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Lesson Transcript

Laura: "Buongiorno a tutti!" "Hi, everyone!"
Marco: Marco here! Pronunciation Series Lesson 5 – Pronouncing the Letter "-s," Diphthongs, and the Hiatus
Marco: Hi, this is Marco, and I am joined here by Laura.
Laura: So we're progressing fast with our pronunciation lessons, isn't that so?
Marco: Yes, we can almost say anything we want now in Italian.
Laura: In this lesson, we are going to learn how we can pronounce the letter "-s" in the Italian language.
Marco: And how we say diphthongs and handle the hiatus.
Laura: Let's start with the letter "-s."
Marco: It's incredible how much impact this simple letter can have on the pronunciation of some words.
Laura: Well, let's see them together.
Marco: First of all, the letter "-s" can have two phonetic values.
Laura: Voiced and unvoiced.
Marco: The unvoiced "-s" [s] is the regular one from the English words "sport," "sky," "star," and so forth.
Laura: The voiced "-s" [z] is actually the sound [z] in English as we have in the words "zoo," "zone," "zip," and so forth.
Marco: Let's now take a practical look at the rules for the pronunciation of the letter "-s."
Laura: Let's start by taking a look at the letter "-s" plus "-a," "-e," "-i," "-o," and "-u."
Marco: In this case, the sound is unvoiced, as in…
Laura: "sale," [sa]
Marco: "salt"
Laura: "serpente," [se]
Marco: "snake"
Laura: "sole," [so]
Marco: "sun"
Laura: "superbo," [su]
Marco: "superb." Those were simple.
Laura: Yes, no problem at all.
Marco: Now, let's take a look at the letters "-l," "-r," "-m," and "-n" followed by "-s," also unvoiced.
Laura: "polso," [lso]
Marco: "wrist"
Laura: "università," [rsi]
Marco: "university"
Laura: "console," [nso]
Marco: "consul."
These were also pretty easy.
Laura: Yes, very easy.
Marco: Next, what do we have?
Laura: Now we have the letter "-s," plus "-c," "-f," "-p," "-q," and "-t."
Marco: The first word is…
Laura: "sconto," [sko-]
Marco: "discount"
Laura: "sforzo," [sfo-]
Marco: "effort"
Laura: "speranza," [spe-]
Marco: "hope"
Laura: "squadra," [skwa-]
Marco: "team"
Laura: and then "storia," [sto-]
Marco: "story."
Laura: This group was also fine, but in the next one we will see the voiced "-s."
Marco: Oh yes. Here, we have the letter "-s" followed by "-b," "-d," "-g," "-l," "-m," "-n," "-r," and "-v."
Laura: Shall we see some examples?
Marco: Yes!
Laura: "sbaglio," [zba]
Marco: "mistake," "error"
Laura: "sdraiarsi," [zdra]
Marco: "to lie down"
Laura: "sgridare," [zgri]
Marco: "to scold"
Laura: "slittare," [zlit]
Marco: "to skid"
Laura: "smemorato," [zme]
Marco: "forgetful"
Laura: "snello," [zne]
Marco: "thin"
Laura: "sradicare," [zra]
Marco: "eradicate," "uproot"
Laura: "svogliato," [zvo]
Marco: "halfhearted"
Laura: Those were quite a lot!
Marco: Oh yes, but we are nearly there, right?
Laura: Yes, just a little more.
Marco: Now we have the letter "-s" between vowels.
Laura: "casa," [aza]
Marco: "house," "home"
Laura: "cortese," [eze]
Marco: "gentle, " "courteous"
Laura: "fisica," [izi]
Marco: "physics"
Laura: That was short!
Marco: We now have one last situation to see.
Laura: What happens when the letter "-s" is doubled?
Marco: Let me think…I guess we say it with double the strength.
Laura: Yes, we say it with more emphasis, as in "cassa"
Marco: "crate," "cash desk"
Laura: "rosso"
Marco: "red"
Laura: "abisso"
Marco: "abyss"
Laura: Let's now take a look at diphthongs.
Marco: What are those? Is it something Zio Giacomo cooks?
