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John
Is the Italian pronunciation of "v" as "w" a regional dialect?
In my efforts to listen to spoken Italian to further my studies I've twice come across someone, presumably native Italians, pronouncing v as w, i.e, vuole sounding like wuole. Is this a regional dialect or something else?Unfortunately, it was a little while ago and I don't remember specifically where I heard them. One was on a YouTube Italian instruction video, but I've viewed so many I couldn't tell you which one.
Mar 11, 2019 12:16 AM
Answers · 9
1
Of course it's a regional dialect. What else could it be?
March 11, 2019
I show you some examples:
English: Do you want a beer?
Italian: Vuoi una birra? (In this case “vuoi”, the letter v is followed by the vowel "u" so you read the word as "wuoi")
English: I play the violin
Italian: Suono il violino. (In this case you read the word as “vi”)
March 15, 2019
Hi John. Your question does make sense but definitely it's a bit vague anyway: you didn't quote any context as for to set your question into.
Luckily I know some southern dialects so I guess you're referring to the Neapolitan pronounce -- given that a dialect actually influences the pronounce of a standard language. Neapolitan is spread accross the greatest part of south Italy as a group of dialects, and in any case was a standard (> bureaucracy) language before national unity. Moreover, the typical southern pronounce was a "fact" even during Latin ages, so that, for example, coins made from south Italy might have been written according to the pronounce. That overall means that it's a very strong cultural factor.
Some peculiar aspects include stressing on a consonant which results doubled (Siberia > Sibberia) and stressing on a diphtong so that we hear much more one of the two vowels (cieco "blind" > cI.Eco); and in your case *vuole "wants" > vU.Ole.
Now these things deserve a quite complex study: why does it happen? which quantity of syllable is necessary to produce- and which position is affected, etc etc which is Linguistics (you may find some, starting from Wikipedia, I'm sure).
So, the transformation *vuole > WU.Ole, which seems you are very sensitive to, is likely to be referred to a Neapolitan accent.
March 11, 2019
I would pronounce "wuole" and "vuole" in the same way tbh, do u have any example to hear on forvo or somewhere?
March 13, 2019
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John
Language Skills
English, Italian, Japanese
Learning Language
Italian, Japanese
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