Leonardo Testi - Etruschi

How can you spot a man from Florence in a crowd? Just ask him why is doing this or that and he will start with "be'ose..." (instead of becose) or ask him what he is drinking and he will answer: "Co'a 'ola" (instead of "Coca Cola", the italian name of Coke). The mute "c" is a characteristic of the florentine accent (and of a large part of Tuscany). (Italians click here now!)
You may ask where it comes from: it comes from the way of speaking of the glorious civilization that settled in Tuscany and in the northern part of Lazio before the Romans (i.e. VII-III cent. B.C.): The Etruschi.

This beatiful sculpture is inside the Archeological Museum in Florence.

Unfortunately the Etrurian civilization have been completely annihilated by the Pax of the Romans (In Italy we use to say for this and other similar events in the history: "they made the desert and called it peace!").

To the other italians that love to make jokes on our way of talking, just because they do not want to admit that the italian language itself comes from Tuscany (see both Dante Alighieri and Alessandro Manzoni, who came "...to wash my clothes into the Arno river."):
please note that we do not have all cs mute!
It is annoying to listen horrible and unprobable attempts to mimic our pronunciation.
As a rule of the thumb keep in mind the following pronunciation table:
Italian: "Un cane" --> Florentine: "Un cane" (normal c)
Italian: "Due cani" --> Florentine: "Du' 'ani" (everything missing both e and c!!!)
Italian: "Tre cani" --> Florentine: "Tre ccani" (double c!)

Last update: 21 June 1997