Spot The Italian Accent Posted by Geoff on Feb 8, 2016 in Uncategorized
As a student of the Italian language, do you have trouble rolling your ‘r‘s? What about you aiuole and aerei … how are they?
Yes, Italian has a few tricky points of pronunciation, but things aren’t exactly easy for Italians when they try to speak English. In my experience of teaching conversational English to Italians there are several aspects of pronunciation that they find particularly challenging. When you understand how Italian pronunciation works it becomes obvious why it’s fairly easy to spot an Italian when they speak English.
Check out this hilarious (but rude – you have been warned!) video based on the problems encountered when an Italian mispronounces English.
https://youtu.be/ZSwCXQ2KqUk?list=PL91A1C1F36227D6F1
I like your ouse!
In Italian, ‘h’ is considered ‘invisibile’, ‘muta’, and ‘fantasma’. In short, the Italian ‘h’ is silent and mostly forgotten about except where it plays the role of modifier with the letters ‘c’ and ‘g’. In that role ‘h’ transforms sounds from dolce (soft, literally: sweet) to duro (hard), e.g.: marce/marche, magi/maghi.
That’s why when you invite your Italian friend out to the restaurant, she tells you that she’s very angry! Angry … why, how have I offended her? Then the penny drops … she’s not angry, but hungry!
Tights or Thighs?
The English ‘th’ is a curse for Italians. The problem is that there is no approximation of it in Italian, hence no clue as to what to do with one’s teeth, tongue and palate in order to pronounce it.
Not being able to perform the necessary tongue yoga to pronounce ‘th’ Italians typically use the following workarounds to the ‘th’ problem.
1. ‘f’, as in “I fink it will be sunny”
2. ‘d’, as in “dis is de station”
3. ‘z’, as in “zese are very nice shoes”
4. ‘t’, as in “my tights (thighs) are aching”
I don’t kenow!
Italian is one of the few languages in which every letter is pronounced. Therefore, Italian logic when encountering the way in which an English word is spelt is: “if it’s there it must have a purpose”. Having been educated in this way it’s almost impossible for Italians to let go of the need to pronounce every letter in every word, even if that letter is silent or toned down in English.
Hence the English word ‘know’, which us mother tongue English speakers understand to be pronounced ‘no’, becomes ‘kenow’ for an Italian, and walking becomes walkin-G.
I remember an Italian friend once telling me that he’d visited Laychetser in England, and it was only when he described this Laychester as a big city south of Nottingham that I realised he was referring to Leicester (pronounced ‘Lester’ in English).
Don’t roll you r’s!
It really seems a shame to waste that lovely rolling Italian ‘r’. But the English ‘r’ (setting aside some regional accents) is a fairly bland affair, and Italians have nearly as much difficulty flattening out their lovely ‘r’ as English speakers generally do in acquiring its wonderfully tongue vibrating Italian counterpart.
Not enough vowels!
Unlike English, very few Italian words end with a consonant. This is one of the qualities that we all love about the Italian language, a quality which renders it exceptionally musical. But that vocale finale (final vowel) can be an irritating habit to loose for an Italian who wants to sound English.
How’s your Italian pronunciation?
Are there any aspects of Italian pronunciation that you find particularly difficult, or perhaps there are words that you can never seem to get right no matter how hard you practice? Please share in the comments section.
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Comments:
Andrea:
I have been taking Italian classes for years but have not mastered the rolling “r”. What can I do to teach myself the technique for this?
Geoff:
@Andrea See my reply to Barbara above 🙂
Barbara Calderone:
Any tips on how to roll the “r”????????
Geoff:
@Barbara Calderone I’ll see what I can come up with Barbara.
Jane W:
Although I worked hard to achieve a passable degree of Italian whilst living in Naples for 3 years, and was easily able to distinguish Neapolitan dialect from standard Italian, one area I really struggled with was the pronunciation of separate vowel sounds for words beginning with combination vowels which in English are often pronounced together and can have a vowel sound all of their own. The one word that eluded me most was the simple pronunciation of the word “euro” which in English skips over the “e” and you simply sounds the u and ro as 2 syllables. Whereas in Italian you need to separate out the distinct sound of the “e” from the “u” and “ro.” My Italian Professoressa spent 3 years trying to knock this out of me…..but sadly she failed and I must have pronounced “euro”every conceivable way without getting it right once!! I did however reward her with an A* in my exams.
Serena:
@Jane W Salve Jane! Quando abitavo in Inghilterra, un mio studente, ovviamente inglese, che era appena tornato da una vacanza in Italia, mi disse: “Gli Italiani non sanno pronunciare la parola ‘euro’!” 😉
Saluti da Serena
Mark Webber:
I vocali radoppiati. ‘Aeronautica’e particolarmente difficile.
Geoff:
@Mark Webber Sì, hai ragione Mark, le doppie vocali sono piuttosto difficili.
Mi sa che è ora che scriviamo qualcosina su questo argomento, grazie.
Jade Etienne:
Ciao,
I am an Italian language student…
I can never figure out how to pronounce the ‘g’ in an Italian word.
Posso aiutarmi per favore?
Jade Etienne:
Puoi*
Giacomo Herbert:
Ciao Geoff/Serena!
