The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0951.  Wednesday, 24 September 1997.

[1]     From:   Maria Concolato <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:32:03 +0200
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[2]     From:   Hayley Grill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 11:03:01 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[3]     From:   Roger Gross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 13:00:21 -0500 (CDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[4]     From:   W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 14:44:44 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Qs: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[5]     From:   Catherine Fitzmaurice <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:04:15 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[6]     From:   Barbara Silverstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:38:11 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947 Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[7]     From:   Charles Edelman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 12:42:01 +8/00
        Subj:   Petruchio

[8]     From:   J. Kenneth Campbell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 00:46:57 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[9]     From:   Bill Gelber <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 22:34:21 -0700
Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

[10]    From:   Peter L. Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:   Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 08:58:08 +0000
Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0947  Pronunciation of Petruchio


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Maria Concolato <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:32:03 +0200
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

I imagine that the insistence on the 'ch' pronunciation depends on the
Italian usage: Petruchio is akin to the Italian 'Petruccio', a
diminutive of Peter.

Maria Concolato- Napoli

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Hayley Grill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 11:03:01 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

As I understand it, the ch was intendended by Shakes. to be pronounced
as ch and not K.  He was an Englishman poking a little fun at the
Italians.  It was a subtle joke that only the educated would pick up on,
but a joke nonetheless.  I have also read another theory that proposes
that it was the actors who originally made the pronunciation stick.

[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Roger Gross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 13:00:21 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

Kathleen Campbell asks about the pronunciation of Petruchio.

Arden has no firm evidence to dictate the ch (much) pronunciation. It
probably is a carryover from the typical 19th century pronunciation.  It
also fits with one of the basic British rules of pronunciation: never
pronounce a name the way the foreigners pronounce it.  Shakespeare
usually follows this rule, but not consistently when using Italian
names.  He, like the Italians, typically gives one syllable to the 'io'
endings of names.  We can say with confidence that Petruchio is a
three-syllable name (except when it is the last word in a verse
line...and even one of those is 3-syll).  The more common pronunciation
in our time is peh-TROOK-yo.  It doesn't really matter much whether you
say ch or k.  If you don't say yo, you ruin the verse.

If you are asking this question because you are doing the show, may I
point out that ALL of the io-ending names follow that pattern (GREHM-yo,
GRUM-yo, TRAN-yo, etc.).  Only Vincentio is excepted because it appears
only as the last word in a verse line.

One more bit of unsolicited help:  Padua = PADGE-wuh and Milan =
MILL-uhn.

Oh yes...Kate is, of course, CAT.

The evidence for all of these assertions is found in the form of the
verse.

Roger Gross
Univ. of Arkansas

[4]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 14:44:44 -0400
Subject: 8.0947  Qs: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Qs: Pronunciation of Petruchio

Ann Thompson provides an answer in her New Cambridge edition of
<italic>Taming</italic>, pp. 44-45, note on Petruchio. Gascoigne spelled
the name Petrucio. "Shakespeare presumably put in the 'h' to show that
he intended the 'ch' to be pronounced as in 'church'." Thompson feels
that the confusion has arisen from the modern Italian pronunciation of
ch.

Thompson, of course, may be wrong, but she does push this argument when
talking with students.

Yours, Bill Godshalk

[5]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Catherine Fitzmaurice <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:04:15 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

The "ch" is an anglicisation of the Italian "cci" - to encourage the
"ch" as in "church" in "Petruccio" which might otherwise be read as
"Petrukio." But usage is a demanding influence too - and "Petrukio" we
(educated in Italian ways) continue to say.

Catherine Fitzmaurice

[6]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Barbara Silverstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 15:38:11 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 8.0947 Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947 Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

Presumably, Shakespeare used "ch" to duplicate the Italian pronunciation
of a name that would almost surely have been spelt "Petruccio" in
Italy.  With such a spelling, an Italian speaker would indeed pronounce
the "c"'s as "ch"'s.

Barbara Silverstein

[7]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Charles Edelman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 12:42:01 +8/00
Subject:        Petruchio

Kathleen Campbell asks how to say 'Petruchio.'    Is the 'ch'  as in
'much' or as a 'k?'  Well, you pays your money and you takes your
cherce.

The problem lies in the chaotic nature of Early Modern spelling,
especially words taken from another language.  Your Italian professor is
correct (of course) in saying that 'ch' in Italian is always 'k' - so if
we say the name as spelled it must be 'Petrukio.' But . . . the name
Petruchio is actually PETRUCCIO, a common nickname for Pietro (Peter) -
in English our hero's name would be 'Pete' or 'Petey.'    And in
'Petruccio,' the double c is pronounced, as all double c's are, like the
'ch' in 'church.'

So you are both right and wrong, whichever pronunciation you adopt.

Regards,
Carlo (Charles) Edelman
Charles Edelman
English Department, Edith Cowan University,

[8]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           J. Kenneth Campbell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 00:46:57 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

Ms. Campbell

The name Petruchio (little Peter)  is pronounced (pe-trooch-i-o) by
Horace Howard  Furness Jr.   F.F. Mackay has it pe-troo-keo,  Margaret
Anglin, Julia Marlowe,  Otis Skinner and  E. H. Sothern all pronounce it
pe-troo-shio  Ada Rehan  pe-trooch-eo, Charles Douville Coburn,
pa-troo-cheo.  Because the play contains so much Italian I like,
pa-troot-tcho.   Con tutto il cuore ben trovato, may I say   But as you
see there are lots of variations.

[9]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Bill Gelber <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 23 Sep 1997 22:34:21 -0700
Subject: 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Q: Pronunciation of Petruchio

I thought that perhaps the "ch" pronunciation of Petruchio had to do
with the attempt to anglicize the Italian names (just as sometimes the
French names are pronounced with English sounds in "Henry V"). I've
always preferred Pretuchio with a "k" sound myself, just because of the
hard sound it makes when the character pronounces it.

[10]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Peter L. Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 24 Sep 1997 08:58:08 +0000
Subject: 8.0947  Pronunciation of Petruchio
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0947  Pronunciation of Petruchio

Kathleen Campbell asks why "A note following the list of Dramatis
Personae in the Arden edition of <The Taming of the Shrew> states that
the name Petruchio should be pronounced with a ch as in the English
<much>, never with a k."  Speakers of English have always been notorious
for adapting or 'anglicizing' foreign pronunciations (we say "Othello",
for example, with a fricative <th> that doesn't even exist in Italian)
but here it may be just a quirk of the particular editor, since Daniel
Jones' <English Pronouncing Dictionary>, recording the conservative
educated "Received Pronunciation" of sixty years ago, gives the /k/
version of "Petruchio" first and lists the /ch/ version merely as an
alternative.

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