How to get rid of an accent in Italian. How to speak with a fake Italian accent

2.3.3.1. Markers characterizing the Italian accent in English. Interference of Italian in English.

The Italian language was formed on the basis of the Romance dialects of Italy, dating back to folk Latin. In the field of phonetics and phonology Italian language against the background of other Romanesque, it has a number of features. In the field of vocalism, this is special development, which received the name "Italian type" (in particular, the coincidence of Latin short vowels of the upper ascent and long vowels of the average ascent in the vowels of the upper-middle ascent). In the field of consonants, the Italian language is characterized by a fairly large conservatism: quantitative oppositions are preserved, processes of intervocal weakening of consonants do not occur or occur irregularly. (Int. Source 6) The main articulatory base is alveolar articulation. A characteristic feature of the phonetics of the Italian language are doubled consonants. They are pronounced as one long sound

Sounds in Italian - 30: 7 vowels, 21 consonants and 2 semi-consonants. In Italian, there is no palatalization, that is, a softening of the consonant in front of the front vowels, so usually Italians who speak Russian mispronounce palatalized sounds. The consonants are pronounced in the same way as the corresponding Russian consonants (b - p, m - n, v - f, p), but more clearly and tensely. The consonants b, f, m, n, v are pronounced the same as in English. Sounds [p] and [t] are the same as in English, but always without aspiration. The sound [l] is sharper, sharper than in English, and more pushed forward (as in the word link). There are no sounds [θ] and [ð] in Italian, and these sounds are often replaced in speech by the familiar sounds [s] and [z], respectively. Italian vowels are short, always very pronounced, and never stretch. Unlike English, Italian does not have a smooth "decay" vowel at the end of a word. It should be noted that a, i, u are always pronounced the same; [e] and [o], on the contrary, can be open and closed. (Int. Ist. 7, our translation). Vibrating [r] can be called the Italian sound most alien to most speakers of English language... It is not at all like [r] in most English accents. It is pronounced by vibrating the tip of the tongue against the palate, just behind the teeth. In ordinary speech, however, in most cases this sound is reduced to a "single" vibration, or rather to one touch of the tongue and palate. This shortened sound can be heard in some variations of English as a substitute for [t] or [d] between two vowels, for example in the following English words ah: better (eng. better) = bere (it. to drink); yeti (English yetti) = ieri (it. yesterday); powder (English powder) = paura (it. fear). To utter a double [r] requires a full vibrating [r]. This feature can also be reflected in the speech of an Italian who pronounces an English word, where a double [r] occurs. The sound [x] does not exist in Italian. Only in the Tuscan dialect there is a sound that is very similar to Russian [x]: the Tuscan people have no sound [k], they pronounce a different sound, close to Russian [x], but not identical, for example, instead of casa (house) [kaza], they say [hasa], instead of cane (dog) [kana] they say [hane], and so on. For Italians from other regions, it is not difficult to pronounce this sound, simply because they already know it passively, from the pronunciation of the Tuscans. The dumb letter Hh (akka) is not pronounced in Italian. It appears only for the graphic representation of phonemes and forms of the verb avere - "to have": ho [o] - I have; oh! [o] - oh! (exclamation). That is why many Italians, speaking in English, make the sound [h] out of habit, especially at the beginning of words. It is interesting to note that the opposite process also arose - Italians sometimes add a sound similar to the sound [h] at the beginning of English words beginning with a vowel. This tendency can be explained by the fact that an Italian speaking English is struggling with the habit of missing h, but does not remember exactly where this sound occurs and inserts it “just in case”. But most of all Italian and english pronunciation diverge in vowels. Moreover, these differences also depend on the variety of the English dialect (British, American ...). The intonation in Italian narrative phrase is ascending-descending. The tone of the voice rises at the end of each rhythm group and decreases at the end of the phrase at the end of the utterance. In the interrogative phrase, the intonation gradually increases and at the end of the phrase reaches the highest tone. In exclamation form, the tone gradually rises to the penultimate syllable, followed by a slight fall.

