A teeny tiny rabiés dictionary

rabiés is the language of my people. Although I grew up speaking mostly Italian at home, everyone around me spoke our dialect, and I ended up liking it a lot and wanting to speak and learn more of it :) It reminds me of home, of where I belong, and makes me feel part of a community.

In the fear that words and wisdom might get lost, I shall collect some here and update this list as I go

• colem: the moon makes the colem when it’s full (“la luna la fa el colem”). When cutting trees to burn the wood we need to do that after the colem, when the moon is decreasing, otherwise it won’t burn well.
• antana: when cutting the grass to feed cattle, one usually distributes freshly cut hay in long lines, where it dries and is subsequently collected, packed, and potentially stored for the winter feeding. An antana is one such line.
• bagigi: peanuts
• barbizoel: chin
• chjalcagn: heel