Italian accents

[mollykins]

Do italian accents not vary very much?

My nan said that when she went their for a holiday she spoke to an italian who spoke english with no accent at all. She was really suprised when he said that his teacher was scottish and couldn't understand how she thought it was odd, as if italians didn't have different accents in different parts of the country.

Or maybe he was confused because he didn't understand why his english speaking accent was odd, especially when nan told him that even other english people often struggle to understand the scots.

[ummmm]

I met a German man that spoke English with a Dublin accent. He was taught English by a Dublin man...

[pusskin]

while in turkey years ago, we spoke to a young turkish fellow that spoke perfect English with a very strong American accent! He had been taught by an american, and had never dropped the accent. We were amazed, and couldnt belive it.

[dundurn]

Not only are Italian accents very variable but the language spoken in various parts of Italy can be completely unintelligible in a different part of the country. I suppose the extreme example is in the area north of Lake Garda where they still speak a form of German but the dialects in Sicily, Sardinia and Naples for example are all pretty impenetrable. Standard Italian, however, is a bit like BBC English. Italians refer to it as 'la lingua Toscana con la bocca Romana' - Tuscan with a Roman accent.

Italian is also a pretty hard accent to lose completely. It's very like Japanese. Most words conform to a pattern of consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel etc hence the reason it is supposed to be a good singing language. You don't get many instances where you get loads of consonants together and almost all words end in a vowel. For this reason when Italians pronounce English, where many words end in consonants they tend to pop in a little "uh" sound at the end of words or at least there's a little hesitation or a stress on the final consonant as if they had thought about doing this. People impersonating an Italian accent tend to overdo this (think Dolmio adverts) but it's real nevertheless.

Most educated Italians will try to copy a good model (like the BBC) although increasingly the younger generation pick up an American twang along with their English vocabulary.

[grasscarp]

My husband is from Tuscany. My Italian brother in law told me that it is good for me that I learnt Italian from him as the Tuscan way of speaking Italian is among the best.

[Eve]

They are very variable. I lived with some Italian guys and often had a houseful of Italians and used to spend a lot of time in the restaurant they worked in and the accents varied widely.

I was taught Italian mainly by an Irishman and when I was in Italy and around the guys I lived with and their friends some were far more understandable than others, same as anywhere really.

Media can have a significant influence too, don't underestimate how much English speaking media there is in other countries, TV, film, music etc... Films and TV can also be subtitled rather than dubbed and much of it is American. I noticed this a lot when I was in Romania.

When I worked in France, The A Team and Walker the Texas Ranger were on every weekday evening and there was a lot of music with English in it, even sung by French and other foreign groups.

A friend of mine is French and was in Paris not that long ago and had a waiter keep speaking English to her as he thought she was! She speaks fantastic English but still has a very strong French accent.

Some people are also very good mimics though it is easier with some languages than others. I remember chatting to some Swiss guys in German once and they were amazed I didn't have an accent. Same with Welsh, I was nowhere near fluent but the my understanding and the bit I could speak would lead to problems with people thinking I was fluent. I pick up accents quite quickly but I did study only languages for years so was switching between a number of them day in and out so kind of came with the territory.

I see it a lot with people in city jobs too where they have learnt to hide their original more local accent as they think it makes them sound more professional.

[Jemisa]

I wish I could lose my cockney accent, people think you're thick if you're a cockney or from the East End.
But I think Bristolians are thick. (Imo)

jem

[Buenchico]

Hi Molly

Researchers have tried to work out where people speak the nearest version of our language to "Queen's English" (which, I suppose, accepts the pronunciations given in the Oxford English Dictionary). If those who've learnt English as a foreign language are excluded from the survey, it seems that the 'best' English is spoken around Aberdeen. So it shouldn't be regarded as surprising that someone who had a Scottish teacher speaks 'perfect' English!

As others have said, there's a wide variation in Italian accents. I've worked with a guy from Sicily who told me that he'd only talk to a colleague from northern Italy in English. That was because he couldn't understand what he was saying in Italian!

Chris

[craft1948]

I was taught German for 4 years...........it was only after talking to some german students I realised my teacher was Austrian...........

[mollykins]

Chris I said that 'he spoke english with no accent at all.'

[mollykins]

Hmm, the way he replied made it seem as if italian accents don't vary much but they obviously do. How come he didn't understand the thing about british accents then?