Clementa

Many novels are filled with foreign names that readers don’t know how to pronounce—and therefore don’t remember very clearly. Now, thanks to the internet, we have a novel that comes with a video lesson on pronouncing those names.

 

The novel is Clementa by Jim Martin, and the video stars Danbury resident Patrizia Farina, adjunct professor of Italian and Latin at Western Connecticut State College. The video can be viewed on the website clementanovel.com. There Patrizia and her compatriot Manrico Caglioni give the correct pronunciation of several of the names in Clementa and explain how Italian spelling works.

 

Manrico is president of Book Automation Inc. in New Milford.

 

Behind the camera recording the video was Manrico’s daughter Caroline Caglioni, a student at Joel Barlow High School in Redding. Patrizia assembled the crew and produced the video.

 

Patrizia, Manrico, and Caroline recorded the video on 10 August 2008 at Western Connecticut State College in Danbury. Manrico edited the footage at home.

 

The novel hit bookstores in October 2008.

 

Why do the names in Clementa need a lesson on their pronunciation? Because they’re spelled the Italian way— naturally enough, since Clementa takes place in Italy. And Italian spelling differs from English in some interesting respects.

 

Patrizia and Manrico were both born in Italy, but they met in Connecticut. At the Benedictine Grange, a small church in Redding, Patrizia heard some people talking in Italian, and one of them was wearing an Atalanta sweat shirt. Atalanta is a soccer team from Bergamo, Italy. Patrizia addressed the young man in the sweat shirt and met Daniele Caglioni, his mother Susan, and his sister Caroline. Susan is American but lived in Bergamo for several years. Daniele and Caroline were born there, and their father is Manrico. Now Patrizia and the Caglioni family are good friends.

 

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