Beginner Italian Level 2 Lesson 9 Pronouncing Groups of Vowels Do these words pose a challenge for you, when it comes to pronunciation? Euro Euro Aereo airplane Aiuola flowerbed Eroe hero Aiutare to help Puoi you can ​ ​ Noia boredom Vorrei I would like A arrivare to arrive Domani andiamo al bar tomorrow let’s go to the bar Back to the basics If you remember way back to the beginning of Beginner Italian Level 1, we spoke about vowels and the possible sounds. A E I O U 5 vowels > 7 sounds (including open vowels E and O) ​ ​ ​ ​ 1 Beginner Italian Level 2 Our aim is to pronounce all vowels as openly and vocally as you can (hence the word VOCALI for ​ ​ vowels). They must be single sounds that you can stretch or elongate without changing the sound. A > aaaaa ​ ​ ​ E > eeeee ​ ​ I > iiiiiiii ​ ​ O > ooooo (not the rounded “Oh” we have in English) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ U> uuuuuu ​ ​ The sound never changes halfway, it must be the same from beginning to end. Failing to do this could be the cause of any difficulty that you may have with your pronunciation at present. What about the “open vowels”? Well, open vowels commonly occur in stressed syllables. This is ​ ​ when we put the emphasis on a particular syllable in a word. If that syllable contains the E or the ​ ​ O, chances are, it will be open (not always the case, but we need go with what works most of the ​ time!). Opera opera /open O/ ​ Uovo egg /open O/ ​ ​ Telefono telephone /open E/ ​ ​ We also have “long vowels” in stressed syllables. The stressed syllable is longer than all the other vowels. Chiodo nail /long O/ ​ ​ Schiuma foam /long U/ ​ ​ Operazione operation /long O/ ​ ​ 2 Beginner Italian Level 2 Dipthongs, triphtongs and hiatuses Diphthongs - two vowels together e.g. AI ​ ​ Triphthongs - three vowels together e.g. AIO ​ ​ Hiatus - when you are breaking a diphthong or triphthong ​ In Italian, we have two types of vowels: Weak vowels: I U ​ Strong vowels: A E O ​ We have a diphthong when a weak and a strong vowel coexist in the same syllable. The stress is on the STRONG vowel. We have a hiatus when we break that rule and, therefore, put the stress on the WEAK vowel. Diphthongs Here are some possible combinations of vowels that make up diphthongs in Italian. [WEAK VOWEL] + [STRONG VOWEL] IO > fiore, chiodo flower, nail IA > piatto, piano, chiave plate, floor/flat/slow, key IU > fiume river IE > pieno, fieno full, hay UA > guasto, quando fault, when UE > guerra war UO > vuoto, fuori empty, outside UI > guida guide 3 Beginner Italian Level 2 [STRONG VOWEL] + [WEAK VOWEL] AI > dirai you will say AU > causa cause EI > nei in the (plural masculine) ​ ​ EU > neutro neutral OI > voi, poi you guys, then/after To pronounce these sounds correctly, we have to learn to weaken the pronunciation of the weak vowel. I can still hear the I in PIENO, it’s just that the E comes out stronger. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ You can think of these weak vowels as semi-vowels. The good news is that Italian and English share these semi-vowels! Think of the sound of Y in YES and W in WAS. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Triphthongs Here are some possible combinations of vowels that make up triphthongs in Italian. AIO > paio, giornalaio pair, newsagent IAI > mangiai I ate IEI > miei my/mine ​ IUO > aiuola, giuoco flowerbed, game (old Italian) UAI > guai trouble UIA > continuiamo let’s continue / we continue ​ UIE > quiete quietness UIO > colloquio (job) interview ​ UOI > tuoi, suoi, vuoi your, his/her/your (polite), you want Hiatuses A hiatus breaks the standard rule of pronouncing diphthongs and triphthongs, making the stress fall on the weak vowel, instead of the strong vowel. 4 Beginner Italian Level 2 Tuo your ​ ​ Zio uncle ​ ​ Poesia poetry ​ ​ Farmacia pharmacy ​ ​ Periodo period ​ ​ Geologia geology ​ ​ Paura fear ​ ​ Via street/way ​ ​ ​ ​ There are times when we have words that contain TWO strong vowels: Poeta poet Eroe hero Paese country Groups of vowels from separate words When we speak Italian, we often end up creating groups of vowels, by simply putting words together, as Italian words tend to end with a vowel and many words start with a vowel. Often, in order to avoid having to say a bunch of vowels, Italians will add a D sound after the preposition A (to/at) or the conjunctions E (and) and O (or). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ In most cases though, we need to ‘blend together’ these vowels and pronounce them as if they were part of the same word. A arrivare > ad arrivare ​ ​ Leonardo e amici > Leonardo ed amici ​ ​ Domani andiamo al bar > /domanyandiamo/ al bar ​ ​ Una cosa bella e importante > Una cosa bella ed importante ​ ​ 5 Beginner Italian Level 2 TRICKS 1) Don’t overthink it I want you to be aware of all the possibilities but not to worry about them. Even if you pronounce a combination of vowels slightly incorrectly, you will probably still be understood. Our goal is COMMUNICATION not PERFECTION! 2) Focus on open, Italian sounds for vowels There are only 5 main vowel sounds in Italian - that’s it! Not the multitude of vowel sounds that we have in English. Remember your A E I O U and you will be fine! ​ ​ 3) Develop a sense of where strong vowels end up The strong vowel is going to be in an open syllable, so usually in a diphthong, the second vowel is going to be the open vowel and it is going to be longer. There are times when it is not, but once again, don’t stress over it! 4) Break the word down to get the right sounds If you see a difficult looking word, break it down to its individual components. E.g. GIORNALAIO (newsagent) becomes GIOR-NA-LA-IO, GHIAIA (gravel) becomes ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ GHIA-IA (gya-ya). ​ ​ ​ 5) Exaggerate all the vowels (then dial it back!) This practice will help you to confidently project each vowel sound, but be careful not to become a parody of an Italian when actually speaking to someone. If we take the word TUOI: stretch out each vowel so it sounds like TUU-OO-II, then dial it back, remember that ​ ​ ​ U is a weak vowel, so it then sounds like “twoi”. ​ ​ Likewise with the word PUOI: PUU-OO-II, draw out each sound then dial it back > “pwoi”. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 6 Beginner Italian Level 2 6) Singing exercises Italian sounds like such a melodic language because of all the vowels (vocali), so in this ​ ​ sense, when you are speaking Italian, you are vocalizing the vowels. Practice doing singing exercises with each vowel as if you were warming up for a performance. E.g. Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-maaaa, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-noooo! Etc. ​ ​ 7) Use cheats (yo, you jah) Look for sounds that you have in your language that you can bring into Italian. Yo! Ya! Oi! ​ 8) English has triphthongs and even quadthongs Triphthongs exist in English too, though we probably never realized! Like the word CHOIR: coo-wa-i-er /u - a - i - e / sounds ​ ​ ​ Your ability to easily produce a word with triphthongs can be assimilated to Italian! Can you think of any other English words with triphthongs? Sure, the vowels sound different, but a skill is a skill, and it can be applied to other fields, right? To summarize What is the point of all of this? The idea of articulating your vowels correctly, is that you have to produce all of the sounds together, but weaken the ones that are weak vowels. The reason I explained all of the possibilities to you is so that you can break them down, find the sounds and get the pronunciation right. This will improve your speaking overall and will make pronouncing Italian words with lots of vowels much less intimidating! 7 .