All right, all right, settle down. True, I almost always talk about English grammar; however, I am also very handy with several other languages (although not fluent in any). At the very least, any English-speaker should have some familiarity with other languages, because English borrows so much from so many others.
And this is why I am grouching in Italian today!
Three Italian items have irritated me enough!
1) Mezzaluna:
A perfectly lovely word, meaning "half-moon". It's pretty simple: "mezza" means "half" and "luna" means "moon". You may recognize "mezza" from another word, "mezzanine". And you may recognize "luna" from words in English, such as "lunar" (pertaining to the moon) and "lunacy" (once believed to have been influenced by the moon).
So what's my ever-lovin' problem this time? Americans seem to be unable to pronounce it correctly!
Do you say "pee-za" for "pizza"? Indeed you do not! You say "peeT-za"!
"Mezzaluna", with its double-z, is pronounced the same way: "METT-zah-loo-nah"!
Simple enough.
Aside: "Mezzanine" is generally not pronounced with the "T" sound--but it should be!
2) Paparazzi:
My grouchy irritation with this one has to do with the plural. (For pronunciation of the double-z, see my grouch above.)
In Italian, nouns end with an "a", indicating a feminine noun, or an "o", indicating a masculine. (If you are familiar with Spanish, this is the same function.)
To create a plural (unlike in Spanish), the Italians substitute an "i" for the last vowel. Thus, ONE paparazzO becomes TWO OR MORE paparazzI.
Again, it's very simple, once you understand this rule of Italian.
Thus, if you haven't figured it out, I hate it when someone refers to ONE photographer as "a paparazzi"! No such animal!
Yeah, yeah, I know this one is hopeless, but I am trying anyway.
3) And finally, venti:
"Venti" is in common usage nowadays thanks to Starbucks. As you may be aware, Starbucks doesn't go for the typical "small, medium, and large"; they offer "tall, grande, and venti". These translate to "tall" (sorry, that's English), "large" (duh), and "TWENTY".
That's right, "venti" means "twenty", the number of ounces that the cup holds.
Now, around these parts (Central Texas), lots of people speak Spanish. And they seem to think it's somehow preferable to say, "VENT-AY", presumably because the Spanish word for "twenty" is "veinte", and it is pronounced with an "ay" sound at the end.
But this is Italian, people. So "i" at the end of a word" is pronounced "eee", just as in "paparazzi".
Seems simple enough to me, but I have even heard Starbucks employees say, "vent-ay". Grrrr. It's all I can do to keep from running, screaming into the night!
*****
Oh, I'm worn out from all my ranting.
Until next time, my friends,
happy grammaring!
Susan K. Morrow
http://SusanKMorrow.com
