hi I was wondering if you knew about where these words are from?
que pa (literally said keh-pa) like what? what's happening? what's this?
and espeta (literally said eh-spet-ah) like slow down, stop that, stop and wait.
I don't know how they are properly spelled I've only ever heard them spoken
and every time I look them up I get Spanish? but it's just not exactly right, my Calabrese Nonno says them all the time lol.
They do sound very Spanish tbh from the way you spelled them so I'm not surprised you get that when you search for them.
"que" is a Spanish conjunction, in Italian we use "che" (pronounced the same way and generally meaning the same). I cannot connect "che pa" to anything in Italian, but it totally reminds me of the Spanish "que pasa?" = "what is going on?" abbreviated/slang (which I think I heard somewhere from natives tbh). And it could be this because Spain ruled for over 2 centuries (XVI-XVIII a.d.) on Calabria (X): this Region was part of the Viceregno of Neaples (we had Spanish dominations here and there in our history anyway... even in my hometown we still have a Spanish district as in Neaples).
Amic* calabresi, confermate questa influenza nel parlato o c'è altro?
This seems a little more Italian, but we say "aspetta" (2nd singular person, indicative present, from the verb "aspettare" = to wait. Literally: "(you) wait". I think you can look on forvo.com if you want to listen to Italian natives pronunciation). In Spanish it's "espera" ("esperar" = to wait) so it could be a mix of the two if you hear it the way you spelled it. It could be again calabrese language slang/speach (which Idk anything of) or at this point maybe... your Nonno had some connections with Spain/Spanish speaking people in particular during his life (interactions with natives -also South Americans-, lived in Spanish speaking countries...) Idk.
Hope this helps! Have a good day/night!
