Re: CHAT: Tacos et al.

On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> Simple: what you call "elbow macaroni" is in fact simply macaroni.
> Macaroni is a kind of pasta, along with spaghetti, linguini, fusilli,
> lasagne, ravioli, cannelloni, vermicelli, etc... Pasta refers to the
> stuff in which they are made, and to any kind of pasta when it's
> unnecessary to make any difference. Macaroni is just *one* kind of
> pasta, as important as spaghetti, or cannelloni, etc... and refers to
> the very small bended tubes of pasta. Pasta and macaroni are as much
> synonyms as dog and rotweiller.
While we're going on about pasta, is there a difference between `lasagne'
and `lasagna'? And, incidentally, is it /rQtwi:l@/ or /rQtwail@/ (Ignoring
the difference in everything b/n yours and mine, only considering the
-/i:/- and -/ai/-)*? or is this another of those British versus American
things? (Can't find a dictionary with an understandable pronunciation
guide right now.)

*That means don't say it's /vOtv@il@4/ or something... ;)

> You can't always defend the misuse of some words by saying that it's
> your "idiolect" (that's for that reason that I corrected myself and
> know say "brava!" when I applause a woman, whatever strange looks I
> get. If you want to use an Italian word, at least use it correctly).
In English, only `bravo!' is correct, of course, but English isn't
Italian.

Tristan.

anstouh@yahoo.com.au

Replies