Tuesday, January 25, 2011

How to learn Italian 4 - Syntactic Doubling


In standard spoken Italian, many words cause the initial
consonant sound of the following word to be doubled. This
phenomenon is typical of Italian pronunciation and is called
"syntactic doubling" (raddoppiamento sintattico) or phrasal doubling..
The following words cause a syntactic doubling :

- all stressed (strong) monosyllables

- many unstressed (weak) monosyllables

- all polysyllables stressed on the final vowel (with a written accent mark)

- some bisyllables
In Italian dictionaries (e.g., Zingarelli, published by
Zanichelli), the phonetic transcription of such words is followed
by an asterisk (*). For example, the phonetic transcription of
the conjunction "a" is /a*/. This means that "a
presto" ("see you soon") is pronounced exactly
like "appresto" ("I prepare").
On the contrary, "re Carlo" ("King
Charles") and "recarlo" ("to bring it")
are pronounced in two different manners, because the word
"re" (/re*/) causes the doubling of the following
initial consonant sound. "Re Carlo" is pronounced
/rek'karlo/.
Weak monosyllables (such as articles; unstressed personal
pronouns; "ci", "ne" and other particles;
etc.) do not cause the doubling.
Italian spelling does not indicate the doubling except when
two words have combined to form a new one, as in E + COME =
ECCOME, FRA + TANTO = FRATTANTO, CHI + SA = CHISSA'.
Syntactic doubling usually occurs in standard
pronunciation of most speakers in Central and Southern Italy. In
Northern Italy, where there is a tendency to ignore double
consonants in general, it is less noticeable.
See the examples below. See also "Espressioni
omofone scritte diversamente".
Word causing
syntactic

doubling
ExampleWord causing
syntactic

doubling
Example
Aa prestoFAfa presto
FRAfra noiFUfu felice
TRAtra voiE'è tardi
SUsu RomaPUO'può fare
Oo luiGIA'già fatto
Ee leiPIU'più vicino
TUtu seiLA'là sotto
SEse vaiLI'lì sopra
MAma noSI'sì signore
NOno davveroNE 'né noi
TREtre meleCOSI'così tardi
REre CarloPERCHE'perché mai
HOho fameMANGIO'mangiò tutto
HAha freddoANDRA'andrà via
SOso tuttoFARO'farò tardi
SAsa l'oraDIRO'dirò tutto
DOdo sempreSARA'sarà troppo
STOsto maleCOMEcome noi
STAsta làQUALCHEqualche volta
VAva viaMI (note)mi minore
CHEche fai?QUIqui sotto
CHIchi sei?QUAqua sopra

No comments:

Post a Comment