Laura: Noooo! You haven't been paying attention!
Marco: "Scusami," "sorry!"
Laura: A diphthong is a juncture of either two identical consonants or two vowels within the same syllable.
Marco: Ahhh that was easy…well, sort of. How does this affect pronunciation?
Laura: The main characteristic of the vowel diphthong is that we pronounce it in one breath, and together both vowels lose their individual vocal characteristics, making a brand new sound.
Marco: "È magia!" "It's magic!"
Laura: No, it's just simple phonetics. And for people who like these things, the first sound in the diphthong becomes a semivowel because it loses a half of its vocal quality.
Marco: Are there any other rules that can help us out?
Laura: First of all, if "-i" is followed by "-a," "-e," "-u," or "-o," the result is "-ya," "-ye," "-yu," or "-yo."
Marco: That I can remember!
Laura: And if "-u" is followed by "-a," "-e," "-i," or "-o," we get "-wa," "-we," "-wi," or "-wo."
Marco: Anything else we should know?
Laura: There is a second case in which vowels are followed by "-i" or "-u"…
Marco: And what happens here?
Laura: "-a," "-e," "-u," or "-o" followed by "-i" becomes "-ai," "-ei," "-ui," or "-oi."
Marco: Okay.
Laura: And "-a" or "-e" followed by "-u" results in "-au" and "-eu."
Marco: Anything else?
Laura: We cannot break a diphthong into syllables.
Marco: Can we now see it in practice?
Laura: Sure we can.
Marco: What will we start with?
Laura: "-i" plus a vowel, as in "chiaro," [kya]
Marco: "clear"
Laura: "pieno," [pye]
Marco: "full"
Laura: "chiodo," [kyo]
Marco: "nail"
Laura: "piuma," [pyu]
Marco: "feather"
Laura: It seemed so difficult in theory, but it's rather easy in practice, right?
Marco: Well, yes, and also in this case, I guess the best is to just practice what you hear from native speakers.
Laura: Absolutely. Let's now take a look at "-u" plus a vowel.
Marco: The following examples should help.
Laura: "quando," [kwa]
Marco: "when"
Laura: "quello," [kwe]
Marco: "that"
Laura: "inguine," [gwi]
Marco: "groin"
Laura: "luogo," [lwo]
Marco: "place"
Laura: Now we have vowel plus "-i."
Marco: Do you have an example for us?
Laura: "zaino," [zai]
Marco: "rucksack"
Laura: "caleidoscopio," [lei]
Marco: "kaleidoscope"
Laura: "asteroide," [roi]
Marco: "asteroid"
Laura: "anguilla" [gui]
Marco: "eel"
Laura: And that does it for the diphthongs.
Marco: Are you sure there is no recipe with this name?
Laura: I'm pretty sure.
Marco: We are now going on hiatus.
Laura: What Marco means is that we are now going to take a look at the hiatus, or when there are two vowels close to each other and they both preserve their vocal quality.
Marco: In other words, they both keep their original sound, right?
Laura: Yes, exactly.
Marco: Let's see some examples then.
Laura: "boemo," [bo-e, mo]
Marco: "bohemian"
Laura: "creare," [cre-a-re]
Marco: "to create"
Laura: "eroe," [e-ro-e]
Marco: "hero"
Laura: "violino," [vi-o-li-no]
Marco: "violin"
Laura: As for the pronunciation, please keep your mouth open longer than usual.
Marco: Anything else before we go?
Laura: Yes, one last thing. In some cases, the case of hiatus can cause difficulties in communication.
Marco: For example?
Laura: If I say "Lo dà a Andrea."
Marco: "He will give it to Andrea."
Laura: At a fast speed, we get "Lo dàndrea."
Marco: That is difficult to understand.
Laura: Same as "Ci vanno Luca e Emilio."
Marco: "Luca and Emilio are going there."
Laura: At fast speed, it becomes "Ci vanno Luca Emilio."
Marco: So how can we avoid this?
Laura: We simply add the letter "-d" and we get..."Lo dà ad Andrea" and.
Marco: "Ci vanno Luca ed Emilio."

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