Questions tagged [spelling]
for questions related to spelling issues
26
questions
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Why is gemination so common in Italian?
Why do reduplicated/geminated letters (lettere doppie o geminate) occur more frequently in Italian than in other Romance languages like Spanish or French?
Examples of gemination in Italian (w/ ...
- 783
3
votes
0
answers
160
views
Orthography "gha" vs. "ga" in Italian
I know that h is used to signal the hard g sound when i or e follows, but is there anything like this, perhaps historical, for the letter a, i.e., gha?
I ask because I've been researching Italian ...
- 381
2
votes
2
answers
106
views
How to spell crac ( = predestinato a grandi cose)?
So, this is an Italian asking about Italian non-Latin jargon.
I have no idea why in Italian we say "person X is a crac" if this person is expected to do great things in the future... I guess "crac" ...
- 139
5
votes
3
answers
825
views
Esiste un modo per sapere quando usare le doppie?
A volte ho molta difficoltà a capire quando alcune parole richiedono o no una lettera doppia. Fortunatamente con strumenti digitali faccio la correzione automatica e riesco spesso ad usarli bene, però ...
user5380
9
votes
2
answers
4k
views
The use of the spellings -zz- vs. -z-
Is there any reason why some words are spelled with -zz-, but others are spelled with -z- between vowels?
My understanding is that either spelling can correspond to either of the following two ...
- 408
4
votes
1
answer
137
views
Is "Cafeé und Thée Logia" partly Italian?
There has been a discussion of the phrase "Cafeé und Thée Logia" seen in a C18(?) picture on the German Language Stack Exchange. None of the words is a modern spelling in any language except und which ...
- 141
5
votes
2
answers
341
views
Uso della lettera "j" nella parola bojate
In un messaggio su Twitter del Dottor Burioni ho letto la seguente cosa:
Nella scienza si discute, eccome! Non sulla terra piatta e
sull'autismo causato dai vaccini (bojate), ma su un mondo senza
...
- 20.3k
6
votes
1
answer
151
views
Non-caps spelling of acronyms
I noticed that in Italian acronyms usually aren't fully capitalized, e.g. "Usa" instead of "USA". I haven't seen this spelling convention in any other language and am curious if there's an explanation ...
- 213
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Native Italian words still spelled with a 'j'?
There was a trend in the past of spelling semi-consonantal initial i (/j/) with a j:
jeri / ieri
jod / iod, yod
juta / iuta (loanword)
jota / iota
jato / iato
jella / iella
jena / ...
- 846
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
How did "chiave" get a masculine ending?
As far as I can tell, the descendants of Latin "clavis" are all feminine, but in Italian "chiave", although it is also feminine, on the surface appears to be masculine: chiave/chiavi.
How did this ...
- 113
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Uso, significato e spelling di "bimbominchia"
Il neologismo "bimobominchia o bimbominkia" sembra aver preso piede e, almeno per quel che mi riguarda, lo sento usare sempre più spesso in riferimento adolescenti viziati.
Ci sono varie ...
user519
6
votes
1
answer
467
views
Does this text have non-standard Italian?
I don't speak Italian, and my knowledge of Italian is limited to the amount I have learned through being a musician (so, mostly single words, with little grammatical context, I'm afraid!)
I have been ...
- 163
3
votes
1
answer
180
views
What's the purpose of the grave accent in penultimate syllables in Sicilian?
I've been reading a bit of Camilleri recently. I've actually found the language easy to understand. But there's one specific thing I don't get, and that's his (very consistent) use of grave accent in ...
- 309
2
votes
2
answers
382
views
"Quassopra" vs. "qua sopra": entrambe corrette?
So che "qua sopra" è corretto (almeno credo), ma mi chiedevo se "quassopra" (modellato su "quassù") fosse anch'esso una forma corretta. Online non mi pare di trovare niente che dica che questa è una ...
- 623
3
votes
1
answer
464
views
Where does one find pronunciation, spelling, and phonetic rules in English for Italian?
In English, a native speaker learns to spell based on the way words sound. Correspondingly, one learns to pronounce a word based on its spelling, using phonetics. This involves rules learned when ...
- 113
8
votes
2
answers
928
views
In spoken Italian, is there a standard way to encode the letters of words when there is too much noise and the words cannot be heard?
In Italy, it seems common to use city names (rather than names of other things) when spelling words out in noisy environments where the words themselves cannot be heard clearly. I have gathered a list ...
- 1,535
6
votes
1
answer
841
views
When do verbs end in ar/er/ir instead of are/ere/ire? [duplicate]
I've been studying Italian for a few months, and I've learned that verbs end with are, ere or ire. However, I've started reading some Italian and I've seen many cases where the "e" seems to be ...
2
votes
1
answer
298
views
On what letters and in which letter positions can the circumflex character (^) appear? [duplicate]
I would like to know, regarding standard and literary Italian, on what letters and in which letter positions the circumflex character (^) can appear in:
standard Italian
literary or archaic Italian
...
- 1,323
6
votes
2
answers
653
views
Complete list of nonforeign spelling exceptions involving the use of the letter "h" in Italian?
AFAIK, the following (possibly wrong!) points seem to summarize the use of the letter h in Italian:
In Italian the letter h (commonly known as acca but also known as acca muta) never produces a sound ...
- 1,323
4
votes
0
answers
617
views
How do (Italian speaking vs. English speaking) children learn spelling and pronunciation (in elementary school)? [closed]
In Italian elementary school children learn the following spelling rules, usually via a set of vertically stacked syllables inside tables written on large cartelloni (posters) with the sequences of ...
- 1,323
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
List of pairs of words (having different meaning) differing only in a stressed final e vowel (which must be either è or é)?
In modern standard Italian, common written text (text which does not appear within dictionaries where stressed syllables take accent marks, and text which does not use accent marks on vowels which are ...
- 1,323
6
votes
3
answers
825
views
List of uses of the apostrophe as opposed to the grave accent on an "a" with separate meanings (as in Da versus Dà versus Da')?
I've stumbled upon the following cases:
Da (spelled this way this word means from)
Dà (spelled this way this word means he/she/it gives)
Da'(spelled this way this word means give (second person ...
- 1,323
14
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Why is perché sometimes written perchè instead of perché?
If using a grave accent as opposed to an acute accent on top of letters e and o in Italian is used to denote a difference in pronunciation when these appear on the last syllable of the word, and such ...
- 1,323
6
votes
2
answers
14k
views
Difference between ò and ó?
I've noticed that in Italian, besides è and é, which are pronounced differently (the first with the mouth more open than in the second case, thus producing different sounds; examples include the very ...
- 1,323
10
votes
2
answers
603
views
Usage of accented vowels in words that have same spelling but different meaning
Is it mandatory to write accented vowels to differentiate words that are written in the same way but that have different meanings?
For example is it correct to write:
Ieri ho mangiato una pesca
Oggi ...
- 207
4
votes
3
answers
705
views
"D'accordo" or "daccordo": How should I spell it? [closed]
Which one is the correct way to spell it?
Io sono daccordo
or
Io sono d'accordo (with the apostrophe)
user68