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

...I've been pronouncing ciabatta wrong for ages.

And I've been getting conchiglie and tagliatelle wrong.

Me too, but I always was a terrible cook.

*cue big band for comedy sting*

What about bolognaise? I suspect that that isn't an actual Italian word, given how odd the pronounciation would be.

Bolognaise with that spelling is not Italian - I think it should be Bolognese (bol-o-nyaisy) as in from Bologna.

Although I'm not sure this actually exists as a dish in Italy - can anyone confirm / deny?

Yes, it seems more of a French ending. I don't know about Italy, but they don't seem to have heard of it in Canada.

Spaghetti bolognaise or, as it would be, bolognese, doesn't really exist in Italy - even in Bologna as far as I know. The generic name for this kind of meaty sauce would be ragu'. I wonder why it ended up being associated with Bologna though...

Ciao a tutti! Living about an hour from Bologna I think I can answer that one for you! Yes, the 'salsa bolognese' *is* from Bologna. Many of the famous Italian dishes have names from the region or province in which they originated, as with the 'bistecca fiorentina', for instance. Italy is a very young nation - and the sense of being a part of your region or even province as if it still was a little kingdom in feud with the neighbours is still strong. Giving placenames to dishes indicating their origin is a way of showing this pride in your home place, especially to foreigners! Can't leave them ignorant to the fact that *this* particular dish is *local* (i.e. better than the neighbours'). Among themselves the Italians call the dish simply ragù these days, and maybe the next generation will forget the name 'salsa bolognese' alltogether...

Yes, it's hard to try and explain in English how letters are pronounced in Italian - or in any other language, for that matter. Take my name - Leeneh - for instance. I think most of you can pronounce it the way it is supposed to be pronounced, and that's the reason why I spell it this way and not the way it's *really* spellt! Not that I will ever hear you pronounce it in either way, but knowing how you'd form the letters of the *real* version into syllables in your minds makes me wince! ;-D

Oh, by the way, it's not an Italian name, and I am not Italian either! I just happen to live here!

Baci!

The proper pronounciation of bolognese would be bol-o-nye-se or something like that. The important part is that '-gnese' is pronounced '-nyese', where the e's are pronounced like eh or e in 'men'. I wonder why nobody has ever corrected that one yet