The Italian language was formed on the basis of the Romance dialects of Italy, dating back to folk Latin. In the field of phonetics and phonology, the Italian language is distinguished by a number of features against the background of other Romance languages. In the field of vocalism, this is a special development, called the "Italian type" (in particular, the coincidence of Latin short vowels of the upper ascent and long vowels of the average ascent in the vowels of the upper-middle ascent). In the field of consonants, the Italian language is characterized by a fairly large conservatism: quantitative oppositions are preserved, processes of intervocal weakening of consonants do not occur or occur irregularly. (Int. Source 6) The main articulatory base is alveolar articulation. Characteristic feature the phonetics of the Italian language are doubled consonants. They are pronounced as one long sound

Sounds in Italian - 30: 7 vowels, 21 consonants and 2 semi-consonants. In Italian, there is no palatalization, that is, a softening of the consonant in front of the front vowels, so usually Italians who speak Russian mispronounce palatalized sounds. The consonants are pronounced in the same way as the corresponding Russian consonants (b - p, m - n, v - f, p), but more clearly and tensely. The consonants b, f, m, n, v are pronounced the same as in English. Sounds [p] and [t] are the same as in English, but always without aspiration. The sound [l] is sharper, sharper than in English, and more pushed forward (as in the word link). There are no sounds [θ] and [ð] in Italian, and these sounds are often replaced in speech by the familiar sounds [s] and [z], respectively. Italian vowels are short, always very pronounced, and never stretch. Unlike English, Italian does not have a smooth "decay" vowel at the end of a word. It should be noted that a, i, u are always pronounced the same; [e] and [o], on the contrary, can be open and closed. (Int. Ist. 7, our translation). Vibrating [r] can be called the Italian sound most foreign to most native English speakers. It is not at all like [r] in most English accents. It is pronounced by vibrating the tip of the tongue against the palate, just behind the teeth. In ordinary speech, however, in most cases this sound is reduced to a "single" vibration, or rather to one touch of the tongue and palate. This shortened sound can be heard in some variants of English as a substitute for [t] or [d] between two vowels, for example, in the following English words: better = bere (it. Drink); yeti (English yetti) = ieri (it. yesterday); powder (English powder) = paura (it. fear). To utter a double [r] requires a full vibrating [r]. This feature can also be reflected in the speech of an Italian who pronounces an English word, where a double [r] occurs. The sound [x] does not exist in Italian. Only in the Tuscan dialect there is a sound that is very similar to Russian [x]: the Tuscan people have no sound [k], they pronounce a different sound, close to Russian [x], but not identical, for example, instead of casa (house) [kaza], they say [hasa], instead of cane (dog) [kana] they say [hane], and so on. For Italians from other regions, it is not difficult to pronounce this sound, simply because they already know it passively, from the pronunciation of the Tuscans. The dumb letter Hh (akka) is not pronounced in Italian. It appears only for the graphic representation of phonemes and forms of the verb avere - "to have": ho [o] - I have; oh! [o] - oh! (exclamation). That is why many Italians, speaking in English, make the sound [h] out of habit, especially at the beginning of words. It is interesting to note that the opposite process also arose - Italians sometimes add a sound similar to the sound [h] at the beginning of English words beginning with a vowel. This tendency can be explained by the fact that an Italian speaking English is struggling with the habit of missing h, but does not remember exactly where this sound occurs and inserts it “just in case”. But most of all, Italian and English pronunciations diverge in vowels. Moreover, these differences also depend on the variety of the English dialect (British, American ...). The intonation in Italian narrative phrase is ascending-descending. The tone of the voice rises at the end of each rhythm group and decreases at the end of the phrase at the end of the utterance. In the interrogative phrase, the intonation gradually increases and at the end of the phrase reaches the highest tone. In exclamation form, the tone gradually rises to the penultimate syllable, followed by a slight fall.

