Cinque Terre - How to pronounce
 

Can anyone help with phonetic pronunciation of "Cinque Terre" ?<BR><BR>I was talking with someone yesterday and about a half hour after the conversation it dawned on me that they may have been talking about Cinque Terre but pronouncing it differently than I do (My Italian is terrible and I confuse a lot of the pronunciations with Spanish) I know . . shame on me!<BR><BR>Thanks . . Rich

Cheenk-kway tehr-ray<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Replace Rex's last syllabel "ray" with "ra"--short a not long.

Rich, better yet, make that last syllable re with a short e--hard to find exactly the right sound.

I can't believe I'm getting inthe middle of this but Rex is right, not kam. That's an "e" at the end of Terre not an "a".

The world's best teacher of the Italian language, Rita Balsamo Walker (a native of Sicily) of Foothill College in Los Altos CA, pronounces it the same way that Rex suggested above.

Interesting...thanks for the note, Betsy. I've been misprouncing it "tehr-ra" all this time. <BR><BR>In Italian, does that final e always have a "long a" sound?

<BR><BR>Well by golly I was not even close! And I am usually fairly good at getting close anyway . . good thing I did not have to ask for directions huh?<BR><BR>Thanks to all who responded. <BR><BR>Rich

No, it's not quite a long a sound on the end of that word. You need to bite it a bit so you don't sound like you're cheering for your favorite sports team. I won't say anything about the Foothill College thing because many would tell you that you should not take Italian lessons from a Sicilian. Don't mean to add to the fire here. Good night and peace. F

Rex is one of many unfortunate Americans who've been taught to pronounce final "e's" in Italian (and Spanish also) with an "ay" sound. The "ay" sound is called a diphthong -- a combination of two vowels within the same syllable -- that careless and inaccurate language teachers teach their students for no reason I've ever been able to figure out. It NEVER sounds like that when Italians pronounce their words ending in"e" (as in words like "latte", "caffe", "Firenze", "al dente" or "Dante", for example). It sounds silly when Americans use the "ay" sound at the end. The correct pronunciation would be close to "chinkweh" and "terreh" (silent "h") like some other folks have suggested. But what's in a name? Cinque Terre is a gorgeous place to go, whether or not you pronounce it "properly."<BR><BR>LF<BR><BR>

No, Giuseppe, I am not an "unfortunate American" who doesn't know what the "e" at the end of a word in Italian or Spanish sounds like. It's a matter of "play-spelling" in non-existent English words to convey sounds that may or may not exist in the particular dialect of English that another American speaks.<BR><BR>To most Americans, "ay", as in the month of "May" is NOT a diphthong, anymore than the (only) vowel (sound) in "made" or "maid" or "payed" is. But it is absolutely true that many different English speakers pronounced "may" differently - - all the way from "maa-eee" to "meh" to "meh-ee" to "may-yee". In the American classic song "Old folks at home", the first lyric "Waaaay down upon the Suwanee River.." the word "way" lasts for a full two beats, where as "suwanee" doesn't even get its first syllable pronounced at all. I agree that the final "e" in "cinque" AND in "terre" are not long drawn-out vowel sounds in Italian.<BR><BR>As far as "representing" words, you wrote the first syllable as "chin", I said "cheen". The truth is somewhere in between, but I submit that "cheen" is much closer to the truth.<BR><BR>A more interesting comment (to me) is from Rich that he was nowhere close. One of the interesting things about Italian (and Spanish) is they they ARE so SO very purely phonetic. I think it is very fun (and worth your time, Rich) to sit down with the first two pages of any phrase book and DO go through the rules of pronunciation. "Cinque Terre" DOES follow all standard rules of pronunciation, and you CAN and should be able to sound it out from those rules.<BR><BR>C before I is always "ch"<BR>I is always "ee"<BR>QU is always "kw"<BR><BR>and our argument above notwithstanding,<BR><BR>E is always "ay" (though admittedly, "short-ish", when followed by a SINGLE consonant, and much closer to "eh" when followed by a double consonant.<BR><BR>Most Americans pronounce "Perrier" more or less correct (unless you think it rhymes with Boston Terrier!) and the first "e" in "Terre" is essentially the same as the first vowel sound in Perrier, just as the last vowel sound is GENERALLY the same as the last vowel sound in Perrier. (but not the ree-yay of Perrier).<BR>

<BR><BR>My limited Spanish would jump in and when I saw Cinque, in my head, I pronouncced it similar to cinco (5). . <BR><BR>Thanks all . . Rich

I have to go with Giuseppe on this one. Final -e in Italian is more like English -eh than English -ay. English -ay in Italian would be -ei. Contrast "le," the feminine plural definite article ("the"), with "lei," the feminine singular third person pronoun ("she").

Concise, well-stated counter, Jahoulih - - and I agree that if it were spelled "Terrei" - - now that really would be "tehr-ray-(ee)". So I retract.<BR><BR>As long as we don't convey that it is ok to say "tehr-rEE".<BR>

Boy, I'm with Rich - glad I didn't try pronouncing it in public (in Italy, anyway). I was trying it in (my version of) "French" like <BR><BR>"sahnk(e) tai(r)-uh". Oops.

You say tomato, I say tomahto....

You guys are really screwing up my Polish pronunciation.<BR>Cheers

ttt

bringing this - - laughingly - - to the top again!