Pronunciation of Modena

Frank: Seems my link, (post 21), to the pronunciation IS correct. Right? I've heard it many times, and it just sounds right.

Years ago, I was told that Modena, with a long "e" may be confused with a city in Saudi Arabia, which is Medina, and that would never do... or so I was told.

 

I say it mode-na

 

That sounds about correct but I can still hear some foreign accent.

 

Hello Bill,

That's a pretty cool link and the pronunciation is correct. The speaker is not a native Italian though. If he were, and you listened carefully, the tone/pitch would sound a bit different. The pronunciation is correct, but his tone is flat. Italian is full of changes in tone, like a song.

Reddol,

I didn't realize that you were Italian until I read your reply carefully! I came here(USA) as a child, but we are from Palena, Abruzzo. What about you??

 

Most of my family is from Italy, and if you say Modena "Mo-deen-ah", that is not correct. Maybe you didn't write it correctly, but the way you have it to me looks like like the middle part "deen" is over done. The way you quoted it in your response was much better. I guess even you knew you were wrong. Have a nice day.

 

So I guess that your answer is that you do not speak Italian.

Anyway...I won't beat this to death any longer, since it is pretty childish to go back and forth like this, but I will again say that I find it hard to put a sound into words.

I was not wrong, as you say, I just didn't write it correctly.

You have a nice day too, maybe stop in Barnes and Noble today and buy yourself a CD set, something like Italian for Beginers, so you'll know a little bit of what your talking about.

 

A shrubbery????????????????????????

 

Since this is about the 50th thread about Modena, i don't feel bad about a bit of a Anglo hijack.

How do you say:

ISSIGONIS

 

It's pronounced three sixty.

 

Exactly, so in my eyes it looked wrong. I guess that is a hard concept to figure out.

 

In Italian, I believe it is pronounced Mo-th-ina (soft "TH" sound, like the word "this" as opposed to the word "think")

 

This is getting very dumb!!!!! say it however you want.

 

Bump. Anyone?

 

Pretty much just like it's spelled. issuh GON iss

Also... MOW day nah

 

DinoDan to the rescue.

 

I say Moh de na

 

...Not rocket-surgery people. There are rules for pronunciation in every language and Italian is unusually both straightforward and consistent.

First rule: All vowels are pronounced.

Therefore, any form of Mo-dnah is wrong.

It's not "mah" as in Montana, it's not "dee", as in delight or "day" as in Daytona.
(I have no doubt it's MoDEEna in Missouri.)

moh, as in motor

deh, as in definately

nah, as in nada, rather than nation.

Primary stress on the first syllable, secondary on the third:

MOH-dehNah

Like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/It-Modena.ogg

 

This def sounds Italian.

 

My Italian wife hits me over the head every time I say Ferrari without rolling the Rs. I feel like a total pompous idiot rolling the Rs when speaking English. I'll have to ask her about Modena, but I say go with the flow.

Dave

 

Having read this (and I agree with it), I think it's time to close this thread. Grazie.

 

Long overdue!

Hope I haven't offended anyone here over something so trivial!!

Buona sera a tutti!!

 

An Italian friend told me to pronounce it this way..

""Modena" is quite simple to pronuonce the first part "Mode" is similar to the way you pronounce the first four letters of the word "modern" in english.
The last two letters "na" must be pronounced just like the first two letters of the English word "nuts". The accent is on the "o"."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mCe0EUHGc

0:12 to 0:30 it is repeated a few times.