How do you say "Otto"

[tommy]

Um, glottal stop.

Fair enough. At least I can pronounce it without one.

nah nah-nah nah nah.

smug articulative bastard.

[La Niña]

I've just learned that the correct pronunciation of Otto is:

!Otto

Similar to how the !Kung people would pronounce the word. A click followed by "t . . . toh."

Is that the language that Miriam Makeba sings in? Remember her "Click Song?" One of my favorites.

[mikeyrad]

All above posts are correct regarding pronunciation of "Otto" unless the Italian in question has seen "A Fish Called Wanda".

[macrosan]

Courtesy of Orik in the Risotteria thread :

In mp3:

risotto-con-gli-asparagi

[Ron Johnson]

Courtesy of Orik in the Risotteria thread :

In mp3:

risotto-con-gli-asparagi

Ah . . . vindication is sweet. Thanks Macrosan.

[La Niña]

That mp3 link won't open for me...

[MsRamsey]

All above posts are correct regarding pronunciation of "Otto" unless the Italian in question has seen "A Fish Called Wanda". 

Or "Repo Man."

[Rachel Perlow]

How is Otto pronounced? At first I thought just like the name Otto would be pronounced in English were it a person's name. Then I noticed that a few knowledgeable people were saying it "OH-to." Then I remembered the infamous risotto pronunciation thread, where I was guaranteed that no word ending in "otto" would ever be pronounced with a long "o" sound on the first "o." So which is it? "AH-to" or "OH-to" or something else?

Both "o"s are short, as in "top" or "hot" pronounced the English way (sorry guys, but there it is ). Natural vocal laziness will allow the second "o" to lengthen a little as in "low", but the purists will still complain Now because it's a double-"t" the first syllable is longer, holding the "t" a fraction longer. After all that practice you got on the previous thread, FatGuy (didn't Jinny link to a sound-track on the web somewhere?) you just need to think "risotto" without the "ris".

They spell out the name of the restaurant as Ôttô* on the menu, etc. Notice the lines above the o's. Linguistically, this would indicate the long o sound as in note, mote, wrote, not the soft o sound of top and hot.

* Note: on Word, the symbol over the o's is a line like a hyphen (-). The eGullet text editor changed that into a carrot (^). I can't figure out how to fix this. But you can see their logo by going to their website.

Edit: I posted this before I realized it had become another pronounciation debate. Nevertheless, I still believe the pronounciation is with two long o's and only one t sound (Oh-toe) because in addition to the linquistic mark, that's how I heard it pronouced by the reservationist, hostess and server.

Edited January 14, 2003 by RPerlow (log)

[La Niña]

Okay, here we go. Once again, I have spoken to 2 Italian friends of mine.

The syllables in Otto do not rhyme with the o in the American top or hot and not with the o in toe or no or oh, - it's a softer, shorter o, and we don't have it in English. The two syllables also do not rhyme exactly with each other - the second syllable has a slightly longer vowel. The the two t's are not pronounced like a d, or like a hard t. It's a soft t - again, we don't have it in English.

It's impossible to write anything like well the o sounds like x or y, because these vowel sounds *do not exist* in English. The closest thing I can come up with for the first o is something like the vowel in caught or paw, but even that's not it. And Macrosan is right - the o in the Brit pronunciation of top or hot is close. The second o is a bit longer than that, but still not like our long o in English.

Edited January 14, 2003 by La Niña (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Okay, here we go.  Once again, I have spoken to 2 Italian friends of mine.

The syllables in Otto do not rhyme with the o in the American top or hot and not with the o in toe or no or oh, - it's a softer, shorter o, and we don't have it in English. The two syllables also do not rhyme exactly with each other - the second syllable has a slightly longer vowel. The the two t's are not pronounced like a d, or like a hard t. It's a soft t - again, we don't have it in English.

It's impossible to write anything like well the o sounds like x or y, because these vowel sounds *do not exist* in English.  The closest thing I can come up with for the first o is something like the vowel in caught or paw, but even that's not it.  And Macrosan is right - the o in the Brit pronunciation of top or hot is close.  The second o is a bit longer than that, but still not like our long o in English.

In other words, don't even think about trying to pronounce it correctly.

[tommy]

In other words, don't even think about trying to pronounce it correctly. 

if you're happy being wrong your entire life, then, yea.