Examples of errors that can occur in English speech due to the pronunciation of the native Italian language:

Replacing the vowel [æ] with the characteristic Italian vowel [ʌ] turns the verb ran into the past participle ran. If in the word "bought" (bought) instead of the sound [ɔ:] is read separately each vowel ([ɔʊ]), which is characteristic of the Italian language, then the word boat (boat) will be obtained. The diphthong [əʊ] can be reduced to the sound [ɒ]. For example, the word note (note) becomes a negative particle not. And if the Italian is not fluent in English, then you can hear the word "note" as the Italian note (as well as in English, meaning "note") sounds in Italian - [‘note]. The word full (full) can sound like fool (fool) in the speech of an Italian, because when reading the letter “u” in Italian, there is no distinction between the sounds [ʊ] and. Due to the lack of longitude in the Italian sound [a], for example, an error may occur when pronouncing the words cup (cupping hands) and carp (grumble, grumble), cut (cut off) and cart (take away, slang. "), Sit (to sit) and seat (to sit down, accommodate), which will entail a semantic error. The diphthong / ɪə / in beer can be pronounced by the Italian as / eə / in bear, or the double e can be reduced to one and read like. The lack of sound [ɜ:] in Italian and the letter-by-letter reading may cause the word bird to be pronounced like.

If instead of weaker than in Italian, and sometimes dumb [r], you pronounce the Italian sound [r], then, for example, the word survivor becomes Sir Ivor. Instead of the sound shwa (ə), for example, in the weak endings in the words London, England, in the article the, the vowels [o], [a] and [e] can sound, respectively. Due to the fact that the sounds [θ] and [ð] are absent in the Italian language, they can be replaced in speech with [t] or [d] and lead either to a distortion of the meaning, or simply to make the speech incomprehensible (they -> day ). There may be confusion in the use of the sounds [s] and [z], for example, in the words rise and rice] (rice). The absence of the letter w in the Italian alphabet can lead to its frequent replacement with the sound [v]. For example, the word west (west) would sound like vest (vest).

2.3.3.2. Analysis of episodes with an Italian accent.

To address the Italian accent, we have selected scenes from the following films:

1) "Lorenzo" s Oil "(1992)
2) Captain Corelli "s Mandolin (2001)
3) "Pink Panther 2" (
4) "When in Rome" (2002)
5) “Love is all there” ()
6) “Angels and demons” (e.g. Vittoria Vetra is Italian + some others)

7) “When in Rome” (2010)

8) “’ Allo ’Allo”

In the historical melodrama Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Nicolas Cage, an American actor, plays an Italian soldier who invades Greece, Kefalonia, during World War II with his compatriots. with a foreign accent, Greek, Italian, German. The film contains speakers of German, Italian, Greek languages, but they play secondary roles or were involved in extras. For the survey, we offered to evaluate only the accent of Nicolas Cage, tk. his role is the role of the first plan. Note that the father of Nicolas Cage is of Italian descent, the brother of the famous director Francis Coppola, i.e. Nicolas Cage, born Nicholas Kim Coppola, is half Italian.

Nicolos Cage's accent received a lot of negative reviews, mainly from American respondents, and it is important to emphasize that in the opinion of almost everyone who fully watched this film in the original, his accent spoiled the impression of the film and lowered the level of this artwork Cinematography: "The Mandolin of Captain Corelli has a root conspicuous problem: Nicolas Cage's terrifying Italian accent" (Patrick); “Nicolas Cage and his fake accent really made this movie worse than it actually was” (Bob, USA); "Nicolas Cage's accent, shall we say, did not make enough of his Italian blood, but this point can be easily ignored if you intend to enjoy the film." (Alice, USA); “There is something odd about all the accents in this film that somehow lowers the film's level a little, and that makes it look less glamorous than it is. I understand that some people may be puzzled by this cornucopia of Italian, Greek, German and Spanish (Penelope Cruz) accents, even though this aspect did not bother me at all ”(Andry, USA).

