Tonight we watched "Inspector Morse 23: The Death of the Self". Chief Inspector Morse and Sgt. Lewis go to Italy to check on a suspicious death. They work with an Italian detective who spoke Italian now and then to other Italians. His Italian seemed to be Italian.
Then he answered a phone. The Italian custom is to say "Pronto", that is "Ready". However, he said, "Prahntoh", like we say it in the U. S. We learned it as "Prohntoh" in Italy.
It could be that they say the former in Vicenza were the movie took place, but …
Well, I checked the cast and found Georges Corraface as the detective. He is French and
"A classically trained and versatile actor, his gift for languages and his multi-cultural background has enabled him to work in eight languages and an even wider variety of accents."
Is "Prahntoh" used in Vicenza or did his extensive use of English make him lapse into the English pronunciation? Non so! (I don't know!)
