Mafioso speech style contrasts sharply with ordinary Sicilian speech

Evidence

“It is strange,” wrote Giuseppe Alongi in 1887, “that in that hot and colorful country where ordinary speech is so honey-sweet, hyperbolic, and picturesque, that of the mafioso is curt, restrained, and decisive” (quoted in Hess 1973: 52). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 930

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Gambetta’s core thesis that mafiosi signal authority through curt decisiveness — speech is part of the signaling repertoire the reader’s private-enforcement reading depends on.
• ADDENDUM: Ties into how authority is performed aurally, complementing the reader’s earlier work on soundscapes and silence as signaling.