[78-L] PRONUNCIATION QUESTION

Mike Harkin xxm.harkin at yahoo.com.invalid
Tue Sep 16 22:43:31 PDT 2014


My grandfather was in the U.S. Army in the '50s.  He was stationed in 
Germany, and took a trip with an army buddy to Rome (he was born in Tampa, 
Florida to immigrant parents).  When he spoke Italian to the Italians, they 
told him to speak English...they couldn't understand him!

That is frequently the case with anglophones.  The few that do make an attempt to speak the local language have such an atrocious anglo accent as to be incomprehensible to the locals.

Mike in Plovdiv        



On Wednesday, September 17, 2014 8:32 AM, Sammy Jones <sjones69 at bellsouth.net.invalid> wrote:
 



My people are from Sicily, and we take pride in mis-pronouncing all kinds of 
words: Italian and English!

Haven't you heard of the famous Palermo Joneses?

On my mother's side, we're acutally Castellana and Bonano.

My grandfather was in the U.S. Army in the '50s.  He was stationed in 
Germany, and took a trip with an army buddy to Rome (he was born in Tampa, 
Florida to immigrant parents).  When he spoke Italian to the Italians, they 
told him to speak English...they couldn't understand him!

To keep this on topic, he MIGHT have picked up some Italian 78s on the 
trip...I'll likely never know.

Sammy "the Sicilian" Jones


dl wrote:
I've always pronounced it zheel-yee as well, and I presume much of the world
does..but it should be djeel-yee, as in agitato and adagio (which most 
people
mispronounce as well). "zh" is French.

dl

On 9/15/2014 9:06 PM, Joe Salerno wrote:
>
> I'm no language expert but I pronounce it
>
> ZHEEL YEE
>
> Long E in both syllables. Accent on the first.
>
> Joe Salerno
>
> On 9/15/2014 7:39 PM, Ray Kilcoyne wrote:
>>
>> Thank goodness for all you classical experts here on the list.  I know 
>> next to nothing on this subject.
>> (Or maybe Francesco is around.  I???d accept his interpretation also.)
>> Can one of you, please, tell me the correct pronunciation of Beniamino 
>> Gigli?
>> RayK
>> _______________________________________________
>> 78-L mailing list
>> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
>> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
>> 

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