comment on/add to “Italian Accents”

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Judith in Umbria December 13, 2006 at 9:17 am: We don’t get away with anything, do we? I can roll my Rs, but my T is too hard. I now know why, but can’t seem to help it.
I met a man with Italian friends who said I sounded like Olio, and thank goodness my friends leapt to my defense. I told him I was insulted and he responded that he loved it. BS. He did look fascinated.
I think a lot of people are just too wrapped up in their stereotypes to have a real and meaningful response to a foreigner, even if said foreigner can use the congiuntivo more or less accurately. In a population of 144,000 there are perhaps 12 Italians here who really speak English, but they don’t mind at all criticizing how a foreigner doesn’t say “Baucca” with enough Cs in it!
Sean December 15, 2006 at 5:32 pm: I’m actually impressed by how English-sounding the gibberish in that music video was. They could have been very drunk Americans. There were almost enough “all right”s and “baby”s in there to keep me fooled.

I met a musician in Italy who always ended his gigs by shouting “Solai!” and having the audience shout it back at him. He was convinced “solai” was an English word and I wasn’t able to persuade him otherwise.
alex April 12, 2007 at 8:36 am: hi nice site.