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How does one pronounce Cinque Terre?
Should I one day make it back to that area, and not wanting to offend the local inhabitnats, does anyone have an idea how they would pronounce it?
Please use phonetic spelling. Thanks, Peter |
chinkwe terry
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Rockknocker:
When you were there how did THEY pronounce it..or did they?????? |
In the word "cinque" (= five)
cin- sounds like "cheen" in english -que sound like que in question. In the word "terre" (=lands) : First e is like the E in concErt; Second e is like the E in the german word rEgen or as in english rAin. |
The first "e" in Terre like e in ConcErt? Not the way I pronounce Concert. Maybe like the Italian word concerto.
But in English , either the words "terry" or "terrier" provide the first vowel sound. The comment about phonetic spellling makes me smile - - because you don't say phonetics in WHAT language! To an Italian it already IS spelled phonetically. To an American, cheenkweh terreh might make since; to a French, Geman or spanihs speaker, this representation would make <b>no</b> sense. |
Ack - - might make "sense" - - not "since"!
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My that's all terribly complicated!
Cheeng'-kway Tear'-ray please roll your r's! In Italian the endings all (usually)agree. these are feminine plural. ;) |
"Tear", as in tear a piece of paper? Even that, I don't agree with. To me, "tear" (as in tear paper) is the same sound as "carrier" or "barrier"- - which is not the same sound as "terrier" or "merrier" at all.
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Cheenkway - Tearr-ay, with a big emphasis on the Tearr (double consonant in Italian requires a double emphasis, so you "lean" on the " " and then go on to" " ay" as in " Tay-rr-ay!" )
Does that help? |
bella
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Gee...I don't pronounce "tear" even remotely like "carrier" or "barrier", nor "terry" or terrier." I suppose now we'll have to identify from where our accents come!
My teacher has always said to "pronounce both "r's." Imagine putting one at the end of one syllable and one at the beginning (with a liason of course) :)It's easier to try with a word like "panna," than "terre" |
I think it's a good idea to get at least a phrase book before going to another country and to learn the pronounciation. It is really difficult to buy train or bus tickets (or to take a taxi) if you can't say where you want to go. You should learn the pronounciation before you start planning your journey because, if you become accustomed to pronouncing a name wrongly, it's difficult to get out of the habit. There is no excuse nowadays when tapes and other aids are easily available. I first went to Italy in 1979 and have been there many times since; I don't regret the effort to try to learn the language. "Cheen-kway Terr-ray" is my suggestion for a phonetic pronouniation, but there is no such thing in the English language. George Bernard Shaw campaigned for phonetic English spelling, amongst other things, and devised this invented word to show the absurdity of English spelling: "Ghoti", where the "gh" is pronounced as in "cough", the "o" as in "women" and the "ti" as in "station" (what you get is "fish").
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I should have specified that "tear" is to be pronounced as in "tear" something to bits, not as in what falls from your eye when you cry.
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Small adjustment: chink-way. And tear-ray (as in tear it up, not tear up). That "e" is "a" in aphid. Rhymes. Telephoned my Italian prof - she agrees.
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Are you guys trying to nail the way the Ligurians pronounce it, because wouldn't Italians from different regions of the country pronounce it somewhat differently?
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My question exactly, except that capo beat me to it and he put it better!
Very good, GeoffHamer: next time I go into a restaurant I'll be sure to order some "goatee" (ghoti)! Thanks for a good laugh! |
"Ghoti" is a classic, but I hadn't know that it was Shaw who devised it.
There was a great but little-known rock band back in the late '70 called Jules & the Polar Bears. Their second album, never released on CD, was called <i>Fenetiks</i> (should probably have been spelled <i>Fonetiks</i>) and all the lyrics were spelled "fenetikally" as well. Very inspired and fun to read. |
chink way tear ray
roll the r's between tear & ray. |
The only regional difference in pronounciation that I can think of is that in Tuscany (and maybe other parts of Italy), the cheenk sound would be softened almost to a sheenk sound.
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I'm curious - - why write "tear" when presumably you "tare"? And is there some English speaking place where "tare" does not have the same sound as the first vowel sound in barrier or carrier? I realize that I could have used bare or care as examples, but there are not good examples of the vowel in terrier or merrier in American English. I suppose that "Cher" comes close, or "there" and "where".
The further south you get (at least in the midwest), the less and less distinct these vowels before an "r" become. "Their" becomes also "thur" to some Americans with a "southern" accent. "Cher" is pronounced almost indistinguishably from "share", and even "where" is hard to distinguish from "ware" or "wear" (in other words, the "hw" sound sometimes gets lost). Perhaps we could discuss how to discuss Italian better if we could agree on how to pronounce English. |
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