawl. My mom - whose milk-tongue Italian was thoroughly Abruzzesi - used to tease my dad about his "baby talk" Sicilian dialect. Schirripa and his ghostwriter miss this - and a helluva lot else besides."
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1400046394/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1