Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7110 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek
| Message 1 of 3 09 April 2005 at 1:54pm | IP Logged |
Quote:
"Tuscans like to poke fun at regional accents, and especially that of Rome, with the saying Lingua toscana in bocca romana ("Tuscan language in a Roman mouth")." |
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This saying ("Lingua toscana in bocca romana") actually refers to what most agree is the most beautiful spoken Italian, that is the Tuscan ("standard") dialect spoken with the Roman mouth. Romans are famous for their clear and precise pronunciation, but the Roman dialect is quite dull. The Tuscan ("standard") dialect is rich and melodious, but actual Tuscan speech is usually a bit hurried or slurred. So, when a roman speaks the most beautiful dialect with their perfect pronunciation, it is like properly showcasing a great work of art.
Edited by Giordano on 09 April 2005 at 1:57pm
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1204grandine Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 7123 days ago 88 posts - 78 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Catalan Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Greek
| Message 2 of 3 12 July 2005 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
Italian is spoken also in Albania,Malta(because they see our programmes and in Malta it was official language until 1934),in the Italian ex-colonies(above all Eritrea and Somalia,where it is amministrative language with English and Arabic),Principality of Monaco and some Greek islands.
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Pat Triglot Newbie Italy Joined 5306 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Italian*, Czech, English Studies: Russian, Persian
| Message 3 of 3 14 March 2010 at 10:11pm | IP Logged |
In the Italian profile there is a warning about false friends. All right, but the examples are wrong. "Palazzo" and "dottore" aren't false friends.
"Palazzo" does mean "multi-story building", but it also means "palace" (see for example Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, and so on...).
"Dottore" does mean "college graduate", and the correct word for "medical doctor" is "medico", but when addressing a doctor, we call him "dottore", and it is at any rate possible, though more colloquial, to use "dottore" instead of "medico".
As to pronounciation: it is said that when a consonant is doubled, the vowel before it is longer. It's just the other way round! When a syllable carries the main stress, the vowel is short when followed by doubled consonant or by two consonants, and vice versa. Take for example the words "pala" (spade) and "palla" (ball). In the first word, the "a" is longer, in the second is shorter. Long consonant = short vowel, short consonant = long vowel.
It is true, on the other hand, that the Italians do not normally have a clear perception of vocal lenght. What's important is the "length" of consonants: for us, the distinction between "pala" and "palla" lies in the pronounciation of "l", not of "a". Technically speaking, in Italian vocal lenght is phonological, not phonetic, i. e. it doesn't imply changes in meaning.
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