Question about Italian language. If you speak Italian, can you help me on this?

[raccoon]

In TV/movies, spoken Italian frequently sounds Iambic.

Like this:

"Da DUM Da DUM Da DUM Da DUM!"

Is this just a sterotype? I strongly suspect it is.

[raccoon]

1. I watched GODFATHER again the other night and answered my own question. nt

[SheilaT]

2. I took a semester of Italian

several years back. The teacher was a native speaker, and I think that the language does somewhat have that rhythm. If you think what an Italian accent sounds like in English, you know the rhythm of Italian.

Similarly, think a French accent. In French, all syllables have equal stress. Now does that French accent make a little more sense?

[Odin2005]

3. IIRC Romance languages have an iambic rhythm and Germanic languages like English...

...have a trochaic rhythm, DUM da DUM da DUM da. This is because Romance languages usually stress the end of words while Germanic languages usually stress the beginning of words.

[elleng]

4. So are Spanish and Italian similar, sounding, from distance?

Trying to hear it now; 2 Spanish speakers beside me now, but no Italians around!

LOVE to listen to languages!!!

[SheilaT]

5. I don't think they sound at all alike.

Very different rhythms and vowel sounds and consonant combinations.

I'm in New Mexico, so I hear Spanish all the time. I've heard a reasonable amount of Italian, and even before I ever studied either one I would never have mistaken one for the other.

[elleng]

8. I agree,

thinking about it.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. I just found this forum,

so I'm responding to an old post, but, gee, what an interesting place.

As to your question - and the answer you thought you found - I wouldn't say that there's any set rhythm to the Italian language, that it depends on the subject matter and the relationship of the people in the conversation.

I grew up in an Italian-speaking home, learned it before English, as did my father before me, both of us American-born. When I hear the language spoken today, it's like a whole different brain kicks in, and I hear everything differently, not just the Italian.

The rhythm you cited is far too simple. If I were to try to divine a rhythm, I would tell you to look for the hot words in the conversation - such as the noun, the subject matter of the discussion. Say it's an adulterous wife, eh?

You'd find the DUM would show up every time SHE was mentioned.

You'd also find it whenever the cuckolded husband was mentioned. As in, "SHE did this to YOU."

If you're looking for a regular, almost poetic rhythm to the language, boy, I wish you luck. More than anything, it reminds me of Miles Davis, with his back to his audience, just jammin', riffin', playing for the art of it. That's how I hear Italian.

But, what a lovely question.

And now, because I have an infinite capacity for hurting myself, I'm going to watch "Godfather III," because I no longer remember if it sucked as badly as I thought it did when I first saw it..............................

[elleng]

7. Eh, bambina,

didn't know you were THIS good! My favorite language for listening, tho I've not studied it. Daughter has, and wants to return to Roma where she studied for 1 semester!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Funp7JTWp2A