Nu ska vi se #2...
Marcus Strömberg
Italian is written using the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X
and Y are not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet, but
appear in loanwords (such as jeans, whisky, taxi). X has become a
commonly used letter in genuine Italian words with the prefix extra-.
J in Italian is an old-fashioned orthographic variant of I, appearing
in the first name "Jacopo" as well as in some Italian place names,
e.g., the towns of Bajardo, Bojano, Joppolo, Jesolo, among numerous
others, and in the alternate spelling Mar Jonio (also spelled Mar
Ionio) for the Ionian Sea. J may also appear in many words from
different dialects, but its use is discouraged in contemporary
Italian, and it is not part of the standard 21-letter contemporary
Italian alphabet. Each of these foreign letters had an Italian
equivalent spelling: gi for j, c or ch for k, u or v for w (depending
on what sound it makes), cs or s for x, and i for y.
Italian uses the acute accent over the letter E (as in perché,
why/because) to indicate a front mid-close vowel, and the grave
accent (as in tè, tea) to indicate a front mid-open vowel. The grave
accent is also used on letters A, I, O, and U to mark stress when it
falls on final vowel of a word (for instance gioventù, youth).
Typically, the penultimate syllable is stressed. If syllables other
than the last one are stressed, the accent is not mandatory, unlike
in Spanish, and, in virtually all cases, it is omitted. In some
cases, when the word is ambiguous (as principi), the accent mark is
sometimes used in order to disambiguate its meaning (in this case,
prìncipi, princes, or princìpi, principles). This is however not
compulsory. Rare words with three or more syllables can confuse
Italians themselves, and the pronunciation of Istanbul is a common
example of a word in which placement of stress is not clearly
established. Another instance is the American State of Florida: the
correct way to pronounce it in Italian is like in Spanish, "Florìda",
but since there is an Italian word meaning the same ("flourishing"),
"Flòrida", many Italians pronounce it that way.
The letter H at the beginning of a word is used to distinguish ho,
hai, ha, hanno (present indicative of avere, to have) from o (or), ai
(to the), a (to), anno (year) in the written language. In the spoken
language this letter is always silent for the cases given above, but
the letter following the ?H?, has a more strong pronunciation; for
example, in the sentence: ?Ho due o tre caramelle? (I have two or
three candies), ?ho? is a little more stressed than ?o?. H is also
used in combinations with other letters (see below), but no
phoneme /h/ nor phone [h] exists in Italian. In foreign words entered
in common use, like "hotel" or "hovercraft", the [h] phone is not
commonly used. You commonly pronounce them as /o't?l/
and /'?verkraft/
The letter Z represents /?/, for example: Zanzara /dzan'dza?a/
(mosquito), or /?/, for example: Nazione /na?ttsjone/ (nation),
depending on context, though there are few minimal pairs. The same
goes for S, which can represent /s/ or /z/. However, these two
phonemes are in complementary distribution everywhere except between
two vowels in the same word, and even in such environment there are
extremely few minimal pairs, so that this distinction is being lost
in many varieties.
The letters C and G represent affricates: /?/ as in "chair" and /?/ as
in "gem", respectively, before the front vowels I and E. They are
pronounced as plosives /k/, /g/ (as in "call" and "gall") otherwise.
Front/back vowel rules for C and G are similar in French, Romanian,
Spanish, and to some extent English (including Old English). Swedish
and Norwegian have similar rules for K and G. (See also
palatalization.)
However, an H can be added between C or G and E or I to represent a
plosive, and an I can be added between C or G and A, O or U to signal
that the consonant is an affricate. For example:
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Marcus