However, there were also more neutral and even positive reviews:

“His accent is very close to Italian, but you can still find his American accent in some words and phrases. This is one of the best attempts, but I think it might be due to his Italian blood. And it is obvious that he spent some time in Italy. " (James, UK ";" Nicholas Cage, I think, is a bad actor, and he definitely speaks with an accent that any American would expect to hear in an Italian. "(Graham, UK)

Alicia from the UK commented on the accent of Nicolas Cadage and the Italian officer he is talking to: “These Italian accents sound very authentic ... The way he pronounces the word 'first' is excellent, perfect Italian English! Also, the word "decision" spoken by Major [Captain Corelli] is very Italian: "deseeseeonne".

"Lorenzo's oil" - drama based on real events that occurred in the late 1980s in the United States. The film is full of dramatic scenes that naturally depict the suffering of a sick child (Lorenzo Odone) and his parents (Augusto and Mikaela Odone). Nick Nolte, an American actor, plays Lorenzo's father. And although in places his acting seemed too expressive, critics noted that he coped well with the role. At the same time, many critics found his Italian accent ridiculous and ridiculous. (Int. Ist 6) "Lorenzo's Oil"). Augusto Odone is an Italian by nationality, was born in 1933, in 1969 he moved from Rome to Washington.

In this film, the actor in the role of Augusto Odone had to use a foreign accent not only to indicate the hero's nationality according to the script. In this case, the accent was necessary to reflect reality, but in reality, the real Lorenzo Odone has a native Italian accent.

A few comments indicate that Nolte managed to convey an Italian accent: “All the actors in the film played great. Especially Nick Nolte who did a great job with the Italian accent. " But note that this commentary was written by a native speaker living in Norway. Moreover, the second positive comment is from Jugu Abraham from India: "Nolte's acting is just great with his unusual accent." It is likely that these respondents are not as sensitive about the implausibility of an accent as the Americans, British, and Australians, because many respondents were outraged by Nick Nolte's accent. He sounded artificial, and those who fully watched the film added that such an implausible accent acted as an annoying factor: “Because of Nolte's fake accent, it was impossible to understand half of what he was saying” (Daniel, USA); “Nolte’s ridiculous Italian accent is hard to get used to” (Thomas, USA). Briton James commented on Nick Nolte’s accent: “It’s not at all like an Italian accent,” and added that his girlfriend, an Italian, confirmed that it was difficult to guess that the hero was of Italian descent (in the episode proposed for analysis, the actor in some places goes from English to Italian). But there were also responses that expressed the idea that Nick Nolte's acting was so good that his unpleasant accent was almost imperceptible: “Nick Nolte's" Italian "accent was just awful. (it may have cost him the nomination), but he managed to convey the incredible spiritual strength of his father - and that's what matters ”(John, UK). This is another example of a director having to carefully weigh his decision on whether to take on the role of a native speaker, Italian, or whether an artificial accent of an American actor will suffice. We believe that in this film it was necessary to take on the role of an actor of Italian origin with an authentic accent. In many films, an artificial accent will be appropriate, if it is necessary, for example, to indicate the nationality of the hero, or especially if the accent is used in a comedy film. But Lorenzo's Oil is 1) a heavy drama, 2) Augusto Odone is a real-life character, an Italian, and one could try to find a good Italian actor for his role so as not to lose a bit of realism. This idea is reflected in the comments of the respondents: “Nick Nolte played well, but I must admit that as a fan of Nolte, his performance in this film was somewhat disappointing for me. With that Italian accent, he looked like an idiot. Perhaps Nolte's choice for this role was unfortunate. Perhaps it would have been better if an Italian-looking actor had been chosen who had a much more believable accent. " (Travis, USA).

Nick Nolte uses many of the characteristic markers of the Italian accent (for example, pronouncing a vibrating [r], even in those words where [r] is not pronounced, changes the quality of the vowels), but this only allows him to indicate that he is an Italian speaking from the script Italian accent. Due to the inauthentic accent of Nick Nolte while watching the film, one involuntarily recalls that this is not the real Odone family, but the actors who have passed the casting.

