Yes on the first point - it’s closer to how the Italians pronounce it. But Parmigiano and Parmesan are not the same word.
The English word “Parmesan” comes from the French word “Parmesan”, which is pronounced, you guessed it, with a s/z sound.
The soft g/j is not more accurate, because it’s a different word. It’s an over-correction.
FWIW, the word was in English nearly a whole century before the first British colony in America. It really is a word that existed and folk in America changed the pronunciation of.
All the southern Italians. I point this out because standard Italian settled on a northern dialect as the standard. So the Italian those immigrants brought has some differences.
the original Italian is parmigiano, so a soft g/j sound is actually more accurate than a s/z sound
Yes on the first point - it’s closer to how the Italians pronounce it. But Parmigiano and Parmesan are not the same word.
The English word “Parmesan” comes from the French word “Parmesan”, which is pronounced, you guessed it, with a s/z sound.
The soft g/j is not more accurate, because it’s a different word. It’s an over-correction.
FWIW, the word was in English nearly a whole century before the first British colony in America. It really is a word that existed and folk in America changed the pronunciation of.
I wonder if it came from all the italian immigrants that came over.
All the southern Italians. I point this out because standard Italian settled on a northern dialect as the standard. So the Italian those immigrants brought has some differences.
In our defense, Italians kept coming here and eating Parmesan. It makes sense we’d pronounce it closer to the Italian
Parmezany!