How to sound Italian.

[@Fanatic17]

As an Italian it is actually creepy how good your impression is, it sounds absolutely perfect as an Italian trying to speak English. Many friends of mine do have this exact speaking patterns when trying to speak English

[@reezlaw]

There is still a tiiiiiiny bit of Mario twang that I suppose is hard to eliminate but otherwise surprisingly good

[@reezlaw]

This is BY FAR the best attempt I've heard on youtube. Instead of irritating me (as these usually do) it made me laugh uncontrollably. The Pisa rocket at the end helped

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it. I do try to do it well or not at all.

[@matteoaroi651]

What a lovely video with an incredibly stimulating premise. As an Italian teacher of English I can see these features in my students. The "reverse H-dropping" (?) is particularly perplexing. I would say you can further improve your Italian accent by including a nice hard /g/ in -ing ending words. Velar Ns never appear on their own in Italian.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Good point about the ŋɡ - thanks for that.

[@JaneAustenAteMyCat]

Reverse h-dropping used to be something Cockneys did to sound more 'posh', as recorded in Dickens' work

[@reezlaw]

I think it's overcompensation. They know they're supposed to make the H produce a sound and they end up overdoing it, while still unfortunately missing the Hs that should actually be there (this is the part I don't understand because it happens systematically)

[@luticino3094]

@@reezlawYup! As a linguist, I can attest it’s an overcompensatory attempt to produce the H sound, but you end up inserting it in the wrong places because you are completely blind as to where they go, as they don’t exist in your world.

[@Kevin-wq3kj]

The stress-timed vs syllable-timed rhythmic patterns was so fascinating! That is the type of thing that needs to be featured in language-learning books way more prominently. Along with mouth, lip and tongue placement and the like. It’s all just as important as vocabulary and grammar, and their omission is a big reason why a lot of people struggle with becoming fluent imho.

[@PositivelyPresent1]

I love how well this has been edited… as soon as he is at the scene with water with the boats behind him, he starts subtly bouncing, like a buoy 😂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So glad you appreciated that!

[@joe0xygen244]

whats the secret how did you do it?@@DaveHuxtableLanguages

[@nigelogilvie9450]

Very entertaining, and very educational, thanks. I particularly liked how you were bobbing up and down when you were presenting from a gondola.

[@docholl93]

The first English speaker who ACTUALLY speaks the way an Italian speaks English

[@elioamedeo]

Finally, someone avoiding the stereotype. Very good work 🙂

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you!

[@ajs41]

What is the stereotype?

[@elioamedeo]

​@ajs41 I work as a drama teacher in England and as an Italian I often have to listen to impressions from colleagues and friends. Also I don't have a strong accent, which means people can never tell where I'm from and this means that they go all out with the impressions, because they can't imagine me being offended. I know people are just trying to have of fun, and at the end of the day it's not like I'm being discriminated. But after a while it becomes a bit irritating. The excessive singy songiness, extra vowels everywhere, even where Italians wouldn't need them. Hand gestures everywhere and always in the wrong context, etc. etc. They just end up sounding like Super Mario, or like Italian Americans, who have their own thing going on. It's just refreshing to see someone concentrate on the actual phonology.

[@connorspiech309]

I love the editing and the bit on syllable- vs. stress-timed languages!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks so much!

[@israellai]

That was a huge topic when I was polishing my English as well:)

[@janetEC1C2]

I'm a (native) English teacher in Italy and this is a fascinating (and amusing) explanation and will be so helpful for some of my students… I knew all the issues, but hadn't reflected on the 'why' for some of them!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad to be of help.

[@myouatt5987]

Clever - very! Loved the 'loop backs' to the earlier points made!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you liked it!

[@Zephyr2309]

Love your videos.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow. That you!

[@lucasperez-leahy963]

I'm an American actor who just discovered your channel--incredible! Please do the Polish accent in English!!

[@afellowguy1933]

your videos are getting so good

[@laurabasola4081]

Omg you are amazing 😍 I am italian but an English first language speaker who grew up speaking Italian. I therefore sound English when speaking Italian. You sound more Italian than me!!! Humph😭😭😭😁

[@arinc9]

I am having trouble understanding this

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That's awesome!

[@petewest3122]

@@arinc9 Probably moved to the England at a very young age.

[@laurabasola4081]

​@@petewest3122you are perfectly correct. I left Italy when I was 5 years old.

