"uccio' vs "uzzo" nickname extensions

[MarcuccioV]

I suppose "goomba" is an Anglicization of "cumpari".

I think, in the Godfather, Michael's future father-in-law introduces him to one of his "cumpari" in the scene where Michael first meets Appolonia at an outside family gathering.

Yes, goomb, goomba or goombo are simply corruptions of 'compare' (Sicilian cumpari). In our "parlata burina" dialect, the c sounded like a g and the r like a d. The o had a u-ish sound also, so that could also have been a holdover from the southern dialect...

We used the term for good family friends as well as Godfathers -- commare for Godmother. Never Padrino or Madrina.

[MarcuccioV]

I did a little research on the term "burina" (or burino for male) as in the 'parlata burina' that Pippo mentioned in a previous post. It has its roots in Rome (not surprisingly).

It refers mainly to "foreigners" (outsiders) who traveled to the Roman countryside to farm the land and brought with them dialects that were mostly unintelligible to the Roman natives. The native Romans looked upon them with disdain and thought of them as uneducated "country bumpkins" or "hicks".

I think migratory Sicilians (and other southerners) would fit into this category, whether deserved or not. Most of the genitori I found prior to my grandmother's generation were illiterate. Might explain a few things...