How To Pronounce GLI in Italian Like a Native

[00:00:00]Hello number one's and welcome to Matador's Academy. So today we're going to address one of the most dreaded, terrifying, evil, monstrous pronunciation features of the Italian language.

[00:00:18]Gli.

[00:00:19]Bro, not even Dante Alighieri would be okay with that one after all of the La Divina Commedia Inferno. Okay, so gli, gli, gli. I've got people asking me, "Ooh, wait, I need to show the subscriber the come on Matador, just put it together. You need to start the video with the what I need to find it. One second, I need to find the message of the subscriber that actually asked me to do this, to cover it. And maybe prepare it before you make the video."

[00:00:45]Matador.

[00:00:47]Hold on a minute. Gosh, you guys have no patience. Nothing. Found it. I'm going to show it. In his graciousness, took me 3/4 of an hour. Pablo Quiroz 3120 asks, "Grazie, ti andrebbe di fare un video su come si pronuncia gli? Molti di noi madrelingua spagnoli facciamo davvero fatica." So, let me translate it. It says, "Thank you. Would you mind making a video on how to pronounce gli? Many of us native speakers of Spanish uh really struggle a lot, basically, it's is what he's saying. So, here we are.

[00:01:22]Okay, so believe it or not, I mean, this is going to be kind of a short and sweet video, I suppose, but the one thing I want you to know is that the one pronunciation that you heard me do now, we're going to deconstruct it. I won't go too technical with it, though. I'll get a little bit, a little bit for those who are interested, but in general, I just want to give you some samples to work with and also some good news, meaning that if you're studying Italian, well, when it comes to native speakers of Italian, there are three ways to pronounce this.

[00:01:50]There are three ways within the entirety of the peninsula, including the islands, where people that people kind of subscribe to. It's that the one of these and depending on where you're from, they are all technically native. Now, one of these is, in theory, the most correct in the sense that it would be the standard version, the one I actually did. gli And that's the standard on how to pronounce it. And so, if you want a career as an Italian voice actor, then yes, you need to stick to that one.

[00:02:19]Or maybe you want to do theater in Italian, that's the one you need to do.

[00:02:22]That's the one you want.

[00:02:24]But otherwise, if you just want to speak Italian, or perhaps you even like a different regional accent rather than the standard form of the language, then in fact, the others are fine because there are native speakers who use them.

[00:02:37]So, let's just jump right into it. Of course, when we talk about gli, it's one of the articles, right? Because Italian has il, lo, la, i, gli, le. Il, lo, la, i, gli, le. All right?

[00:02:53]And these, of course, change depending on singular, masculine, feminine, plural, etc. And all those other connections.

[00:03:02]Now, in standard Italian, the sound gli is what is called a voiced palatal lateral approximant, which means nothing to 90% of the people watching this video. Well, let me let let's let's cut it very quickly. So, first and foremost, it's voiced. So, you're supposed to pronounce it by using your vocal cord. Okay, that's a voiced sound using vocal cords.

[00:03:26]The rest, palatal lateral approximant, it's basically telling you where in the mouth the sound is produced. And the reality is that the very first thing that you have to remember, never pronounce it as independent g n l because when you put them together, they create a new sound, a new unit. So, never gli, okay? It's not figli, it's figli, figli. All right? Now, it's a little annoying because there is a movement of the tongue.

[00:03:54]Lye, lye, lye.

[00:03:57]Figli, famiglia.

[00:03:59]Mhm?

[00:04:00]Lye.

[00:04:01]And uh generally speaking, it it's also And And in standard and southern varieties, there is also a little bit of a lengthening in the sense that inside a word, so in in isolation, lye, but if it's inside a word, it oftentimes sounds a little bit geminated. So, figli, figlio. It's a little stronger or longer, if you will, phonemically. Now, when we say famiglia, famiglia, lya, lya, lye, lye. Okay?