[@mattialandoni]

I remember in middle school we were learning English and my classmates added h's everywhere. I had the temptation too, but I quickly decided to make an effort to stamp that out. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are programmed to ignore the h in the beginning of words so it takes a while to deprogram

[@ajs41]

English must be very confusing when you have Germanic words like hello and also Latin words like honest being used at the same time. I wonder if any other languages do that apart from English. When an English person is learning German you know that every word beginning with an "h" is actually going to be sounded, and when you're learning Italian, Spanish and French you know it isn't going to be sounded, so there isn't any confusion.

[@benedettobruno1669]

30 seconds in listening to his pronunciation and I' m cracking up already. 🤣🤣 shientific 🤣🤣 geminashion 🤣🤣🤣🤣 (I am Sicilian by the way).

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you found it amusing.

[@werebat_batwolf]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I am German Lol and I found it amusing too😆✋

[@meadow-maker]

The double and single 'N' is what made me laugh in that Christmas Speech by the Queen a few years ago with her 'Horrible Anus'.

[@roccoliuzzi8394]

I believe what you say would make Italian very conducive to poetry

[@celesterosales8976]

1:42 😂so appreciate this subtle humor

[@josemoran508]

Your channel is absolutely superb and I am surprised I've only discovered it now !

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you. I’m glad you did.

[@element7795]

Useful ? But enjoyable. I have heard a lot of Italian over the years and this is a nice explanation of why it sounds the way it does.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@davidhall2987]

My friends would always ask, "why does it sound like you're singing when you say Italian words or do an Italian accent?" For all the reasons you give, Italian sounds like singing to English speakers.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Yes, the pitch range is much wider than most accents of English.

[@rnanerd6505]

Complimenti, Dave :) amazing, as always. And of course there are regional variations. FYI in the triestino dialect, we don’t have double consonants 😮

[@Galenus1234]

Could that be due to the extensive language contact with Slovenian/Croatian in Istria?

[@Matthew.Morycinski]

@@Galenus1234 Interesting. As a Western Slav (Polish) we don't use them. Nonetheless, we never had any issues saying "Abba" as "aba" or "pizza" as "piza."

[@aresbarella98]

For being italian you speak a really good english

[@stevenschilizzi4104]

Fantastico! You are so talented, Dave, it’s really amazing! Bravo, bravissimo! 👏👏👏 : 🇮🇹 + 🇬🇧 = Dave Huxtable

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you think so. Thank you!

[@luticino3094]

Hey, I love this series of how to sound like a speaker of another language. They’re hilarious but also pretty useful and insightful. Would you please do Brazilian Portuguese next? Thanks!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you like them!

[@gattocattivo99]

re: the 'bleck cet sits on the met', this did my head in when I lived in Italy. The two classic examples were 'bend' for 'band' and 'flesh' for 'flash'.

[@cool.ebiaka]

thanx allot! cannot wait to see a vid about the kazakh accent in english.

[@devoteeofmichael]

ur channel really brings me such joy

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s so lovely to hear.

[@Zestieee]

That was a really good impression, although not perfect. But the points explained were all correct and they're all things that I'm constantly striving to eliminate from my accent. I really liked this video a lot, I'll definitely show it around.

[@DrMadv1be]

Lovin' the bobbing up and down on a gondola on the Grand Canal :-)

[@alpakapucuf3394]

Wunderbar video mate!

[@joyrod6302]

I cannot stop laughing! Everything correct...and your Italian accent is smashing.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@stevenward6030]

Im an Australian/Italian. I started with your Australian video, and thought you were Australian. Then see this, and think your my grandpa 😂 Its a trip hahaha

[@nannyoggsally]

As an Italian from Pisa I found the ending quite disconcerting.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Sorry about that.

[@nannyoggsally]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages lol, it'd ruin my hometown's economy. Loved the video.

[@sja45uk]

⁠@@nannyoggsallybut so appropriate with Starship just waiting to launch today. I will never forget the strange feeling that I got climbing the Leaning Tower many years ago.

[@biomed2560]

Brilliant! Particularly where you say that Italians don't want to end a word on a hard consonant so they add a vowel such as in booke and smalle and fate. Regarding double consonants in the middle of words in Italian, in addition to enunciating the double consonant clearly there is a minuscule dwell on the double consonant. There are thousands of examples, fat-to, (done) let-to, (bed) mac-chiato, bel-lo, voreb-be and so on.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@shobarsch]

Brilliantly done

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you!

