h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is confusing to have pronouncing stuff because all our letters are very variable...
I am learning Italian and doing pretty badly, especially confusing I find is the fact that "ch" for them is a soft c for us and hard c for them. I also do French at a much higher level than Italian so I often say my Italian with a French accent.
I can't roll my r's but I can make the French back-of-throat-gagging-noise

The French guttural 'r' is quite acceptable in Italian if you can't roll. Many Italians say it that way.

Is it? I normally get in trouble when I do it

It's most common in the north, due probably to the French and Austrian influence. I've even heard news anchors on TV talk like that so, it's ok.

It's on TV so it must be right!

But is it in dialect?

No, it's Standard Italian (whatever that is) with a regional inflection. Even the foreigner most proficient in SI will be dumbfounded in the face of most dialects. And generally no dialect is spoken on TV. Many argue that it was television itself that unified the Italians linguistically, therefore if you hear something on TV it's ok to repeat it.

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Congratulations!

Thank you.

Congratulations, Gnomon!

Azara

Well done!!