Japanese accent.

By the definition of the Ozhegov dictionary, the accent is the features of the reprimand, characteristic of the speaker not in native language... It is not at all necessary to get rid of these features if you are already understood. The accent can be attractive, it's part of your personality. However, for example, for French the ability to clearly and differently pronounce one and a half dozen vowels - necessary minimum for successful communication, otherwise incidents are inevitable. In addition, sounds that you do not know how to pronounce are more difficult and understand what they want from you. Anyone who has tried to learn and communicate in English knows what I'm talking about. Given this, it is useful to work on the accent for everyone, even if there is no goal of passing for a foreigner and speaking like a native speaker.

The accent feature is at the level individual sounds and at the level of intonation.

1. If you are not given separate sounds, find out how they should be pronounced. Literally where to put the tongue, at what height, with what intensity to pronounce the sound. Children copy speech unconsciously, while for adults it is more effective and faster to put on logic and conscious actions. Find good teacher putting pronunciation: he will show everything in detail, tell and give exercises to train the muscles of the mouth and work out the position speech apparatus... Do them, and correct pronunciation will become a habit.

2. Emphasis on the level intonation it is more difficult for the speaker himself to grasp (especially without having an ear for music), which cannot be said about the interlocutors. Many people have pronunciation defects in their native language, but it is by the correct intonation that we determine whether a person speaks his native language or a foreign one. According to it, the purpose of the statement is read: was it a question, request, statement, a formula of politeness, etc. What to do if a bear stepped on the ear, and you want to correct your intonation?

♦ Listen to foreign language and note repetitive patterns. For example, on a question, intonation goes up. It is useful to draw or visualize intonation in the form of a graph.

♦ Repeat the texts aloud behind the speakers in phrases, imitating pronunciation and intonation as fully as possible. This is the most important and effective piece of advice. Parody familiar foreigners and in a real conversation, imagine that they are pronouncing the text, and not you. Those who are not afraid to seem ridiculous achieve the greatest success in working on intonation. Language is also fun because you try on a different personality, it's still you, but not quite. Don't be afraid of that.

♦ Learn the correct intonation for courtesy formulas and common phrases. At least in this you will be flawless, and this is not so little.

© Sokolova Nadezhda,

French and Italian teacher

February 21, 2016

CIRCUIT SIGNS graves and acute accent in Italian are used to indicate a graphical emphasis on a stressed vowel. As a rule, with the letters -a, -i, -o, -u - gravel, and with the letter -e - both acute and gravel.

GRAVIS "\"- stick over the letter, tilt to the left- a sign of a weak accent. The vowel sound with this stress is OPEN ("long").
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the stress will be on the last syllable and the ending in such words, if this is a noun, does not change in numbers:
- words of foreign origin: il caffè - i caffè, il menù - i menù;
- truncated words: la città - le città, la virtù - le virtù.
In words with ascending diphthongs, in order to show stress, in these cases the vowels can be either open or closed:
- più - more, more, può - he / she can;
- ciò - this, that, già - already, giù - down.
Historically established truncations from Latin forms, verbs 1 and 3 persons, singular in the simple future tense: sarò / sarà (essere), andrò / andrà (andare), ecc.

AKUT "/"- stick over the letter, tilt to the right- a sign of strong stress. The vowel sound with this stress is CLOSED ("short").
In words with an emphasis on the last syllable and in several service monosyllabic words:
perché, affinché, poiché, benché, cosicché, nonché, purché ecc.

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✔ To avoid confusion in the forms of verbs that match in writing (do not forget that the diacritic mark also shows stress):
- tu capi (capare) and capì (capire); capito (participle ave from capire) and egli capitò (capitare);
- io parlo and egli parlò (parlare), io lavoro and egli lavorò (lavorare).

