Sacha wrote:

: On 25/8/08 22:20, in article
: , "Steve Turner"
: wrote:
:
:: Sacha wrote:
::
::
::: And if you want to be correct and pronounce the latter as
::: the Italians do it's oREGano, not the English Oregahhhno! ;-))
::
:: Except it's origano - but agreed the stress is on the rig.
:
: Quite right, my bad - talk about spot the deliberate mistake! My ex
: ma in law always said oREGano, presumably to try to stop the English
: *******ising yet another of her country's words even further. She
: was equally impassioned about how we pronounce Pinocchio and
: Michaelangelo! Getting those 'wrong' was like turning a key in her
: back. It was agony to her! And as for zabaglione - well, you can
: imagine!

I'll admit I didn't know and looked it up. Italian words are mostly stressed
on the penultimate syllable (I have a friend who lives in Italy and I tried
to learn the language at one point) but origano is one of those exceptions.
I would have presumed it was pronounced more like we do. On American TV they
always say it "properly" and it used to grate - but not any more.

--
Steve