On Travel with Rick Steves May 31, 2015 (I'm only now getting around to posting this), Steves was talking about life in Italy and Italian politics with an Italian correspondent and an American expert on Italy.
Steves pronounced Italy the way (not quite all!) Americans pronounce it—as though it were spelled iddaly. It's thoroughly unremarkable to say it that way. That's just how Americans say it. (If you are American, try it. If you're not American, take a five-minute break.)
The Italian guy pronounced the name of his country as a sort of cross between the American way and the Italian way, Italia (iTalia, if I use my same-old system for representing this stuff). His hybrid (or maybe just British?) pronunciation yielded iTaly, with the stress on the first syllable.
The American Italy expert insisted on pronouncing the name of the country the same way: iTaly.
Why did that woman refuse to say iddaly? Could it be because she was in the (radio) presence of an Italian—a "genuine" expert on Italy—and this triggered the American fear of sounding unsophisticated? Note that her pronunciation doesn't just avoid a (supposedly crude, unworldly, childish) flap. It inserts an aspirated t where we never see them: right after a stressed vowel. She ended up with a word that's neither Italian nor natural-sounding American English.
Everyone: there's nothing wrong with iddaly. (Or with Italy. I'm sure it's lovely. I've never been.)
Yes, I talk about flapping a lot. See the NPR post about this and my post about flaps in music.
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