✔ The forms of some verbs in the 2nd person, singular, in the imperative mood (imperative) have truncated variants (see), which can coincide with other words, this is indicated by both a grave and an apostrophe:
- di (preposition) and dì, di ’(verb dire), preposition da and dà, da’ (verb dare);
- fa (3 sheets, singular, indicative) and fà, fa '(2 sheets, singular, imperative).

✔ Both stresses are found in the middle of words, for example, in homonyms or in homographs:
Mònaco (di Baviera) - Munich / Principato di Monaco - Monaco (Principality)
la bótte (closed) - barrel / le bòtte (open) - strikes
Dèi (plural of Dio - God) - dei = di + i (preposition with article)
The use of diacritics in such cases is optional (or when clarification is necessary for clarification).

✔ In foreign common and proper names, it is mainly found acute: Theós (ancient Greek god), Hortobágy (park in Hungary), János Áder (president of Hungary).

✔ In addition, other diacritics are used in writing. This is necessary to indicate sounds that are not in Italian or to preserve the original spelling of words.
— gachek — ˇ - a check mark above the letter (Čajkovskij - Tchaikovsky, Ščepkin - Shchepkin);
— umlaut — ¨ - a colon above the letter (Pëtr - Peter);
— apostrophe — ‘ - can also be used as a diacritic mark (Il'ič - Ilyich), and for transliteration of a hard mark they write a double apostrophe - ‘ ‘ .

In dictionaries the accent is shown by the accent diacritic mark, but here it has an exclusively demonstrative function. By analogy with Russian dictionaries, only they contain gravel.

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IMPORTANT remember and not confuse some words:
GRAVIS
Sì, sì (yes) - Si, si (returnable particle)
Tè, tè (tea) - Te, te (you ...)
È, è (3 l. Singular ch. To be) * - E, e (and)
Verbs in 2nd l, singular imperative mood and other words:
Dà, dà (give!) - Da, da (from, from ...)
Dì dì (speak!) - Di, di (preposition)

ACUT
Né, né (no) - Ne, ne (about him, about her ...)
Sé, sé (yourself ...) - Se, se (if)
poté - 3 l. units h in passato remoto "potere"

* Uppercase È cannot be replaced with E ’- this is a mistake!

P.S. Quite often in familiar correspondence, diacritics are replaced with an apostrophe, but this is for writing speed, since not all keyboard layouts have separate keys for letters with diacritics.

© Lara Leto, 2015
© Italy and Italian. Travel and Learn !, 2015

Articles

Many are fascinated by the sound of Italian, which has a reputation as one of the most beautiful and musical languages ​​in the world. No wonder people who study Italian tend to speak it as beautifully as Italians. But Italian pronunciation and intonation turn out to be not as simple as it might seem at first.

The articulation of sounds is associated with the position of the organs of speech (tongue, lips). This situation is formed already in the first years of life and differs among representatives of different peoples, even when they are silent. Yes, yes, we are silent in different ways! So, when the British are silent, they smile slightly, the French kiss, and the Americans hold a small ball in their concave tongue. Russians are characterized by a "dorsal" position of the tongue: the tongue is curved, flattened, its tip pressed to the palate and from the side - to the upper teeth. We use this position of the language to soften consonants - one of the main features of Russian pronunciation (do not transfer it to Italian!) But what about Italians? They are silent "tensely": they press the tip of the tongue to the palate behind the front upper teeth (literally, "keep their mouths shut!") So, if we are even silent in different ways, what can we say about the pronunciation of individual sounds?

