Accents - stress over vowels

[shamblesuk]

Ciao di nuovo,

Could someone please explain the use/differences in the stresses and accents. Ad esempio:

Perché - I understand this is because one stresses the final e.
È - because it changes the way the letter sounds differentiating it from E.

Does the stress go top right-bottom left for stress and the other way to change the sound of the letter? But then in più it goes the other way even though it is stressing that it is pronounced 'piu'.

It's something I never saw in any of the language books I read.

Potete aiutarmi con questo?

Grazie voi.

 

[moodywop]

Ciao di nuovo,

Could someone please explain the use/differences in the stresses and accents. Ad esempio:

Perché - I understand this is because one stresses the final e.
È - because it changes the way the letter sounds differentiating it from E.

Does the stress go top right-bottom left for stress and the other way to change the sound of the letter? But then in più it goes the other way even though it is stressing that it is pronounced 'piu'.

It's something I never saw in any of the language books I read.

Potete aiutarmi con questo?

Grazie voi.

Except for "Zanichelli"( cane ['kane]), Italian dictionaries do not bother to offer phonetic transcriptions because the spelling and pronunciations are very similar. They only indicate stress and the Tuscan standard for the pronunciation of e,o,s,z. Which doesn't help a foreign learner wondering whether the "gli" in "nitroglicerina" is pronounced as in "gli" or as in "glicine".

è is used for the sound in "cielo" and é for the sound in "cena". Which is why you will find "pèsca" = peach and "pésca" = fishing in your dictionary(we pronounce both as pésca all over the South). And also perché and caffè. But most Italians write perchè(and some pronounce it like this).

In the past some "puristi" suggested always indicating é and è(same with "o") in spelling(as in French) in order to impose Tuscan pronunciation all over Italy. The plan was soon abandoned as unrealistic. Most Italian linguistics experts agree that Northern pronunciation is the model to be used for teaching Italian to foreigners. So don't ask me to teach you Italian .

Carlo

 

[Silvia]

Hm hm, clearing my throat (non so quale sia il suono onomatopeico preciso..)
Carlo, I say perchè, cielo with é, pèsca in both cases, caffè is caffè, and we agree on cena!

I absolutely agree with what you said in your third and last paragraph. I'm from the North of Italy.

 

[moodywop]

Hm hm, clearing my throat (non so quale sia il suono onomatopeico preciso..)
Carlo, I say perchè, cielo with é, pèsca in both cases, caffè is caffè, and we agree on cena!

Evviva la varietà! Wouldn't it be dull if we all had the same accent? I say cielo as /cèlo/ when speaking to foreigners or Italians from the Centre and the North. I pronounce it /ciiiélo/ when speaking to fellow Southerners. Crazy isn't it? But this way in the South we can distinguish un cieco from un Ceco

I absolutely agree with what you said in your third and last paragraph. I'm from the North of Italy.

I, on the other hand, might get lynched by fellow southerners. Just kidding!

 

[erick]

Hm hm, clearing my throat (non so quale sia il suono onomatopeico preciso..)

Credo che sia "Ehhem" in inglese. Ed in italiano?

 

[Silvia]

Credo che sia "Ehhem" in inglese. Ed in italiano?

Sarà così anche in italiano...

Carlo, wait a minute, if you say ciélo, then we agree on that too!