Three is 'a jatta, the she-cat. The initial j is standard Neapolitan where Italian writes ga: jatta for gatta, jenne for gente. Sicily agrees here and writes u attu, so the cat sits on 3 on both boards.
What makes 3 worth a second look is what happens when you consult the larger smorfia dictionary rather than the board. A cat is 3. A white cat is 31, a black cat 17, a grey one 4, a red one 81. A cat that has just given birth is 8, a sick cat 48, an angry cat 47. The board gives you one figure per number; the dictionary gives you a grammar.
- 3
- 'A jatta
- the cat
- Row 1–10 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
No source explains the pairing. It is one of the many squares where the figure is simply recorded and passed on.
Other things filed on 3
In Neapolitan life
The cat cluster is the clearest demonstration of how the system actually worked. A dreamer did not look up 'cat' and stop; they looked up the exact cat, and the adjective moved the number. That is why printed smorfie ran to hundreds of pages while the tombola board never needed more than ninety pictures.
3 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Neapolitan turns the Italian ga- opening into ja-. It is a regular sound change in the dialect, not a spelling mistake.
In the dictionary, yes. White is 31, black 17, grey 4, red 81. On the tombola board there is only one cat and it lives at 3.