Dropping the Last Syllable
Wednesday January 7, 2009
One characteristic of the Italian language that makes it easier to pronounce than English is the fact that it's phonetic; that is, it is spoken the way it is written. But what often confounds students, after having mastered this concept, is encountering dropped last syllables in Italian. It's common in speech (either in dialects or regional Italian languages), sometimes acknowledged in writing, and mandatory with prepositional verbs (i.e., far su or far fuori).
Comments
growing up in the italian community in san diego, cal, i recall that many of the folks used to drop the last syllable when speaking italian. examples: spagett’, mozzarell’, andiam’, zi’[for zia or zio], ricott’, polpett’, cappell’ etc, etc. i’ll bet there others who grew up in that milieu who will remember some examples. M
Is it mandatory [on the infinitive “fare” plus a preposition; dropping the final vowel on a past participle is NOT acceptable Italian]? Can anyone recommend style manguals [as opposed to grammars] in which this question figures?
The final “-e” is dropped on “andare” in combinations with an adverb [for one example, “andar via”.]
1. Please excuse the typo in my comment above. The incorrect word should, of course, read “(style) manuals.”
2. What Marianna writes in her comment about Italian-Americans dropping final vowels is an interesting sociological phenomenon: an unconscious [first-step?] integration into Anglophone society. Before it had to cease publication, I worked as an editor and reporter for the Italian-language newspaper in San Francisco, my native city. Not just the Italians in Little Italy [mostly Tuscans and Ligurians; mostly food providers, store-owners, and fishermen], but even many workers at the paper outside of the newsroom staff dropped a lot of final vowels. Integration has been successful: there are hardly any Italians left in SF’s Little Italy — at least any that can speak Italian in what remains of the stores I drop into when back into town.
That may be the way it is but doesn’t justify mispronouncing the language. It is more of an embarassment for correct pronounciation so as to feel more american and not foreign.