[@shobarsch]

And I say this as an Italian!

[@clerigocarriedo]

Well done!! Very convincing :) I remember a long time ago a girl saying she really liked "hoody hellen", you know, the famous New York movie maker. I am still wondering about the "h" in Woody... Are you gonna try "Portuguese" English? It is fascinating. I am a phonetics fanatic myself. I can help you if you want to. How to map 20-odd vowels onto a different 20-odd vowel grid :))

[@Infarinato]

Very well done -I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the stress-timed / syllable-timed divide, although several phoneticians have recently argued against the actual significance and the precise detail of that. And now for a couple of errata: at 5:08, the phonemic transcription of “slegare” should of course be /zleˈɡare/ (phonetically [zleˈɡaːre], vowel length not being distinctive in Italian), not /zlɛˈɡːare/. Also, no Italian (= no speaker of Standard Italian) would ever pronounce “swift” with /zw-/: while it’s true that assimilation in Italian is always regressive (as it was in Latin) and /w/ is normally voiced in Italian, phonotactics comes into play here, as there is no initial /zw-/ in Italian (and arguably no medial /-zw-/, either), but only /sw/, as in “suono”, “suolo”, “suadente”, “persuadere” etc. Finally, your Italian is phonetically spot on, but no native Italian would ever say “Grazie per la *tua attenzione”, but only “Grazie per l’attenzione” (or, more traditionally, “dell’attenzione”). 😉

[@gunraptor]

Mr. Huxtable, I'm adoring your videos, and would like to make a request for one. Having grown up in Hampton Roads, attended the United States Air Force Academy, and pursued a military career, I have been starkly aware of the fact that military individuals and their children will often have a specific "American military accent," which is distinct from where they are from and where they live. It appears to be adopted early (sometimes within a year of joining), and persists for life. Children of military seem to have the accent from birth, and generally keep it (but not always). This is accompanied by specific professions within the military having their own versions of the accent. Most notably this is seen in pilots / aviators (and also seen in civilian pilots), almost all of whom adopt the "Chuck Yeager accent," most specifically on radio calls but also in common speech. As for the greater "American Military Accent," I have come to attribute it to the massive mixing of people from across the US into a singular professional and (often times) living space, accompanied by regular relocations across the world. This mixing bowl leads to a non-geographically defined accent that is clearly understood by anyone originating from Texas, North Carolina, California, or New York. Regarding the "Chuck Yeager Accent," he was a singular individual who defined the modern profession so impactfully that everyone tried to sound like him during radio calls, leading to community-wide standardization, and bleeding into the public consciousness through commercial aviation's classic "this is your captain speaking...." line heard by US and global travelers during their flights. Chuck Yeager's drawl became the "correct" accent for a pilot, and even a pilot from North Dakota would be likely to pick it up due to his singular cultural significance. These are simply my working theories on these accents, though. I would like to see if you could do a video analyzing US military members and how different they are from their expected geo-linguistic origins.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That would be fascinating and I would love to be able to research that one day. I have heard about a similar phenomenon in the UK military, again where people come together from all over the country and develop a shared identity.

[@Cris-oe6df]

He sounds exactly like my uncle! 😂😂 OMG unbelievable 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@canterburyjhiguma8387]

This is great! But I do love the (wrong) stereotype some people make of the Italian accent. In "European Vacations", when the girl is trying to call Pan Am in Rome: "Numero! Pano Amo!"

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you like it. Yes, that stereotype is very common.

[@starknight103]

​@@DaveHuxtableLanguageswill you do a video on the Polish accent.

[@reezlaw]

Every time we hear that we natives have eye-rolls so powerful they produce gyroscopic precession

[@БогданКостюченко-ц4о]

Hilarious! However I've got a question. You've said that English has up to 20 vowel sounds whereas Italian has 7. By 20 vowels in English you mean the 20 RP vowels: 12 monophthongs, /ɪ i: ʊ u: ɒ ɔ: ə ɜ: æ ɑ: ʌ e/, and 8 diphthongs, /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ ɪə ɛə ʊə/, right? Whereas the 7 vowels of standard Italian are /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/. But here's a catch: Italian also has diphthongs! The /ei/ sound in as in "lei" is similar to the English FACE vowel, the /ai/ sound as in "hai" is similar to the English PRICE vowel, the /oi/ sound as in "noi" is similar to the English CHOICE vowel, the /au/ sound as in "auto" is similar to the English MOUTH vowel and the /ui/ sound as in "lui" or the /uo/ sound as in "può" don't have equivalents in English. So my question is: how do linguists decide that a diphthong is a distinct phoneme in one language and just two vowels next to each other in another language?

