Italian for beginners, accent
Created | Updated Sep 12, 2008
Somebody asked: I'm wondering about accents. When I hear someone speak English with an Italian accent, I find it very pleasing to the ear. When someone whose native tongue is Italian hears an accent, do they find it to be charming or unpleasant? Does it depend on the type of accent? I'd imagine English and maybe German would not have much of a musical quality.
As someone other posted as replay a lot depends on the speaker, and the hearer.
First let’s define “accent”. In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language. Accents can be confused with dialects, which are varieties of language differing in vocabulary and syntax as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or social status.
Children are able to take on accents at a fast rate, this in many occasions could be a source of troubles, at the telephone you can mistake a grown up child with the same sex parent. Children of traveling families, for example, can change their accents within a shorter period of time than their parents. This generally remains true until a person's late teens, after which, a person's accent seems to become more entrenched. I heard a girl speaking with my accent and discovered she was of African origin but about 15. An acquaintance of mine 30 odd year in the country that arrived in order to study at the university has never got a local accent.
So everybody, also as native speaker as an accent.
Differently than in the USA where there are 3 great area of accent, New England-New York, the south, and all the rest from mid-west to the Pacific Ocean, European languages (having developed in a longer period of times, when there were not mass media have far more different accents. The area of an accent in Italy is usually comparable to the Regioni in which the country is divided.
To be correct we could speak (for foreigners) of “accentuation”. As the way to perceive a foreign accentuation is a big deal connected with the social perception of the group the foreigner belongs to. Usually Italian find a light French accent pleasant, but not a heavy one. East European, African or middle eastern are nowadays at the bottom of the ladder. American are considered “funny”. Brits “snobby”.
Usually it is considered that Italian spelling and pronunciation are more consistent that the one of English. Also if this is not completely true, German has a better consistence, it’s a good guess, as first step. But remember that there are phrases as: “morto il Capitano, il tenente capitanò la compagnia, sono cose che càpitano”, “ancora dobbiamo alzare l’ancora” that are good counterexamples. Also “bello bello” – meaning carefree: “andarsene bello bello”, “starsene bello bello” – requires a different pronunciation of the word bello, as the second is stressed.
Consonant have a less variation than in English but could be tricky. Pronouncing Assisi, the town of san Francesco, I sound more or less “Ax-ee-see” while my wife (American born) says Azz-ee-z-ee (ee meaning the sound of ee in Lee). As I am of the North of Italy the second pronunciation remembers me the way American transformed “easy” in “e-z”.
A big problem for a native English speaker trying to learn Italian is that all the Italian vowels are pronounced, while American English has in many cases tree way of deal with vowels, e.g.: in BANANA the first A is reduced to schwa, the second is long and stressed the third is reduced but pronounced, in this way the word sounds approximately B:NaaNa!
A second problem, that works both way is that Italian is articulated in the throat as much as in the mouth. As a consequence in many occasion an American English native speaker tends to perceive an Italian, speaking English, as angry.
But if you want to speak Italian do not panic. You can always blame that there is not a good tradition of Italian teaching around!
As someone other posted as replay a lot depends on the speaker, and the hearer.
First let’s define “accent”. In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language. Accents can be confused with dialects, which are varieties of language differing in vocabulary and syntax as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or social status.
Children are able to take on accents at a fast rate, this in many occasions could be a source of troubles, at the telephone you can mistake a grown up child with the same sex parent. Children of traveling families, for example, can change their accents within a shorter period of time than their parents. This generally remains true until a person's late teens, after which, a person's accent seems to become more entrenched. I heard a girl speaking with my accent and discovered she was of African origin but about 15. An acquaintance of mine 30 odd year in the country that arrived in order to study at the university has never got a local accent.
So everybody, also as native speaker as an accent.
Differently than in the USA where there are 3 great area of accent, New England-New York, the south, and all the rest from mid-west to the Pacific Ocean, European languages (having developed in a longer period of times, when there were not mass media have far more different accents. The area of an accent in Italy is usually comparable to the Regioni in which the country is divided.
To be correct we could speak (for foreigners) of “accentuation”. As the way to perceive a foreign accentuation is a big deal connected with the social perception of the group the foreigner belongs to. Usually Italian find a light French accent pleasant, but not a heavy one. East European, African or middle eastern are nowadays at the bottom of the ladder. American are considered “funny”. Brits “snobby”.
Usually it is considered that Italian spelling and pronunciation are more consistent that the one of English. Also if this is not completely true, German has a better consistence, it’s a good guess, as first step. But remember that there are phrases as: “morto il Capitano, il tenente capitanò la compagnia, sono cose che càpitano”, “ancora dobbiamo alzare l’ancora” that are good counterexamples. Also “bello bello” – meaning carefree: “andarsene bello bello”, “starsene bello bello” – requires a different pronunciation of the word bello, as the second is stressed.
Consonant have a less variation than in English but could be tricky. Pronouncing Assisi, the town of san Francesco, I sound more or less “Ax-ee-see” while my wife (American born) says Azz-ee-z-ee (ee meaning the sound of ee in Lee). As I am of the North of Italy the second pronunciation remembers me the way American transformed “easy” in “e-z”.
A big problem for a native English speaker trying to learn Italian is that all the Italian vowels are pronounced, while American English has in many cases tree way of deal with vowels, e.g.: in BANANA the first A is reduced to schwa, the second is long and stressed the third is reduced but pronounced, in this way the word sounds approximately B:NaaNa!
A second problem, that works both way is that Italian is articulated in the throat as much as in the mouth. As a consequence in many occasion an American English native speaker tends to perceive an Italian, speaking English, as angry.
But if you want to speak Italian do not panic. You can always blame that there is not a good tradition of Italian teaching around!
