On Thursday, October 19, 2000 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, PENMART01 wrote:
> In article >, "Kate" >
> writes:
> >"uur" > wrote in message
> hlink.net...
> >> > Any Italian who speaks proper, modern "Italian" knows how to pronounce
> >it
> >> > correctly. It is bruschetta with a hard k softened by an s.
> >> > Mayhap your friends are referring to it in their own dialect, albeit not
> >> > official Italian?
> >>
> >>
> >> Notwithstanding Kate's slightly pedantic response, the fact is that you
> >> might well hear the soft "sh" sound in bruschetta -- even in Italy --
> >> particularly if you are in Florence, where eleven (undici) is pronounced
> >> "undishi" and where other vestiges of Fiorentino dialect and pronunciation
> >> creep into the language.
> >
> >"slightly pedantic"... Them's fighting words ;-)! I didn't mean to be
> >pedantic (would anyone?) actually I just get a bit tired of hearing people
> >say that an "Italian" word is correctly pronounced one way when it is
> >obvious that their understanding of the history of Italy and how that
> >effects the languages of Italy - not proper Italian- is deficient. I
> >learned "proper", modern Italian.
> You learned "Standard Italian", there is no such thing as [a] "proper" Italian
> Language... unless you're a 'snoot': one who has an offensive air of
> superiority.
> Languages are dialectical, that is they deviate from 'Standard'. "Proper",
> there is no "proper". There is no "proper" Italian, "proper" French, "proper"
> Spanish, "proper" English, etal. All dialects within a language group are
> correct, none being more correct. No one converses using the Standard Literal
> form of a language outside the classroom, especially as to 'pronunciation', nor
> is it possible even within, as no two people are capable of exactly the same
> speech... as to pronunciation, the best one can do is approach the "Standard".
> ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
>
> Italian language
> Italian ITALIANO, Romance language spoken by some 66,000,000 persons in Italy
> (including Sicily and Sardinia), France (including Corsica), Switzerland, and
> other countries. It is spoken by large numbers of emigrants and their
> descendants in the Americas, especially in the United States, Argentina, and
> Canada. Written materials in Italian date from the 10th century (a set of court
> records with the testimony of the witnesses in the Italian vernacular), and the
> first literary work of length is the Ritmo Laurenziano ("Laurentian Rhythm") of
> the late 12th century.
> Although Italian has a standard literary form, <U>based on the _dialect_</U> of
> Florence, the common speech is dialectal or a local variant of standard
> Italian. The following dialect groups are distinguished: Northern Italian, or
> Gallo-Italian; Venetan, spoken in northeastern Italy; Tuscan (including

I've noticed that pico de gallo is similar to bruschetta.