[@Sal.K--BC]

Finnish also has long/double consonants like in Italian.

[@MrTugwit]

I dida notta knowa aaany ofa thisa! 😄

[@munkiesyeah]

Oh wow! This is so so interesting. I know it takes a lot of work but could you do the same style of video for French? I love your videos and I’ve subbed 👍 Merci mille 😊 Edit: I just saw that you’ve made one about French 😅 Gunna check it out now 😊

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you found it. I was about to send you the link.

[@RhapsodyinLingo]

Yes omg, I keep noticing that Italians add unnecessary h's more than any other people and I have no idea why

[@lgzster]

Another difference is the use of Italian vowels instead of the schwa.

[@reezlaw]

That's covered when he said we only have 7 vowel sounds, the schwa is not among them

[@jakub777henderson]

Do the same please for native Polish language speakers!!! :)

[@amazonita]

Impressionante seus varios sotaques em inglês! Por favor, faça um vídeo com o sotaque brasileiro! Uma dica: o sotaque brasileiro do norte é bem diferente do sotaque brasileiro do sul, será que em inglês fica diferente também?

[@SimonKelk]

This reminds me of the time Mika asked a contestant something like "what asshole were you born" and all the other judges looked at him shocked.

[@CRAEager]

Es en Eenglish pairson leeveeng een Eetaly, dees was vairy iusefool end eentairesting. Grazie molte!

[@caveatemp]

That's a lotta fun!

[@An_Economist_Plays]

Sooo... old Marx Brothers movies with Chico are *not* good for dialect coaching. Good to know. 🙂

[@Jim1971a]

What would be the purpose of learning this skill?

[@matt003]

I'd listen to you for hours lol

[@eatingsfun]

Wait do you speak these languages how on earth do you match all these accents so perfectly?

[@lilyhargrove6389]

Please do our accent here in New Orleans!

[@monumento.f.501]

Please remember, in Italian the fingers point upwards.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Good point.

[@DDB168]

Bravo!

[@rudyberkvens-be]

I’m on the floor 😂😂😂😂😂

[@brucequinn]

Nice!

[@amcluesent]

Needs more hand waving 🤣

[@laurabasola4081]

Yes😂 I am Italian and can't speak any other languages without using my hands!😊

[@billyfromla1117]

After watching the Axigon commercial, I’m just not sure who you are.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Me neither.

[@TheLuizSouza]

Don't watch this video if you have to pee!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

😹

[@christopherhofmann5496]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages With the loud background noise, it was difficult to hear the subtle differences in pronunciation. But still: Great video!

[@lilyjones4141]

I'm hyperfixated on a book series where one of the main characters is italian, but... I haven't been exposed to italian accents enough to even vaguely replicate it, and when i try to imagine an italian accent in my head, my brain just goes "french?" . 😭 I blame my mom. She read me too many brittish books growing up, and she does an almost perfect english accent, so now i pronounce some words like a brit and i have a faint english accent with certain words. ;-;

[@maurice1017]

I appreciate the video, but the editing of the background noise is a bit too distracting for me. Great video though!

[@Paul-D-Hoff]

I married into an Italian family. Just add a vowel to the last word in a sentence, 'a' is good one and you are good to go. OKa 🤣

[@joshwilliams4583]

Can you do a “How to sound Russian video”? I’m learning Russian at the moment and would like to sound more authentic.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

I’m sure I will at some point.

[@Jamesxperez]

Best ending ever.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you like it!

[@MaleOrderBride]

Shaddup your face!😂

[@santinaspagnolo9079]

Sorry to butt in but ‘sleggare’ is written wrong. It should read ‘slegare’ wit only one g.

[@tanukibrahma]

British sense of hoomar!

[@AlLiberali]

They are right actually. Blek cet sits on met is just an old posh pronunciation

[@lgzster]

It's New Zealand English!

