On the pronunciation of gnocco and gnocchi

Question

I do not speak a word Italian but I wanted to solve the obligatory dispute amongst ignorants about the pronunciation of gnocco and gnocchi by looking up the IPA pronunciation on the Internet. Unfortunately my results were non-satisfactory (for reasons I list below), so I ask you:

• What is the pronunciation of gnocco and gnocchi in IPA? (Or is this a case of allophones with multiple “correct” pronunciations?)
• Unless the answers are [ɲɔko] and [ɲɔki], how can my issues (see below) be explained?

How is cch realised?

1. [ɲɔkki] or [ɲɔk.ki] – Found in the the Italian Wiktionary, the Langenscheidt dictionary and the English Wiktionary. Contains probably the most reliable sources on the list. However the [kk] sound seems like something to me that would be quickly replaced by [k] unless it distinguishes between meanings. I also fail to hear a [kk] in all¹²³⁴⁵ but one⁶ of the pronunciation samples I found – but then again, I know how ears can be deceiving you with such a thing. Finally, no non-IPA pronunciation instruction I found contains this, though it could have been easily represented (e.g., nok-key instead of nokey).
2. [ɲɔki] – I couldn’t find this in dictionaries but it has surprisingly many findings on the Internet and would probably be en par with 1., if it weren’t for Wiktionary clones. Also what I hear from most audio samples¹²³⁴⁵, though I know that I am fallible here. Finally, what seems most plausible to me linguistically, since it seems to be the way of least resistance.
3. [ɲɔkːi] – Found on some Wikipedias, amongst others German. Lengthening the [k] does not make sense to me, as it is by nature a punctual sound and thus cannot be lengthened (it’s like lengthening the sound of a clap). When I try to lengthen it, it becomes something like [χ].

How is gn realised?

For the singular form, the Italian Wiktionary claims that it is pronounced [ɲɲɔkko] and not [ɲɔkko], while the pronunciation of the plural form is given as [ɲɔkki]. As pluralisation happens at the end of the word orthographically as well as in all Indoeuropean and in particular all Romance languages that I am aware of, this seems rather unlikely (though not impossible) to me, moreover so as there seem to be other clear means to distinguish the plural from the singular form. I also do not hear anything like this in the pronunciation samples¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵⁶.

Answer 1

“Doubled consonants” are a distinctive characteristic of Italian; depending on the regional variant, this “doubling” can be more or less long. Typically, in Italian of the northern regions the amoung of “doubling” is usually weak, while it's more evident in central and southern Italy. The English term is geminate.

The digraph gn is almost always realized as [ɲ], except in some loan words such as gneiss. In central Italy the sound is usually geminated, so we hear [compa'ɲːo]. The same if the word is after the article and the phenomenon is made stronger by the usual raddoppiamento sintattico, so we have

[lo'ɲːokːo] and [ʎi'ɲːokːi]

(Note that sometimes instead of [kː] the geminated consonant is denoted by [kk], but it denotes the same: a single sound longer than the simple one).

As I said, actual pronunciation of the geminated consonants may vary; I find myself using different length depending on the context and where I'm speaking (I almost never do the raddoppiamento sintattico, however).

Note that while grammar imposes the articles lo and gli before gnocco and the other masculine words starting with gn, regional variants may well use il and i (albeit “ungrammatical”).

Note also that the h in cch is just a graphic device for stating the non palatal sound of c, that is, [k].

Answer 2

I may be able to shed some more light on the issue with geminated consonants. While I don't speak more than a few words of Italian, my native language is Finnish, which also makes a phonemic distinction between long and short consonants.

First of all, let me mention that I do hear a long [k:] in most of the pronunciation samples that you link to — except, curiously, the last one, where you claim to hear it.

The first of your samples is particularly illustrative, since the same speaker says the word gnocchi three times, with different speeds and stress patterns. To my ear (which, of course, is calibrated for Finnish consonants, and therefore may not perfectly match what a fluent Italian-speaker would hear) the second (slow) pronunciation has a clear long [k:] (and a long [o:]), while the last (fast) one sounds like a short [k] to me, with the first one falling somewhere into the gray area between the two. (Of course, a native Italian-speaker might have a different threshold, and might hear them all as [k:].)

As for how to pronounce [k:], remember that [k] is a stop consonant: you pronounce it by raising your tongue so that it blocks the airflow, and then releasing it. The basic distinction between a short [k] and a geminated [k:] is simply the length of time that you hold the airway closed; in [k], the release is almost immediate, so that there's only a momentary "clap" in the airflow, whereas for [k:], the airflow is held closed for a noticeable time (comparable to the length of surrounding vowel sounds), producing an audible pause between the closing and the opening of the airway.

Of course, since the length of the stop is really a continuous variable, the line between [k] and [k:] is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, and may vary between different speakers and listeners, and also depending on context. Still, in languages that make a distinction between short and long stops, there is generally sufficient agreement between speakers to get the point across.

Answer 3

It is pronounced as nyawk-kee. Gn is pronounced as an Spanish accent ñ. Cch is pronounced as a k.

Gnocco is pronounced as nyawk-koo

Hope this helps!!!

Answer 4

I am Italian. I have recorded a short video that shows exactly how to pronounce both gnocco and gnocchi. Gnocco is tentatively pronounced: ñawk-ko, gnocchi is pronounced: ñawk-kee.

I am sure a recording is going to give the best representation of the words involved, better than any graphing, Wiki and whatever could achieve.

Some additions: I have some additional answers to the original post.

How is cch realised? Your 1 and 3 findings are mostly correct. To get the exact sound, imagine saying: "Kentuky". Now take the second "k" and hold on releasing its sound for half a second. Visually speaking, imagine you "lag" while you are halfway done pronouncing the "k" so it doubles.

How is gn realised? This is harder. The closest way to express it is to pronounce the "incipit" of a "g" with an attached ñ. We Italians refer to two kinds of "g": soft and hard. What English gets by default is the hard version, whereas Italians by default use the soft version and write: "gh" for the hard version.