Words that are not pronounced as they're written in colloquial Italian
Posted: 2016-11-30, 13:28
So, in this thread I want to list all those words which, in the colloquial spoken language, are often pronounced differently from the official way. However rest assured that the official way that follows the pronunciation rules of Italian is always correct and you don't have to use this alternative colloquial pronunciations if you don't want to, although knowing them can definitely help you with better understanding the spoken language.
Everybody can contribute to this thread, but I would ask you to always specify the geographical area where a given pronunciation is used (if you don't know the exact area, just say where you've heard it used), since I guess there's quite some geographical variation.
An important thing to clear up is that this thread is about more or less isolated instances of words pronounced in a way not following the rules, whereas it's not about regional pronunciations differing from the standard one but that are nonetheless consistent and have rules/patterns. So for example, don't write "here in Bologna we say ['piθ:a] instead of ['pit͡s:a]" or "here in Florence we say ['amaha] instead of ['amaka]".
Besides alternative pronunciations, I also accept alternative words that are used in place of the standard one, like Neapolitan article 'o instead of il or Florentine fo instead of faccio.
Sorry for the lengthy introduction, I hope it's not too confusing.
P.S: I will use the apostrophe to indicate that one or more letters are dropped (not everybody uses it though, after all there isn't a unitary spelling for these pronunciations).
Used all around the country:
Demonstratives
questo---> 'sto
questa---> 'sta
questi---> 'sti
queste---> 'ste
quest'---> st'
Used (I think) especially in Central Italy:
cioè ---> cè (especially when it's used as a filler word)
con ----> co'
sono ---> so'
due ---> du'
These are used in Florence (the ones above are also used):
Article and prepositions
per ---> pe' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
il ---> i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
nel ---> ni (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
del ---> di (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
al ---> a i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
dal---> da i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
col ---> co' i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
sul ---> su i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
Possessive adjectives
mio/mia/miei/mie ---> mi'
tuo/tua/tuoi/tue ---> tu'
suo/sua/suoi/sue ---> su'
Possessive pronouns
They remain the same as standard Italian except for the plural masculine forms that can become as follows:
i miei ---> i mia
i tuoi ---> i tua
i suoi ---> i sua
Changes in verb conjugations
(io) vado ---> (io) vo
(io) faccio ---> (io) fo
(lui/lei) può ---> (lui/lei) pole
(lui/lei) andò ---> (lui/lei) andiede (quite obsolete though)
(lui/lei) volle ---> (lui/lei) vorse (again, quite obsolete)ò
Others
dove ---> do', ndo', indó
che ---> icché
non ---> un / 'un / 'unn (there are different spellings but the pronunciation is always [un])
-The N becomes geminate when followed by a word beginning with a vowel.
-If the following word begins with [m], then it becomes u + geminate [m] in the following word, but the spelling doesn't change.
-Un precedes the second person pronouns which are basically never dropped in Florentine, so for instance: non vai become un tu vai, or non lo prendete ---> un vu lo prendete)
voi ---> vu (+ syntactic gemination) or v' if the following for begins with vowel
tu---> remains tu (+ syntactic gemination) but can become t' if the following for begins with vowel
per niente ---> punto (e.g: questo spettacolo non mi è piaciuto per niente ---> questo spettacolo un m'è piaciuto punto)
nessun (adjective) + singular noun ---> punti + plural noun (e.g: non c'è nessun animale ---> un ci so' punti animali)
Everybody can contribute to this thread, but I would ask you to always specify the geographical area where a given pronunciation is used (if you don't know the exact area, just say where you've heard it used), since I guess there's quite some geographical variation.
An important thing to clear up is that this thread is about more or less isolated instances of words pronounced in a way not following the rules, whereas it's not about regional pronunciations differing from the standard one but that are nonetheless consistent and have rules/patterns. So for example, don't write "here in Bologna we say ['piθ:a] instead of ['pit͡s:a]" or "here in Florence we say ['amaha] instead of ['amaka]".
Besides alternative pronunciations, I also accept alternative words that are used in place of the standard one, like Neapolitan article 'o instead of il or Florentine fo instead of faccio.
Sorry for the lengthy introduction, I hope it's not too confusing.
P.S: I will use the apostrophe to indicate that one or more letters are dropped (not everybody uses it though, after all there isn't a unitary spelling for these pronunciations).
Used all around the country:
Demonstratives
questo---> 'sto
questa---> 'sta
questi---> 'sti
queste---> 'ste
quest'---> st'
Used (I think) especially in Central Italy:
cioè ---> cè (especially when it's used as a filler word)
con ----> co'
sono ---> so'
due ---> du'
These are used in Florence (the ones above are also used):
Article and prepositions
per ---> pe' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
il ---> i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
nel ---> ni (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
del ---> di (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
al ---> a i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
dal---> da i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
col ---> co' i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
sul ---> su i' (+ syntactic gemination of the following word)
Possessive adjectives
mio/mia/miei/mie ---> mi'
tuo/tua/tuoi/tue ---> tu'
suo/sua/suoi/sue ---> su'
Possessive pronouns
They remain the same as standard Italian except for the plural masculine forms that can become as follows:
i miei ---> i mia
i tuoi ---> i tua
i suoi ---> i sua
Changes in verb conjugations
(io) vado ---> (io) vo
(io) faccio ---> (io) fo
(lui/lei) può ---> (lui/lei) pole
(lui/lei) andò ---> (lui/lei) andiede (quite obsolete though)
(lui/lei) volle ---> (lui/lei) vorse (again, quite obsolete)ò
Others
dove ---> do', ndo', indó
che ---> icché
non ---> un / 'un / 'unn (there are different spellings but the pronunciation is always [un])
-The N becomes geminate when followed by a word beginning with a vowel.
-If the following word begins with [m], then it becomes u + geminate [m] in the following word, but the spelling doesn't change.
-Un precedes the second person pronouns which are basically never dropped in Florentine, so for instance: non vai become un tu vai, or non lo prendete ---> un vu lo prendete)
voi ---> vu (+ syntactic gemination) or v' if the following for begins with vowel
tu---> remains tu (+ syntactic gemination) but can become t' if the following for begins with vowel
per niente ---> punto (e.g: questo spettacolo non mi è piaciuto per niente ---> questo spettacolo un m'è piaciuto punto)
nessun (adjective) + singular noun ---> punti + plural noun (e.g: non c'è nessun animale ---> un ci so' punti animali)