How do you pronounce 'fianchetto'?

Sort:
Avatar of drmellie

I've heard it both ways:  with the 'ch' being soft like 'ch'eese or hard like 'ch'ianti???

 

Who knows the correct?  Or are they both?

Avatar of Xillengold

Fee anne ch ch ch che toe

:)

Avatar of Skakmati

It is an Italian word meaning "little flanking" and is pronounced in Italian as:

Fee-ahn-KEH-toh with the accent on the 3rd syllable.

Avatar of georgez

Using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) we got  [fjan´ keto]. I think it's a better definition than just say how it's supposed to sound in English.

Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

Avatar of drusch
drmellie wrote:

I've heard it both ways:  with the 'ch' being soft like 'ch'eese or hard like 'ch'ianti???

 

Who knows the correct?  Or are they both?


As noted above fianchetto is a loan word from Italian.  The letter h in Italian is a hard sign, meaning that the letter in front of it changes to its hard form. In this case the c changes from the ch sound (like in ciao) to a k.  So the word is pronounced:

fee ahn ket toh

But unfortunately nearly 100% of none Italian speaking chess players pronounce the word with the ch sound.  I've given up politely pointing  out the correct pronunciation it just isn't worth the effort.....

Avatar of oinquarki
Anothernewjack wrote:

Fee ann che toe


Avatar of bugoobiga

it rhymes with

beyond ghetto

Avatar of Skwerly
muzza2 wrote:

apparently it's FEE-AN-ket-TOE according to www.pronouncenames.com


Silman says the same thing.  The ch is K.

Avatar of bugoobiga

you say tortila,

and i say tortilla,

you say vanilla,

and I say vaneeya

Avatar of Tyzer

I pronounce it "awesome".

Avatar of ichabod801

I pronounce it "flank"

Avatar of tonymtbird
ichabod801 wrote:

I pronounce it "flank"


lol

Avatar of pogopup

It's pronounced fee-on-ket-toe

Avatar of Fromper
ichabod801 wrote:

I pronounce it "flank"


I always thought it was pronounced "bishop to g7".

Avatar of Skwerly

Haha, hey Fromper!  I know ya from Chessforums.org, I believe!  :)

 

*waves!

Avatar of LordJones3rd
bugoobiga wrote:

you say tortila,

and i say tortilla,

you say vanilla,

and I say vaneeya


 i say custard

simon says patio

Avatar of MrNimzoIndian

The problem is that many of us have been saying Fee An Cheato for years :-)

Another one is the Pirc. Apparently pronounced "purse" not "perk"

The thing is there may be be a "correct" pronunciation, but when by common custom an incorrect pronuniciation is widely used it could cause more problems than to use the correct one ! :-)

When I first started chess I used to think the Sicilian was the "Silicon" Defence

Avatar of Bur_Oak

I always thought it was pronounced "bishop to g7".

Actually, B-N2 covers all four possibilities. (Descriptive notation has some advantages!)

How do you pronounce 'fianchetto'?

Incorrectly, and I don't care.

I accept the 'K' sound as correct in the original Italian. I claim the 'ch' sound is correct for the American English. Heck, English gets a lot of words from other languages, why not appropriate this one and pronounce it the way we want?

Avatar of DeepGreene

fianchetto = Fee-an-ketto

Chianti = Kee-aunty

bruschetta = Brus-ketta

(Being right is more important than being popular. Wink )

Avatar of BenWilliamson

Is it actually Brus-ketta? I've been saying Brue-shetta. Filthy upbringing!