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WE NO SPEAK ITALIANO
I very much enjoyed Matt Prior’s musings on how to say ‘Ferrari 12Cilindri’ and similar language matters, negotiating that fine line between ignorance and snobbery (Prior Conviction, 2 October).
In the past I worked for Fiat, where I learned to speak Italian, so I find it natural to use the original language. I think where the car name is in Italian, one should try to use the correct pronunciation. ‘Ferrari Rome’ or ‘Ferrari 458 Italy’ would seem lazy – perverse even – but I have no problem with ‘Fiat Five Hundred’, as I acknowledge that the general public would not necessarily know the Italian.
As regards food and drink, I find myself choosier: the ‘g’ in ‘tagliatelle’ pasta is silent and people asking for a ‘larty’ coffee is just plain awful.
What a fascinating topic language is. By the way, Matt missed one: Italians always call Lancia ‘Lancha’, not ‘Lansee-a’. Thankfully for us petrolheads (or is that tifosi?), the Daewoo and Xedos were short-lived.
Gareth Tarr
Chertsey, Surrey
AMATEUR UX DESIGNER
My 2024 Cupra Born is my fourth EV, and it has many endearing features, not least of which are the long range and handling, and the fact it has an almost circular steering wheel. Less so are the requirements to dig into amenu to change basic driving functions. I doubt if I’m alone in asking that almost everything should be available as a shortcut.