2 ms·
Even harder for me, since I'm Italian and the g in lasagna is not silent at all.
by Udik 10y ago
Even harder for me, since I'm Italian and the g in lasagna is not silent at all.
- emmelaich 10y agoI think most English speakers would pronounce the gn as ñ.
- Udik 10y agoThat's how it is pronounced also in Italian. Gn is a digraph, pronounced like ñ in Spanish. The g is not silent, as it is part of the digraph.
- Dylan16807 10y agoWow, this is more complex than I thought. It looks like in Italian, you have a single consonant ɲ. In English, ɲ doesn't exist. We say nj, a two consonant cluster, and most people can't properly distinguish the two sounds. The end result here is that in English the g causes a sound change after the n, and basically qualifies it as a silent letter. This is a subtly different sound from the Italian version, where it merges with the n and does not qualify as a silent letter.