Since the articulation of sounds is associated with the position of the organs of speech, textbooks of foreign languages ​​often provide schemes for the articulation of individual sounds, which show the position of the tongue and lips when pronouncing a particular sound. But get hold of good pronunciation with the help of such pictures and descriptions, of course, it is almost impossible. The best, and perhaps the only, way to improve your Italian pronunciation is to listen to Italian as much as possible. Audio courses for learners and Italian films, songs and TV shows, communication with Italians or with a teacher are all good ways. Feel free to imitate the Italians, their manner of speaking (loudly and stretching out words!) And even gesticulating. Read the texts aloud as much as possible. Previously, language laboratories were popular, allowing you to record your speech. Now there are dictaphones for this, and with the help of an ordinary computer, you can easily record your voice. To do this, you need a microphone built into your computer or camera, or connected to your computer. The equipment used when communicating on Skype is fine. You will also need to install one of the programs for recording and processing sound on your computer. Now you can record your voice and watch your pronunciation gradually improve. Hear, read, record yourself and listen over and over again! Finally, sing. It is noticed that people who speak foreign language with an accent, they often lose it when they sing: "singing" without an accent is easier. So listening to Italian music and karaoke is also a way to improve your pronunciation!

Now let's talk a little about the Italian pronunciation itself. It is considered not very difficult, because in the Italian language there are no rare sounds unusual for other languages, for example, nasal vowels or interdental or interlabial consonants. Italians do not grasp like the French or Germans; sound r similar to Russian, except that it sounds more rolling.

And yet, Italian pronunciation has certain difficulties. Italian consonants are pronounced more energetically and louder than Russian ones. Vowel sounds e and o have an open and closed sound, which is not always easily distinguishable for the Russian ear, and even more difficult to reproduce.

Vowel sounds in an unstressed syllable retain their full sound. So, in a word corona(pronounced [crown]) both vowels [o] sound equally clear (while in Russian the first, unstressed "o" turns into "a"). The vowel e does not change its sound in an unstressed position. So, in a word telefono(pronounced [telefono]) letter e in an unstressed position sounds like [e] (whereas in Russian unstressed e pronounced like "and").

In Italian, there is no difference between the pronunciation of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables, but there is a difference in the duration of pronouncing the stressed syllable: a stressed vowel differs not only in a more energetic pronunciation, but also in length. So, in a word corona the second o is twice as long as the first, and in the word telefono the second e is longer than the first.

Another phonetic feature of the Italian language is the firm pronunciation of consonants before all vowels (in Russian, consonants are softened before and, e and some other vowel sounds). So, in a word moneta(pronounced [moneta]) n before e is not softened.

Italian phonetics is characterized by an abundance of doubled consonants, which is reflected both when writing words and when pronouncing them. Try, for example, to read the words mamma, donna, palla. You should stretch out the doubled consonants as if they were vowel sounds (without dividing the words into separate syllables: [mammmma], not “mama” or “mam-ma”). In the case of voiceless consonants, on the contrary, it will be necessary to make a very small pause at the place of the doubling of consonants: succo ([suk-ko]), tutti ([here-ty]).

Italian intonation is very pronounced. Just like in separate words the stressed syllable is lengthened and highlighted by the voice, in the sentence stands out the most meaningful word... So, the phrase Roberto parla l'italiano can be pronounced in different ways, depending on the meaning that is embedded in the utterance: ROBERTO parla l'italiano (if it is emphasized that it is Roberto who speaks Italian) or Roberto parla l'ITALIANO (Roberto speaks Italian, not French or English).

It should also be borne in mind that Italians themselves may have different (and not always correct) pronunciation. After all, not so long ago in Italy, most of the inhabitants in Everyday life spoke the dialect of their area. Nowadays, Italians use less and less dialect and speak mainly Italian, but the peculiarities of pronunciation often "give out" the origin of the speaker. The standard of pronunciation in modern Italian is Roman, since it is in Rome that the RAI radio and television studios are located, and most of the announcers and journalists speak with a Roman accent. This does not mean that you should not "trust" the pronunciation of Italians who come from other regions of Italy: the correct pronunciation depends not only on the origin, but also on the social and educational level of the speaker. Still, be on the alert and remember that imitating the speech of your Italian friends, you run the risk of acquiring regional peculiarities of their pronunciation, so listen to radio and TV programs in Italian more and compare the “correct” Italian pronunciation with what you hear from friends Italians.