italian/italiano: pronounce "Tommasino"? and whats a pezzonovante??
im reading THE GODFATHER right now, and want to know how u pronounce Tommasino, one of the characters names. is it, to-mma-SI-no, or tom-MA-sino???
also, what is a "pezzonovante"??? it seems that it is somewhat of a bad thing, at least compared to the "class" of the corleone family
please help, thanks
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
For pronunciation, the former... "tommaSIno"
Pezzonovante is probably derived from pezzo da novanta, which is an idiom for a powerful person, "a big shot." Some of the "Italian" in the Godfather is actually Sicilian dialect or at least Italian rendered as it would be pronounced in southern Italy and not as easy to translate..
Pezzonovante acording to this book is a bigshot. A good book indeed!
I only have to add that 'pezzo da novanta' is literally 'piece of ninety', saying about size of artillery and meaning a person who's at the top in politics, industry, wealth and so on.
Italiano D.O.C.
Actually, it's pronounced to-ma-ZEE-no. The "s" between two vowels in Italian is pronounced like our English "z". It's the diminutive of Tommaso - to-MAH-zo. Thomas>Tommy.