Country United States County Middlesex Local time Wednesday 12:51 AM | State Massachusetts Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) | |
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Weather 4°C, Wind N at 8 km/h, 89% Humidity Restaurants Shaking Crab, Fiorella's, Tri‑City Wings & Grill, D & A House of Pizza, West Street Tavern & Restaurant | ||
Nonantum (from a Native American Algonquian word meaning "blessing or prayer") is one of the thirteen villages of Newton, Massachusetts, also known as Silver Lake or The Lake. The lake in question was filled with construction rubble and built over from the 1930s until its total demise in 1971. The neighborhood kids cleared the snow each winter and played hockey on it through the 1950s. The village is one of the centers of Italian population in Newton. The commercial area has numerous restaurants and food establishments featuring Italian cuisine.
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Map of Nonantum, Newton, MA, USA
Nonantum figures in early Massachusetts history as the home of Waban, one of the first Native Americans in Massachusetts to convert to Christianity. He had been taught by John Eliot.
Lake Talk
Lake Talk is a topolect or cant, spoken particularly among older Italian-American residents. The origins of Lake Talk are unclear. A 2001 article in the Boston Globe speculated that it is a blend of Italian and some World War II code, but others have seen similarities to Angloromani or Italian Romany slang. Many people in the village are descendants of natives of San Donato Val di Comino, Italy.
According to the article, examples of words and phrases in Lake Talk include:
Former Massachusetts State Auditor Joe DeNucci, a Nonantum native, told the Globe:
You talk the Lake language and only people from there can understand you. An awful lot of what it means is how you say it and how you use it. You improvise a lot, mixing it with carnival talk and bebop. "Mush is the earie." That means "The guy is listening."Lake talk is not confined to the neighborhood. Nonantum students have spread it to Newton North High School, which serves the area.