On Thu, 25 Jan 2001 22:54:45
Isabelle Bracamonte wrote:
>Moriarty, one of the standard Italian diction books
>used in the US, says that all ending unstressed e's
>and o's should be open.
>
>However, Colorni, the other standard, says they should
>be closed.
I insist: in Italian they should be closed.
>Mike, point from Bergonzi well-taken. However, my
>coach screams at me if I don't get the vowels right
>(and he works for the opera house). He insists upon
>open unstressed.
>
>
>I have friends who have gone through the Met young
>artist program and they both say they were taught to
>open the ending unstresseds. Aspen summer festival
>taught the same thing. Juilliard teaches closed,
>however.
It's not a matter of opinion. In Italy (as in other countries, I think) there
is an *official* language, with rules.
The "close" rule is official.
This "open" rule is not a standard of italian pronunciation, but a foreign
standard of italian pronunciation.
The same fact that exist many opinions (Moriarty,Colorni, Mike, Juillard...)
should make think that there's something wrong.
What are these opinions based on?
"I think that in Italy people speak so..." "no, I think they speak..."
Let's find an accord ;-) And, IMHO, this accord should be based on official
grammary.
>Italian people from the north (like Milan) will close
>almost everything.
Aahhrgghh!!!
Dialectal variations! If someone want to learn Italian basing on dialects and
dialectal variations, I think he will never finish!
When I tell "in Italian" i mean "official" Italian.
About many north people, it's true that they "close", in the meaning that *all*
vowel colors are sligthly closer. But I don't find it in particular about
/E/|/e/ and /O/|/o/.
Sometimes, on the contrary, they use an /E/ instead of /e/ (i.e. Sigar/E/tta
instead of Sigar/e/tta).
Let's notice, anyhow, that the major differences between dialects about these
two (or, better, four!) vowels are in the stressed syllable (i.e. "Sigaretta"
is stressed on "re"). The unstressed remain close (nearly always)
>Italian people from Tuscany will
>close the ending unstressed vowels.
Yes, following the rule... remember that Tuscany language is, probably, the
most similar to "official" language.
>Except that some regions will open them.
Now that I think, there is some dialectal expression such spoken. But they are
a little minority.
And, it's difficult to me to think that, in a country (USA), have been built a
rule about a foreign language (ITA) that in its country is followed by few
words.
>Italian people from the south
>are impossible to understand no matter what they say.
>:)
Yes, I understand you perfectly!
There, they often brutally change one vowel with another (o with u, i with
e...), one vowel with a diphthong, two consonants with the doubling of the
first...
And a big problem is that, compared with north and center, there is more use of
*pure dialects* and less of Italian language.
bye
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