Piemonteis: Pronounciation

Reading Piemonteis is not so difficult; the only task that might require some practice is to get used to the correct reading of o, ò e u (it might be easier if you speak French). In fact, the Piemonteis u is pronounced closed exactly like in French, or like the German ü. The Piemonteis o is pronounced like the Italian u and like the French couple ou; while the sound of the Italian and French o is written ò.

For example, the Piemonteis word còl ("neck") is pronounced with the Italian/French o; the Piemonteis word col ("that") is pronounced with the Italian u; the Piemonteis word cul (a part of the back of the body that gentlemen would not mention in public) is pronounced with the French, closed u.

As an exception, the u is pronounced as in Italian (and like the Piemonteis o) in the couple au and in the diphthongs ua, ue, ui, uò - usually after q or g - as long as there is no tonic or explicit accent on the u.

The diphthong eu comes directly from French and is pronounced as in that language, almost like the closed u... for example you can think at the word feu, meaning "fire" both in Piemonteis and in French. However, other Piemonteis couples differ from French - for example, ai in Piemonteis is pronounced as in Italian, and not as in French.

The vowel ë is a muted e, like the French unaccented e or like the sound of the i in the English word sir (pronounced as short as possible).

The other vowels are pronounced as in Italian, even if some typically Piedmontese flavours are often added to them; for example, the open a (with a grave accent) tends to the Italian o, while the open e (with a grave accent) tends to the Italian a; the e is usually open in syllables ending with a consonant, while it is usually closed if it lies at the end of the syllable. In any case, these are subtleties, that will come naturally if you listen a lot to native speakers.

The j is not a consonant like in French, but it is a semi-vowel; it is pronounced as a longer Italian i, or like the y of the English word yard.

Consonants are usually pronounced like in Italian; there are some peculiar notes, which unfortunately are much more complex to write than to learn, especially if you can just listen to native speakers.

The c and the g behave as in Italian: they are soft (like the English cherry and Gerry) in front of e, ë and i, but become hard (like the English cat and get) if an h is added before the vowel; they are always hard in front of a, o, u or a consonant. Moreover, they can be at the end of a word, and in this case if they are hard an h is added (so the word ends with ch, gh, that are always hard), while if they are soft they are doubled (so the word ends with cc, gg; but you always pronounce a single c or g). In the middle of words, double c's and g's follow the rules for single letters, but become soft in front of a consonant if they are separated by a hyphen, like in the imperative mangg-lo ("eat it").

The letter n- represents the "faucal n", a longer n pronounced with your tongue against the palate, a bit like the final ing in English gerunds. If you know a native speaker, ask him to pronounce words like bon-a (feminine "good") or lun-a ("moon"): that's the n-. In Piemonteis, the n without hyphen is pronounced as in Italian, with the exception of when it is at the end of a word, in which case it is faucal (to indicate a normal n at the end of a word you double it, and write nn). The double n is normal if at the end of the world or if it is after ë, otherwise it sounds like a faucal n followed by a normal n, and should be better written n-n.

The letter s can be deaf (as in the English soul) or sounding (as in the English rose) more or less as in Italian. Usually, s is deaf, except for being sounding when it is followed by b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v, when it is between two vowels, or when it is at the end of the word and preceded by a vowel. The double s is always deaf, and is pronounced like a single s: it is used to represent a deaf s when the rule would make it sounding (for example basin, with a sounding s, means "small kiss", while bassin, pronounced with a single deaf s, means "bowl"). The Piemonteis z, single or double, is always read like a sounding s (there is no sound in Piemonteis like the Italian z) and is used where the rule would make an s deaf.

The letter s can be followed by a hyphen to form groups s-c e s-g, where the hyphen reminds that the c or g, differently from Italian, is not joint to the s. For example, the verb s-ciopare ("to burst") is pronounced with a deaf s followed by a soft c, very differently from the sound of the English sh or the French ch, that sc has in Italian.

Finally, the letter v is peculiar: it usually has the same consonantic sound as in Italian, French or English, but, thanks to a straight derivation from Latin, there is a significant number of cases where it is pronounced like a semi-vowel, much like the w in the English wash. These cases are:

• when the v is in the middle of the word and in front of d, l, m, n, s, t, z, as in gavte ("move off!");
• when the v follows a, o, u (but not a diphthong) and precedes any vowel, such as in andova ("where");
• when the v is at the end of the word and is preceded by a vowel (but not a diphthong), as in brav! ("bravo!")

Simple, isn't it? Actually, the best thing to do is to practice...