THE two dozen old men playing cards in the parish hall in Serafina Corrêa, a small town in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, seem unremarkable until you eavesdrop. They banter not in ...

Despite its relatively small land area, Italy houses a plethora of dialects, many of which are different enough from each other and from the official Italian language to be considered separate ...

As indicated by the hodgepodge of attempted dialects in “House of Gucci,” Nicolas Cage’s strangely nasal intonations in “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” and Chris Pratt’s misguided voiceover in “The ...

A road trip through Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state leads to German and Italian cuisine, dialects and a surprising number of music festivals. The author encountered accordion music and other ...