My wife, Delfina, is far ahead of me in speaking Italian. Words I find especially difficult to pronounce are with multiple vowels. Aiuole, for example. Or aereo. Or even euro! However, I CAN pronounce lira! All the best,
Giacomo
Geoff:
@Giacomo Herbert Ciao Giacomo, I used to find the plural aerei much harder than aereo. Pretty annoying because I’ve always been interested in flight. My trick was to use the alternative aeroplano/i … but I always felt like I was cheating 🙂
JillT Payne:
Mio nome e’ “Jill” ma Italiani pronuncia questo nome “Jeeel” cosi ho deciso essere “Giuliana” quando in Italia.
Geoff:
@JillT Payne Ti capisco Jill, comunque anche se gli Italiani fanno un bel pasticcio del mio nome non lo cambierò mai … è il mio nome, ed è una delle cose che mi rende più unico qua in Italia. A prescindere da quello, non è mica difficile pronunciarlo, solo che vanno in tilt quando vedono quel GEO che per loro si pronuncia gheo, quindi divento Gheoff!
Saluti da Gheoff 😉
maddalena:
@Geoff Ciao Geoff, perché dici che in Italia storpiano il tuo nome in Gheoff? Ge é Ge e il suono é dolce quindi non mi verrebbe mai di pronunciarlo ghe…
Geoff:
@maddalena Boh! Sarà perché l’equivalente italiano del mio nome (Geoffrey) è Goffredo?
In realtà, a volte mi chiamano anche Jeoff, cioè Jayoff, o Jeffe.
Conosco alcuni inglesi che hanno italianizzato i loro nomi … questo non mi va! Sono fiero del mio nome, infatti lo apprezzo ancora di più qua in Italia perché è insolito e mi rende più unico.
In Inghilterra aveva un’amica italiana che si chiamava Eugenia, che per me è un nome stupendo, ma siccome gli inglesi non riuscivano mai a pronunciarlo lei si è ribattezzata Euginie (Yougenie), un nome abbastanza familiare agli inglesi. Peccato!
A proposito del tuo nome, ho un’amica Romena qua in Italia che si chiama Maddalina (con l”i’), e lei ha deciso di chiamarsi Maddalena per essere più ‘italiana’. Però io continuo a chiamarla sempre Maddalina. Sono così io!
E tu, dove abiti … qua in Italia o all’estero?
A presto, Geoff 🙂
Gustavo:
Hello,
for me the word: esercizio it’s always so difficult to pronounce, and any combination of the sweet ‘c’ and and impure ‘s’ is always a headache
Dave morgan:
“gli” is very difficult in Italian; also words with “sch” and “sc”
Dave morgan:
These words are difficult for Italians – vowel, thought, recipe, laugh, curious, event, course, guerrilla, tomb / bomb, juice, fruit, doubt, biscuits, breathes.
Laurel:
Wonderful video! Thanks!
I have occasionally messed up “scoprire” and “scopare,” much to the amusement of my Italian friends. I do get in trouble with “falsi amici” now-and-then, as well. Pronunciation not too bad.
I do notice that in the desire to pronounce every letter, Italians often pronounce the final -ed in a verb conjugation such as walk-ed or receiv-ed. It sounds so cute!
Bill Auge:
Hi Geoff and Serena, the video clip really cracked up Victoria and I . One of my many problem areas is pronouncing the long O in a word like “conto”. One time I ask a waiter,”Posso avere il conto?” He replied that he thought I wanted him to dance.
Take care, Bill
Lesley:
I was sorry when ‘lira’ changed to ‘euro’. Although I have difficulty with the ‘r’ as you mention, I found ‘lira’ so much easier to pronounce than ‘euro’ with its ‘eu’ at the beginning!
Saluti, Lesley
Demmy:
That was the worst so-called Italian accent in the video.
Not even amusing. It sounded like a German pretending to be Italian.
Geoff:
@Demmy Have you ever heard a German speaking Italian? Germanic Italian is very easy to spot, and I assure you, it sounds nothing like the accent in this video.
Saluti da Geoff
Eleonora:
I’m Italian native speaker and I do not speak English like this video. No matter if you believe it or not. I’m from northern Italy and I’ve never heard anyone to pronounce English this awful way.
You can just watch some Italian Youtubers who speak English to understand that we don’t have that awful accent. Listen to Roberto Bolle, Elisa Toffoli, Giulio Berruti, Cristina Scabbia speaking English.
I can assure you that an educate Italian speaks a proper English, to me vocale finale (final vowel) isn’tirritating habit to loose. You ignore many things about us and our local languages, we’re fully immersed in English songs and we have a brain.
I’m not deaf and I hear that you say fink for think and dis is d station for this is the station, you DO pronounce this way your language.
Never heard anyone saying kenow instead of know.
Geoff:
@Eleonora Salve Eleonora,
Having an accent is certainly nothing to be ashamed of!
Even though I’ve lived in Italy for 10 years and my wife, family and friends are Italian, I still have an English accent when I speak Italian.
In fact, very few people manage to learn how to speak a second language perfectly with no hint of their native accent. I have a Spanish friend who is a linguist and who speaks flawless English, but he’s really exceptional.
You shouldn’t be so quick to try and defend yourself, however, because your comment is peppered with the typical mistakes that Italians make when they write in English, sort of a written version of an Italian accent!
If you like, I could help you to correct it … cosa ne dici?
Saluti da Geoff 🙂