[@zak3744]

And North American expressions of the 'a' vowel also tend to be a bit higher, to the extent that they can cross over into the 'e' category to an English ear.

[@notwithouttext]

yeah in the old received pronunciation it was [ɛ] but now in american english it's [æ] and in southern standard british english it's [a], so [a] would be better for the TRAP vowel now

[@k.umquat8604]

Most people in Britain don't talk like anymore, right?

[@AlLiberali]

@@k.umquat8604 no. It's a simple a as in ash usually

[@piafounetMarcoPesenti]

As a Northerner, I feel left out. :D

[@reezlaw]

He does sound a bit southern

[@luckyluckydog123]

@@reezlaw a little bit, yes. For example, the "sh" sound is never geminated in northern accents.

[@sebdupree1]

0:08-0:28-1:32

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Che?

[@gyorkshire257]

As an EFL teacher, the "bleck ket set on the met" drives me mad. If you tell Italians not to do it, they literally refuse to believe you. When you give them an example of correct pronunciation, they tell you that you are pronouncing it wrong because you are British not American(!). When you forego the lecture on the sociolinguistics of a multifocal language, and simply show them that Americans don't say it "bleck" either, they simply say "Si, ma' vabbe'" and keep saying it wrong. It's like an ideological position, nothing you say to them can change their mind. I'm not asking them to pronounce it perfectly, but the Italian /a/ is close enough to the "cat" vowel for English-speakers to hear it as correct. The only success I've had is by telling them that using /e/ makes them sound like Boer farmers, and that this is a "dialect pronunciation". Obviously, it's not true, but telling urban status-conscious Italians they sound like they are speaking a "dialect" is usually enough to send them into a blind panic. Re-reading the above, I'm starting to think it's time for a change of career and/or country.

[@user.414]

in effect if you ask "quanti ani hai? " most of the people will answer "only one" :P

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Only most? do some people have several?

[@user.414]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages..the fact is that I don't want to check ))

[@ajm661023]

Slegare

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for pointing that out. Sadly, it isn’t possible to edit videos once they are launched, so I’ll be stuck with that forever.

[@Galenus1234]

🤌🤌🤌

[@RichardHandal301]

You are the most cunning linguist I ever hoid.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you!

[@waimar5457]

Min 3,59 So if there are consonant clusters it't not true like you said at min 2,54 that in italian every consonant is followed by a vowel... In words like cambiare, cantare, ambiente, arcaico... (sdraio itself has 3 consecutive consonants) there are 2 consecutive consonants Min 5,06 the italian verb slegare has only one g...Anyway good to know in another your video that the Beatles and the following singers sang with Usa accent ( yes I don't like to say american accent talking of Usa... America is composed by around big 22 countries- if we don't count the little Grenada, Cayman, Bahamas and if they are really indipendent or part of the british offshore imperial system with other little tax havens offshore resorts for mafia druglords, dictators, and western vips and corporations etc etc -...; probably all of those american countries, with the exception of Canada, were damaged by the economic interests of Usa elite, so to use american every time one want to make reference to the Usa it's a sign of cultural imperialism, following the militar, political, economic imperialism of the Usa.... either one person can be aware or not ; canadians, mexicans, brasilians, argentinians, etc etc are not americans?), maybe all the english music I have listened to is the reason the Usa accent seems to me more understandable than the british Hi from Italy

[@JaneAustenAteMyCat]

This is helping me with my Italian, thanks!

[@blokflotnbrass]

anyway it's La sdraio not lo sdario , just to be precise.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Oh wow! Thanks for pointing that out.

[@liafacchinelli5674]

On this note, "slegare" only requires one g. 😊Talk about geminate consonants...lol...they're tricky both ways: English to Italian and the other way around.

[@leocassarani3458]

I think it's a regional variation, although it's technically an abbreviation of "la sedia a sdraio", "sdraio" on its own sounds masculine to my ears (North East) and Google seems to confirm that both forms are accepted. Interestingly, the feminine form is sometimes invariant (la sdraio, le sdraio) whereas the masculine form is usually pluralised as "gli sdrai", and the feminine as "le sdraie".

[@laurabasola4081]

​@@leocassarani3458thanks I always use the masculine, thought it was the only correct form.

[@laurabasola4081]

I am from the north, Milan. Maybe a regional thing?

[@Daiseehead]

Ano!!! 😂😂😂😂😂