[La Niña]

No, I didn't say that. One just has to hear an Italian, or someone who pronounces Italian correctly say it correctly, and then imitate that. That is, of course, assuming one has the elusive combination of a good ear, and the ability to translate what that ear hears into what comes out of one's mouth.

Or have been lucky enough to have spent a good chunk of one's childhood in Italy.

Edited January 14, 2003 by La Niña (log)

[GordonCooks]

My Grandma to be is from Naples and spends a month there annually. She says the correct pronunciation is

"oh-toe"

Would anyone care to cross-examine ?

[Wilfrid]

Only one pizza has fatback on it. There are quite a few others, perhaps on both sides of the menu that have high cholesterol items including cheese, but lardo was only an example of the unusual toppings.

Oh, shoot. That was on the menu but for some reason didn't register with me. I should've had that. I am having a scatterbrained week.

Also, I like rolling my 'r's.

[Fat Guy]

Okay but can we talk about how to pronounce gelato?

[La Niña]

Lemme just say this, and then you can all jump down my throat. One can listen to a foreign word pronounced correctly, but that doesn't necessarily mean one heard the word correctly. It's something you either have or you don't - the combination of a good ear and the ability to translate from ear to tongue.

So someone could correctly say "Otto" and the listener could hear "oh-toe" - many Americans have difficulty with this. I have had many experiences with Americans (and some Brits) where I've heard the same word someone else has, and they can't for the life of them repeat it back the way it was said. Many people can't even hear the differences. I have European parents, one of whom spent most of his childhood living near Milan, and I spent a great deal of time in Italy as a child, so I'm just lucky to have had my ear trained from a very young age.

Germans, for example, have difficulty pronouncing an English "th." Every language has its own imprint - and unless you learn the sounds at a young age, it's very difficult to acquire them. That's why people have accents.

I was just thinking that the o in ordinary is similar to the first o in Otto, but then I realized that people have disparate ways of pronouncing the o in ordinary, which sort of demonstrates my point. I mean, listen to the difference in vowel pronunciation between northern and southern Americans - a person from Boston and a person from Atlanta could both be saying the word "auto" - and they hear each other's "accents," but they can't duplicate the other sound - make sense?

Edited January 15, 2003 by La Niña (log)

[Kim WB]

edited, TMI...

Edited January 15, 2003 by Kim WB (log)

[Jinmyo]

statement does it make, and to whom ?

Point 1 - The Lardo is a pizza topping. Kind of like bacon on the pizza crust.

[tommy]

how does one properly pronounce "babbo"? i've heard many different versions. "Esca" i think i have down. but "babbo" i've heard pronounced many different ways. ba-boo? ba-boh? BAH-bo?

[La Niña]

In Italian, the o at the end of Babbo (which means "Daddy" in Italian) is the same as the o at the end of Otto and risotto. It doesn't lend itself to transliteration, since we don't have the vowel in English, but it's a shorter vowel than the English long o.

Edited January 15, 2003 by La Niña (log)

[macrosan]

...he has the best staff ever..claims he has the best to choose from, had really high quality servers apply.

Yeah, that's for sure ! Heck, they turned Yvonne Johnson down, so the ones they picked must be absolute wows

[Fat Guy]

So what is everybody's position on which pronunciation governs when the owner of a retail establishment chooses one and the original language chooses another?

And if one is in charge of language issues in an English-speaking country, and if English has no vowel equivalent of something, what's the proper way to import the pronunciation?

[Jinmyo]

The owner's pronunciation. Which is real fun if he or she has a lisp.

If English has no vowel equivalent say it more loudly.

[macrosan]

So what is everybody's position ...

Neutral, tolerant, libertarian

[Fat Guy]

Some interesting pronunciation talk from Merriam-Webster. This doesn't deal with imported words per se but does display a healthy attitude:

Readers often turn to the dictionary wanting to learn the exact pronunciation of a word, only to discover that the word may have several pronunciations, as is the case for deity, economic, envelope, and greasy,  among many others. The inclusion of variant pronunciations disappoints those who want their dictionary to list one "correct" pronunciation. In truth, though, there can be no objective standard for correct pronunciation other than the usage of thoughtful and, in particular, educated speakers of English. Among such speakers one hears much variation in pronunciation.

http://www.m-w.com/mw/textonly/pronguid.htm