Language doesn't stay the same over time. For example, lots of people say "gonna" instead of "going to," but we still write "going to," unless it's in some dialogue or in an informal circumstance. It's not something English speakers think about too much. In addition, words that used to be two words are now often spelled as one word. The word might go through a stage where a hyphen is used. Sometimes 2 different versions are both correct. A noun can become a verb and vice versa. Language is in constant evolution. 

But let's talk about an Italian language phenomenon common, especially in central and southern Italy, but universal in some cases. It's about how to pronounce a consonant in a new word after the final vowel of the preceding word. This is called raddoppiamento fonosintattico (phonosyntactic doubling), also called rafforzamento fonosintattico (phonosyntactic reinforcement). Non-native speakers might not notice this as anything but simply part of the language, and we likely won't analyze it. We just try to repeat what we hear. We mention this as it might be helpful in understanding why certain words have a double letter in the middle of a word that seems to come from 2 separate words.  

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Examples of vocal doubling of the consonant can be as basic as the C in casa in a sentence such as Andiamo a casa (let's go home). It's often reinforced or almost doubled. If you listen carefully, you might hear it, but you also might not, unless someone shows you how it would sound without reinforcing that C. It's a nuance. If you learn Italian by listening and repeating, you don't need to worry about this at all. You might notice a difference in pronunciation among the various regions of Italy from north to south. The doubling phenomenon seems to increase as we travel southward.

Francesco, andiamo a casa.

Francesco, let's go home.

Caption 25, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone EP2 Rabbia - Part 5

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But sometimes this raddoppiamento fonosintattico (doubling a letter in speech), as it is called, makes its way, over time, into the written word, and we get what is called univerbazione or "univerbation," in other words, uniting two or more words into one word. In linguistic terms, it's "the diachronic process of forming a new single word from a fixed expression of several words." In English, we talk about "compound words." But in the case of Italian, the new word might be based on the sound of the letters that end the first word and begin the second one rather than just the meaning. 

We have seen this in words such as daccapo instead of da capo (from the beginning), (see this lesson). Both are used. 

We can presume that the adverb nemmeno was ne meno at one time but with the phenomenon of pronouncing one word after the other with a double or reinforced M, the spelling shifted to nemmeno. 

Non ci voglio nemmeno pensare, nemmeno pensare.

I don't even want to think about it, not even to think about it.

Caption 88, Provaci ancora prof! S2E6 La strana ossessione - Part 15

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The list goes on and on. Language nerds might like to see this article (in Italian) about reinforced letters and univerbations in Italian. 

Another classic example is soprattutto (above all). We always have to remember to double that (first) T. Originally, it was two words: sopra (above) and tutto (all). The T was doubled in speaking, and then over time, it began to be written with two T's combining into one word. 

E, soprattutto, mi devo caricare delle storie degli altri, delle vite degli altri.

And, above all, I have to take on other people's stories, other people's lives.

Caption 55, Romanzo Italiano Lazio - Part 7

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Another example of radoppiamento fonosintattico, as well as univerbazione, is Oddio, which comes from Oh Dio! (oh God, oh my God). It expresses shock, agitation, or fright.

Oddio!

Oh my God!

Caption 21, La Ladra EP. 10 - Un ignobile ricatto - Part 9

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Sometimes oddio is not so strong and merits neither an exclamation point nor a capital letter at the beginning. Someone is having a memory lapse, that's all. 

Gino Bresciano, oddio chi era Gino il Bresciano?

Gino the Brescian, oh God, who was Gino the Brescian?

Caption 30, Liberi tutti EP4 Ma la giacca la vuole tutta? - Part 6

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Which brings us to a recent episode of I Bastardi, where Renzo (an unsuspecting suspect) asks Detective Lojacono whether there is news about the case. Lojacono answers first with a no, and then corrects himself using oddio. He's neither shocked nor frightened. He is just re-thinking what he had said originally. The capital letter is likely because it is the beginning of the sentence. 

C'è qualche novità? -No, nulla di importante. Oddio, abbiamo scoperto che Biagio aveva presentato all'ufficio brevetti una richiesta a suo nome, aveva anche versato tremila e settecento euro richiesti.

Is there some news? -No, nothing important. Or rather, we have discovered that Biagio had presented to the patent office, a request in his name, he had also paid the requested three thousand seven hundred euros.

Captions 39-43, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone EP4 Gelo - Part 22

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If we look up oddio in the Treccani dictionary, we see that in addition to "Oh God," another meaning is doubt or uncertainty. Yet another similar use is to correct or attenuate something said previously. So in the previous example, this definition would make more sense. Lojacono is correcting his "no, nothing important," since it is actually evidence about who might have killed Biagio and that is pretty important, contrary to what he said at first. 

The 3 takeaways from this lesson are:

1) There are combinations of words that appear one way, (such as a casa) but are pronounced slightly differently because the consonant at the beginning of a word is doubled or reinforced. This is hard to detect for many of us and we don't have to worry about it. It's something we might start noticing at some point. 

2) Sometimes, but not always, this doubling or reinforcement is reflected in the spelling of a word, in other words, uniting 2 words into 1. For example, in arrivederci (to seeing each other again) the R is doubled. But its relative expression a sentirci (to hear from each other again) has remained as two separate words. Interesting, right?

3) The exclamation oddio falls into both aforementioned categories and can mean something different from "Oh God" or "Oh my God." It's just something to be aware of, something that has come up in a recent Yabla video. We mentioned it because it provided the spark for this lesson.

Language nerds might like to see this article about the reinforced letters and univerbations in Italian. 

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