This is topic Pronounciation of Cinemeccanica in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Mike Rendall (Member # 1499) on 01-27-2003, 10:34 AM:
 
Just a quickie to see what people around the world think - How do you pronounce Cinemeccanica?

I have heard it pronounced - sin-i-mek-an-i-ka and chin-e-mek-an-i-ka, which one is correct? and more importantly, which one is used more frequently?
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-27-2003, 10:37 AM:
 
I've never heard the "chin" variant. Generally either SIN-uh-meh-kan-ik-ah or shak-ee-meh-kan-ik-ah.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-27-2003, 01:03 PM:
 
C in Italian is always CH (like "chicken") if followed by E or I and always K when followed by any other vowel or a consonant. The same applies to G which is always soft (like "gentle") before E and I and a solid G if another vowels or consonant follows.

Therefore:
Cinemeccanicca - CHI-NE-MEK-KA-NI-KA
Italian is always pronounced the way it is written. E is always E as in "beg", never an EE sound like in English. I is always I as in "chin", or a stressed I like in "reel", never AI. Those vowel changes are a feature of English and do not occur in Italian spelling.
In some Italian accents, the CHI sounds more like SHI. I am sure Mr Marcheselli can provide more insight into pronounciation variations.
Note that there is a consonant H after the C in "Marcheselli". Therefore, it is not pronounced MAR-CHE (as in "march") but MAR-KE-SEL-LI. Or take "Lamborghini" which is not LAM-BOR-JI-NI but LAM-BOR-GI-NI with GI as in "geek".
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-28-2003, 08:13 AM:
 
Michael's right. If you call Milan, you'll hear the "ch" version. The thing that always amuses me are attempts at spelling it.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-28-2003, 08:49 AM:
 
Proper US pronunication is Shake-ahhh-ma-can-icca.
Mark
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-28-2003, 10:31 AM:
 
So, "Century" projectors are "CHIN-tur-ees" in Italy?
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-28-2003, 10:36 AM:
 
Beat you to it, Mark!
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-28-2003, 10:51 AM:
 
According to IMDB, the film "Cinema Paradiso" is officially known as "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso". How do Italians pronounce "cinema" in that case? Usually when a word of English origin enters the vocabulary of a non-English speaking country, the English pronunciation is retained.
 

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Posted by Oscar Neundorfer (Member # 458) on 01-28-2003, 02:12 PM:
 
David Stambaugh wrote:
"Usually when a word of English origin enters the vocabulary of a non-English speaking country, the English pronunciation is retained."

I'm just glad someone finally spelled "pronunciation" correctly
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-28-2003, 03:23 PM:
 
If only the whole site could be protected by an apostrophe usage check script.

("its" when something belongs to something; "it's" only as a contraction of "it is")
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-28-2003, 03:32 PM:
 
I do'nt need no stinkin apostrophe usage check script's!
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-28-2003, 04:15 PM:
 

quote:

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According to IMDB, the film "Cinema Paradiso" is officially known as "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso". How do Italians pronounce "cinema" in that case? Usually when a word of English origin enters the vocabulary of a non-English speaking country, the English pronunciation is retained.

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"Cinema" is not an English word. It is derived from Greek "Kinesi (motion)". "Kinematografia" means "motion recording".
As you all know, Greek has its own alphabet (from which the Latin alphabet is derived). Many words from Greek have come down to us in a spelling which reflects Latin spelling. In classic Latin, the letter K is very rarely used. Instead, they used C which in classic Latin was ALWAYS a K sound. "Caesar" was pronounced "KA-I-SAR" not "SEE-SAR". In late Latin (from around AD 300), the C became a softened sound before E and I as described above.
Therefore, many Greek words had been transliterated with a C where the original Greek word has a K.

Most of the scientific and technical words we have today are 18th and 19th century inventions made up from Latin and Greek to make them sound, well, more technical and scientific.
I am not sure, but I think the modern term for "motion recorder" was first constructed in French as "Cinématographe" reflecting the Latinised spelling with C instead of K.

In Italian, "cinema" is of course CHI-NE-MA. I don`t think Italians would look at the word as derived from English.

"Century" would be CHEN-TU-REE. Again, this is not a word that would strike Italians as particularly English since it is derived from Latin "centum (hundred)". In Italian it is "cento".
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-28-2003, 04:21 PM:
 
I stand corrected.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-28-2003, 05:22 PM:
 
I didn`t mean to correct you! I just wanted to show how interesting it is which routes words travel back and forth through several languages, spellings and pronunciations (I had not realised it was spell "nun" in the middle). Italian has developed from Latin (like French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Reto-Romanian). It is not surprising that to them, Latin loan words do not seem foreign even if they are not real Latin, but later constructions. The same applies to Greek which is a completely different language not related to Latin, but had been embraced as the mother language of European culture by the Romans.

Most countries do not try to pronounce English loan words the proper way, especially the Romance countries. French people usually pronounce English words as they read them in French. They won`t even speak English to you even if they understand a little.
You can have a lot of fun in France when you speak French but don`t show it at first.

Once I was in restaurant in Paris. I was with a friend from England who didn`t speak French, so he talked to the waiter in English. Simple questions like "is this pork", "what type of fish is that". The guy acted like he didn`t understand so we started acting out the animal types we meant for him, with animal sounds and all. After a short while he suddenly condescended to understand English. After the meal, I told him in French that he wouldn`t get any tip because he was an impolite ignorant.
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-28-2003, 05:25 PM:
 
Living in a french town and never speaking french to anyone (even though I can) is fun too. You never know what you might hear.
 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-28-2003, 05:34 PM:
 
A friend of mine had very similar experiences when he was in Montreal.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-28-2003, 07:00 PM:
 
Of course Montreal, and Quebec in general, are often considered to be another planet in another universe alot of the time anyway......
Mark
 

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Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 01-28-2003, 07:32 PM:
 
Hi

Intresting topic...

Yes, "CINEMA" in Italian is pronunced "CHI-NE-MA" is not pronunced like english. So the correct pronunciation for Cinemeccanica is like Michael said!

But, does someone knows what "meccanica" means? Since many of you write "macannica" o "maccanica" or similar, I believe not. Meccanica is "mechanical". The "translation" of Cinemeccanica in english would be "Cinema mechanical"...

But, Scott, Century is an english word and is pronunced with the original way. Someone that do not know english can say "CHEN" but it is not considered correct.

Last, Michael.
Pls, call me Antonio, that, in Italian, is pronunced "AN-TO-NIO"... Mr Marcheselli is so formal!!

Bye!

Antonio
 

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-28-2003, 07:59 PM:
 
Like most Americans, I just know that the USA is the center of all technology and culture in the known universe. So naturally I didn't give it a 2nd thought that the origin of the word "cinema" might be some country other than the US or that it could be rooted in a language other than English. I blame our education system.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-28-2003, 08:49 PM:
 
I almost forgot my favorite variant, "Cinemecrappica".

Btw, I've always liked hearing the Italian language, it's very eloquent. Some of my favorite Italian words:

proiettore
Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo

 

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-28-2003, 09:13 PM:
 

quote:

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Last, Michael. Pls, call me Antonio, that, in Italian, is pronunced "AN-TO-NIO"... Mr Marcheselli is so formal!!

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