Last night, in an Irish Pub paradoxically, I was trying to figure out why "prosciutto" was pronounced with a "sh" sound (pro-SHOOT-tow) since Italian seemed more inclined to make the "sk" sound in words with the "sc" digraph (as in "pesca" [PES-kuh], meaning peach) or the "sch" trigraph (as in "maraschino" meaning fucking delicious). Well, as it turns out, in italiano, after 'e' or 'i' you pronounce the sc as "sh" ("pesce" [PESH-eh] meaning "fish"). After an 'a' 'o' or 'u' it's "sk". Also, if the word is an inkhorn of Italian descent, the sch is always "sk". Unless you just want to be a dipshit American, then you say MARRYSHEENO CHERRIES, BITCH!!!
Funny note: in nonstandard Italian, as spoken in New York and New Jersey and everyone in Italy that's not a grammar teacher, you can omit the final vowel of some words altogether, and many people are heard saying "Pro-SHOOT" for prosciutto, "mat-sa-REL" for mozzarella or (and this one has spread to Missourah) "cal-ZON" instead of "cal-ZON-eh". Here's my sauce, which explains further that Americans are really just bastardizing some food pronunciations.
That makes sense. I've heard Lidia Bastianich (you know, that lady with the Italian show on KCPT) say mozarell.
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ReplyDeleteI LOL'd at the dbl rainbow comment. the boss is the boss for a reason.