[00:04:32]If this is difficult, because it is difficult even for some native speakers, how What are the other possible pronunciations? Also, from from a perspective of like interest, right?

[00:04:42]It's a curiosity. So, people in the south tend to uh reduce it or simplify the sound and basically pronounce it like a Y. So, famiglia, figlio.

[00:04:56]Yuh.

[00:04:57]Rather than lye. Can you tell the difference?

[00:05:00]Yuh, yuh, yuh. Famiglia.

[00:05:04]Lye, lye, lye. Famiglia.

[00:05:08]Right? So, the second one, famiglia, is the standard uh generally speaking, natively used in central and a little bit of central northern Italian, so people in Lazio usually say it like this. Uh Tuscan is the place where this is native, and there are a few other areas around there where it's normally the native automatic sound.

[00:05:28]Now, there are people in the north that pronounce it like this, but in fact, there is a northern simplified variety, depending on which region you belong to.

[00:05:35]And as I was saying, the southern simplified variety is just a freaking Y.

[00:05:39]That's how it is. Famiglia, rather than famiglia. Okay? Yuh, the southern.

[00:05:45]In some northern areas, they simplify it into an L. So, they just You know how we just said that G and L functions as a single unit in order to represent a new sound?

[00:05:58]Well, some northern people do like I'm not interested and they go for familia.

[00:06:02]So, fa-mi-li-a, literally just an L. Now, not all northern accents do it and even in those regions where this becomes a predominant feature, uh still it depends, right? You can have a person from there who doesn't do this and in fact goes for the standard. Uh what you won't find in the north is the simplification into a Y because that's very southern. Now, when I say southern, I include the island, of course, of Sicily.

[00:06:26]How do they do it in Sardinia?

[00:06:28]You know, if you are from Sardinia, let me know because right now I can't remember if you guys simplify it like us in the south or if you stick to standard. I don't believe you do the northern thing with an L. Uh my dad sometimes sometimes does it and then I always call him out. Uh but then again, he has every right to call me out if you think about it because again, for the majority of my life, I have simplified it as a freaking Y. Now, ever since I started studying diction, also when I was interested into teaching Italian, which I did for some time, I did find pleasure and interest and it's it's fancy, right? And to learn to pronounce it correctly, also because at one point, I want to be honest with you, I actually did consider the possibility of becoming a voice actor. I never actually materialized it, it didn't happen, but still it was interesting anyways.

[00:07:14]Uh it's fun to be able to do all of these. So, let's practice a little bit.

[00:07:18]Repeat after me.

[00:07:21]gli gli figlio figlio That means son.

[00:07:30]famiglia famiglia family moglie moglie wife aglio aglio garlic How did you like that?

[00:07:46]So, um that's the sound. That is the sound. So, uh which one do you find um more interesting as as a sound among these?

[00:07:56]Which one is the one you like the most?

[00:07:58]You like the standard variety uh or do you prefer the northern one? Do you prefer the southern one? Are you interested in the idea of perhaps trying a little bit of a simplified version or are you going to go for the more complex, even sometimes for native Italian, sound gli. But definitely let me know in the comments and if you have any other questions like this, I don't mind making like a little bit of a more of a shorter video uh format even if it's like barely 8 minutes. It's not a big deal. It's just to the occasional little mini tutorial for questions. So, do write your comments down below and let me know if there are other sounds an Italian is struggling with or if there are sounds in Mandarin, in French, in English, in uh Japanese. These are languages that I can usually tackle because even Spanish up to a certain extent, uh these are languages that I can tackle uh because I have studied some more, some less, but I think I should be able to approach them and if not, I can always, you know, ask um help from other members of the language space and language community.

[00:08:58]But I do want to finish this video just saying thank you so much for your interest in the Italian language. I really appreciate that. And uh I hope that you can use this as a little tutorial. So, one more time for shits and giggles, gli.

[00:09:14]gli.

[00:09:16]figlia That's the daughter so we are inclusive away as well. figlia figlia Ciao.

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