 Double consonants change meaning of words in Italian and pronunciation
In Eros Ramazzotti's great song "Terra Promessa"(Promised Land)it uses the word cammino with double "m". Cammino with double m means "path". (road)
Camino with only one m means chimney as in smoke chimney. In one translation of Terra Promessa it says "we do not tire
of trying to find our chimney when it should be "we do not tire of trying to find our path. So words with double consonants
mean one thing and almost the same word with only one consonant means something else.
Una terra promessa un mondo diverso - OO-nah TARE-rah pro-MESS-sa oon MONE-doh dee-VAIR-so
dove crescere i nostri pensieri -------DOE-vay CRAYS-chey-ray e NOSS-tray pen-see-EH-ree
noi non ci fermeremo ------------------NOE-ee non chee fair-may-RAY-moh
non ci stancheremo di cercare ---------nonn chee stann-kay-RAY-moh dee chair-KAH-ray
il nostro cammino ---------------------eel NOSS-troh kah-MEE-no
A promised land a differnt world
where our thought can grow
we do not stop
we do not tire of trying
to find our path
(It really is a great song. Do a search on it.) Terra Promessa by Eros Ramazzotti
Pronunciation 3 - Doubled Consonants
In Italian, a doubled consonant in a word significantly affects pronunciation. The effect of the doubled consonant
is to shorten the preceding vowel and lengthen the consonant itself. This difference in pronunciation can be difficult
for English speakers to hear and reproduce, however to Italians the difference is generally very obvious and can often
affect the meaning of a word. Consider the following pairs of Italian words that differ only in the doubling of a consonant.
Consonant Single Double
Hard C roca hoarse rocca fortress
Soft C cacio cheese caccio I hunt
F tufo tuff tuffo dive
Hard G lego I bind leggo I read
Soft G agio ease aggio premium
L velo veil vello fleece
M camino chimney cammino path
N nono ninth nonno grandfather
P copia copy coppia couple
R bara coffin barra bar/rod
S casa house cassa case/box
T sete thirst sette seven
We really can’t overemphasise the importance of learning how to correctly pronounce words with doubled consonants.
You wouldn’t want to mispronounce anno (year) as ano (anus) or penne (a type of pasta) as pene (penis)! We said in
Lesson 1 that learning to pronounce all the Italian vowels correctly would get you about two thirds of the way towards
an authentic Italian accent. If you add in the correct pronunciation of doubled consonants then you’re about 80% of the way there.
English equivalents
Fortunately most of these doubled consonant sounds can actually be found in English - you just need to know where to look for them.
They don’t generally occur within English words, but they do occur between words, when the same or similar consonant sounds appear
at the end of one word and the beginning of the next. The following table contains some examples of this. All of these English examples
accurately demonstrate both the shortening of the vowel sound and the lengthening of the consonant sound that occur when an Italian
consonant is doubled. Note, though, that the quality of the vowels differs between the English and the Italian (in fact most of the
long English vowels are actually diphthongs). Also keep in mind that the examples are based on a standard Australian accent - they
might not all be valid for your particular variety of English.
Consonant Single Double
Hard C row car roca rock car rocca
Soft C Kay chore cacio cut chore caccio
F two four tufo tuff four tuffo
Hard G lair go lego leg go leggo
Soft G hey Joe agio add Joe aggio
L Fay low velo fell low vello
M came in camino come May cammino
N no-no nono non-negotiable nonno
P copious copia cup pan coppia
S casing casa guess so cassa
T say tea sete set tea sette
Last edited by Villa; 02-18-2009 at 08:25 PM.
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