# Dropping Italian vowels

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-italian-vowels/118654>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 12, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-italian-vowels/118654 "2002-07-12T16:43:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-italian-vowels/118654/1 "2002-07-12T16:43:53Z")

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I don’t know if this is a regional phenomenon, but I’m curious about the way many Italian-Americans drop the terminal vowels on some Italian words. Now, in fairness, the most obvious instances I’ve seen of this are in _The Sopranos_, and I know the people and characters aren’t representative of all Italian-Americans. I have noticed it in a few people I’ve spoken to from the New York-New Jersey area as well.

Three words I’ve noticed this with are mozzarella, cappicola and prosciutto. (They talk about food a lot on that show.) When spoken, they come out as “mozzarell”, “cappicol” and “prosciute”. And it only seems to be with Italian words that this happens.

Anyone got any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-italian-vowels/118654/2 "2002-07-12T16:55:32Z")

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Actually, they come out like “moodzarel,” “gabagool,” and “prozhoot.” Also, “managod” for manicotti and “Maron” for “Madonna.”

I asked this question in another forum once and was told that these pronunciations did not originate in any actual Italian dialect, but seemed to have developed in the Italian-American population of the New York area.

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**Author:** ![12hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/919ad9/32.png) [@12hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/12hazel)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dropping-italian-vowels/118654/3 "2002-07-12T18:50:05Z")

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Some friends of mine who are from the area near Naples do this when they speak Italian in their native dialect…

I believe the Sicilian dialect (which is even harder to understand if you are used to “Roman” Italian) also involves some final-vowel-dropping.