parMEzian cheese

[Mandy Adkins]

So sorry I can not spell today.  parmesan is what is should have said.  But
she pronounces it "parmezahn".

Quoting Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>:

> At 4:08 PM -0400 10/1/02, Mandy Adkins wrote:
> >I have an aunt from Italy.  When she first came to live in Kentucky
> from
> >Italy, she was constantly correcting anything we said that seemed to
> come from
> >Italian.  The biggest of which was parmesian.
>
> I've never seen this spelling in cookbooks or on menus.  How common
> is it?  I've just encountered "parmigiano" and "parmesan".  Or maybe
> "parmegiano".  Never "parmesian".
>
> >  She said it should be pronounced
> >ParemZHAN.
>
> (1)  Parem-?  Are you sure?
> (2)  I'm still not sure where and when the fricative developed.  How
> widespread is this for Italian -gi-/-ge- outside this particular
> lexical item?  Is there a dessription of a general /dzh/-->/zh/ shift
> in Italian dialects?
>
> Larry
>
> >
> >Quoting Steve Boatti <Ittaob at AOL.COM>:
> >
> >>  In a message dated 10/1/02 11:59:06 AM, pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU writes:
> >>
> >>  << Now the invented "Parmesian" seems to have been
> >>  supplanted by the equally invented "parmeZHAN" (as also noted by
> Peter
> >>  Richardson), apparently via the line of reasoning: "To make a word
> sound
> >>  more foreign, and hence more authentic, stress the last syllable,
> >>  pronounce
> >>  spelled <g> as 'zh' and ignore all other spelling cues." >>
> >>
> >>  I suspect "Par-me-ZHAN" comes from Italian-Americans pronouncing it
> that
> >>  way
> >>  based on the Italian pronunciation of "Parmigiano." In other words,
> a
> >>  conflation of "Par-me-ZAN" with "Par-mi-JAN-o."
> >>
> >>  Steve Boatti
> >>
>