ON LANGUAGE

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be
have
behave
Read them aloud. (See what I mean?)

My favorite: LAUGHTER ..... SLAUGHTER
Read aloud.

 

Why is POLICE plural but ARMY singular?

COLORS: In English BURGUNDY, in Italian BORDEAUX (or, bordo')
My preference is for Burgundy wines any time (but they cost more)

 

ITALIAN AMERICAN LINGUISTICS

Gomah and goombah derive respectively from COMARE and
COMPARE, which in turn derive from late Latin CUMMATER and CUMPATER (cum =
with). They used to indicate 'godmother and godfather' and eventually became
honorifics. Compare is hierarchically lower than Don and Vossignoria and
conveys a sense of familiarity and respect.

Many Southern dialects present the common phenomenon of 'voicing' whereby
Italian sounds such as K, P, T become G, B and D. Thus COMARE tends to be
pronounced as GOMA(RE) and COMPARE becomes GOMBA(RE).

A further common phenomenon is the concentration of a word's phonetic energy
on the stressed syllable. Standard Italian tends to spread the energy more
or less evenly on the syllables. The stress on a word is marked more by the
length of the syllable than the 'intensity' (the lengthening of the stressed
syllable is what makes Italian particularly suited for opera singing. You
can rest your voice on the stressed syllable for ever --literally --
without changing the overall structure of sound/pronunciation.) In dialect,
the energy concentrated on the stressed syllable (normally the penultimate)
is subtracted mostly from the last syllable. The word undergoes first a
weakening of the sound in its tail end which eventually leads to 'elision'
or dropping of the last syllable all together.

As to "Guido" I would be curious to find out where it originated. I became
aware of it more or less in the mid 80's when I moved East from the Midwest.
Does anyone know about the history of the term?