parMEzian cheese

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Tuesday, October 1, 2002 1:30 PM -0400 Steve Boatti <Ittaob at AOL.COM>
wrote:

> 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."

But it was either ['parm at z@n] or [par'mi3 at n] , never [parm@'zan] in my
experience.  And at least standard Italian has an affricate rather than a
fricative.  Is there perhaps an Italian dialect that has a fricative
corresponding to the standard affricate, and that could plausibly have
furnished [parm@'3an]?

Peter Mc.

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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu