This document discusses some key phonetic differences between English and Italian. English is described as being isocious, meaning stressed syllables can vary in duration, while Italian is isosyllabic with all syllables having equal duration. Some specific challenges for Italian students learning English pronunciation include distinguishing minimal pairs that differ in vowels sounds, like "sheep/sheet", and consonant clusters like "TH" as well as aspirated H sounds.
2. Italian is a Romance
language that belongs to the
lndo-Europan linguistic
family. English is an isacious
language instead Italian is an
isosyllabic language.
3. LANGUAGES ISOCIOUS
A language is isocious
when the duration
between two accented
syllables is the same.
LANGUAGES ISOSYLLABIC
A language is isosyllabic
when the duration of
every syllables is the
same.
PHONETICS:
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
ENGLISH AND ITALIAN
4. English and Italian use the
same twenty-six letters,
even if the letters J, K, X, Y,
W are considered foreign
and used only in important
words.
5. The Italian students have
problems with the vocal
difference of the minimal
pairs, difficult sounds as
«sheep/sheet, bet/mat,
cat/coat».
The pronunciation of
consonants is more
difficult with the words
that contain letters with
«TH (thin, this, other,
length, ecc..)
Even the H aspired is
difficult to pronounce
in words as house and
hotel.
