Italian food named after places end in -ese, French in -aisse. Is there an equivalent for English places, food or otherwise?

lanfranco

Not really. In fact, when we want to suggest that a food or method of preparation is native to a particular city or region (or person), we have a tendency to borrow the French "a la". Otherwise, we just couple the place name with the dish -- as in "Chicago hot dog." (Don't ask.) The Italians do use indications other than -ese. Something unique to or associated with Rome will be called "Romano," and to Florence "Fiorentino." Feb 03 07, 10:27 AM

gmackematix

Yet there are still 1.5 million Google hits for "Bolognaise". Feb 03 07, 1:55 PM

lanfranco

I don't doubt it, but that word is just the French version of the Italian "bolognese" for "of or in the manner of Bologna." It's not a peculiarly English way of referring to a dish. By the way, I've always thought it was interesting that that term seems to be used more often in the U.K. than here in the U.S., where "spaghetti bolognese" (or "spag bol") is more likely to be described simply as "spaghetti with meat sauce." How WOULD a native of, let us say, Birmingham in the U.K. describe a dish specifically associated with that city? Feb 03 07, 2:31 PM

Baloo55th

We in the UK just say things like Bakewell Tart, Bath Bun, Edinburgh rock and so on. English can use nouns as adjectives, which French and Italian can't. Feb 03 07, 4:42 PM

satguru

That was what I thought originally but wondered if there was a little used grammatical twist that may have fallen out of common usage, but I think the noun-as-adjective answer explains why we don't need a suffix. Feb 03 07, 5:44 PM