{"id":10980,"date":"2016-02-08T18:40:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=10980"},"modified":"2016-02-08T18:40:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:40:22","slug":"spot-the-italian-accent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/spot-the-italian-accent\/","title":{"rendered":"Spot The Italian Accent"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a student of the Italian language, do you have trouble rolling your ‘r<\/strong>‘s? What about you aiuole<\/strong> and aerei<\/strong> \u2026 how are they?
\nYes, 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.<\/p>\n

Check out this hilarious (but rude – you have been warned!)<\/em> video based on the problems encountered when an Italian mispronounces English.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZSwCXQ2KqUk?list=PL91A1C1F36227D6F1<\/p>\n

I like your ouse!<\/span><\/p>\n

In Italian, \u2018h\u2019 is considered \u2018invisibile<\/strong>\u2019, \u2018muta<\/strong>\u2019, and \u2018fantasma<\/strong>\u2019. In short, the Italian ‘h’ is silent and mostly forgotten about except where it plays the role of modifier with the letters \u2018c\u2019 and \u2018g\u2019. In that role \u2018h\u2019 transforms sounds from dolce<\/strong> (soft, literally: sweet<\/em>) to duro<\/strong> (hard), e.g.: marce\/marche<\/strong>, magi\/maghi<\/strong>.
\nThat\u2019s why when you invite your Italian friend out to the restaurant, she tells you that she\u2019s very angry! Angry \u2026 why, how have I offended her? Then the penny drops \u2026 she\u2019s not angry, but hungry!<\/p>\n

Tights or Thighs?<\/span><\/p>\n

The English \u2018th\u2019 is a curse for Italians. The problem is that\u00a0there is no approximation of it in Italian, hence no clue as to what to do with one\u2019s teeth, tongue and palate in order to pronounce it.
\nNot being able to perform the necessary tongue yoga to pronounce ‘th’ Italians typically use the following workarounds to the\u00a0\u2018th\u2019 problem.
\n1. \u2018f\u2019, as in “I fink it will be sunny\u201d
\n2. \u2018d\u2019, as in \u201cdis is de station\u201d
\n3. \u2018z\u2019, as in \u201czese are very nice shoes\u201d
\n4. ‘t’, as in “my tights (thighs) are aching”<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t kenow!<\/span><\/p>\n

Italian is one of the few languages in which every letter is pronounced. Therefore, Italian logic when encountering\u00a0the way in which an\u00a0English word is spelt is: \u201cif it\u2019s there it must have a purpose\u201d. Having been educated in this way it\u2019s 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.
\nHence the English word \u2018know\u2019, which us mother tongue English speakers understand to be pronounced \u2018no\u2019, becomes \u2018kenow\u2019 for an Italian, and\u00a0walking becomes walkin-G.
\nI remember an Italian friend once telling me that he\u2019d visited Laychetser in England, and it was only when he described\u00a0this Laychester\u00a0as a big city south of Nottingham that I realised he was referring to Leicester (pronounced \u2018Lester\u2019 in English).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t roll you r\u2019s!<\/span><\/p>\n

It really seems a shame to waste that lovely rolling Italian \u2018r<\/strong>\u2019. But the English \u2018r\u2019 (setting aside some regional accents) is a fairly bland affair, and Italians have nearly as much difficulty flattening out their lovely \u2018r<\/strong>\u2019 as English speakers generally do in acquiring its wonderfully tongue vibrating Italian counterpart.<\/p>\n

Not enough vowels!<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/strong> (final vowel) can be an irritating habit to loose for\u00a0an Italian who wants to sound English.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s your Italian pronunciation?<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a student of the Italian language, do you have trouble rolling your ‘r‘s? What about you aiuole and aerei \u2026 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…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[744],"class_list":["post-10980","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-italian-pronunciation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10980"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10984,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions\/10984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}