I've just been watching the final episode of "Francesco's Italy" ... he was in Puglia, Calabria and Sicily. They looked fascinating. My reason for posting here is that when Francesco introduced himself to people it sounded as if he was pronouncing his name more like Fran-sisco (as in San Francisco, USA )than Fran-chesco. Did I hear it right?

Sorry I can't answer your pronounciation question, but do you know of anywhere on the web where I can download or watch "Francesco's Italy"? I only saw one episode on the BBC over the winter, and I would love to see the whole series.

The "c" is a sweet one, not a hard one like in "che".

I love that Alice, a sweet 'c'. Sounds very cuddly. Much nicer than a soft 'c'!

I just bought Francesco's Venice....it is like a delicious cake you want to dive into..I have watched the first part of the DVD and the info is so interesting. Coincidentally I am reading Miss Garnet's Angel and some of the history Francesco depicts is also here. Bliss,glass of wine,.....what more could you want?

I'm afraid I didn't check back on this thread after the first 24 hours or so, so missed your post about "sweet C", Alice. Sorry.

Is the sweet C a regional variation on the standard pronunciation?

Hugh

Anytime the "c" is followed directly by the letters "e" and "i" it's pronounced with the sweet sound (like in "cheese"). If the "c" is followed by the sequences "he" and "hi", the sound is hard (like in "key"). "C" followed by the other vowels is always hard. No dialectalisms in this.

Thanks, Alice. I understand. But I thought Francesco seemed to pronounce his name more like Fran-seesco. Or did I hear it wrong?

Hugh

Umbrian accent. ^__^

How can he have an Umbrian accent when he comes from Venice?

Fie in you, Alice! Surrounded here with Umbrians who spit out those cheesy ch's continually.

I'm afraid I don't understand the joke.

I think some confusion has been caused here because of the fact that the word 'dolce' has more than one meaning in italian.
Sweet is one of these meaning and another one is soft.
When applied to the pronunciation of c before i or e ( la c dolce) it is usually translated into english as soft - a soft c.
This is the standard italian pronunciation of c before i or e.
When I listen to him, it seems to me that Da Mosto pronounces it in the standard way.

Thanks, Vasco. I believe you are right about "dolce" - sweet/soft.

Also it appears that Alice might have read Westsussex's original transliteration of "che" alla Italiana (i.e. a hard K sound) instead of all'inglese, in which "ch" would be pronunced as in "cheese."

These things are very difficult to articulate in print!

Hi Beebee!

quote:

Originally posted by David:
Hi Beebee!

Hi David. Glad to see you posting a few times. Hope you are both well.

I really enjoyed his Venice one, but have yet to see his Italy one.

My only quibble with the Venice one was that at one point he seemed to imply that sons were more important and valuable than daughters.

I saw two or three of his programmes . I remember that his soft 'c' was much more like 'sh' as in 'sheep' than 'ch' as in cheese - much like someone I once knew who told me she pronounced it like that because she'd learnt her Italian in Florence .

quote:

I really enjoyed his Venice one, but have yet to see his Italy one

All 16 of his episodes are on U Tube: [URL= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f13U80sYxc]Francesco's Italy [/URL]