Speaking well doesn’t just mean choosing the right words, but also knowing how to pronounce them correctly. Diction is a branch of phonetics and elocution that deals with the correct pronunciation of a language, often ignored in everyday life, but which acquires enormous value when entering the territory of professional communication, theatre, dubbing or, more simply, when you want to give weight and clarity to your voice. But how are names and words really pronounced according to the rules of the Italian language?
Alessandra Battaglia, actress, poet, speaker and teacher specializing in diction and public speaking, provided some clarity. In a video that has gone viral, the expert addresses one of the most delicate and divisive topics, namely the correct pronunciation of personal names, the ones we use every day convinced we are not wrong.
The expert responds
Alessandra Battaglia starts from a fundamental premise: discovering that your name is pronounced “badly” can be destabilizing. For some it is a liberating revelation, for others almost a shock, as if suddenly that name no longer belongs to the person who bears it. Precisely for this reason, he explains, there is a certain tolerance regarding proper names. Whoever bears a name has the right to hear it and pronounce it as he perceives it closest to him.
The rules, however, change when entering formal or artistic contexts. In a dubbing room, on a theater stage or in a rigorous use of diction, knowing accents and vowel openings becomes important. And here come the surprises.
An example above all: Elisabetta. The correct pronunciation, according to Italian diction, includes the initial open “e”. Not Elisabétta, therefore, but Elisabètta. Not only that: the name is written and pronounced with a single “b”, a detail that many take for granted without being so at all. Battaglia says it with irony and a certain indulgence: if it’s your name, feel free to use it however it makes you feel good. The important thing is to know that a correct pronunciation exists.
In the video that we will see shortly, other very common names are also mentioned, often distorted without us realizing it, such as Daniele, Pietro, Michele and Andrea.
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