The native English speaker (or even the native Italian speaker) can face numerous linguistic challenges when researching their family history using the Trentino parish records. For the English speaker, lack of familiarity with Italian pronunciation is often the first hurdle. But even those who speak Italian must deal with the many quirky linguistic/spelling idiosyncrasies of names, surnames and place names in older parish records, which are different from how they are written today.

In this 29-minute podcast, we will be looking at some basic linguistic principles of Italian pronunciation and spelling (this is mainly for the English speakers), followed by how some of these sounds can ‘shift’ into numerous spelling variants in parish records. After some vowel and consonant basics, we’ll be specifically looking at quirky uses of 6 consonants: C, G, Z, V, H and J, in personal names, surnames and names of places.

This is possibly the geekiest video podcasts I've ever made, but I find it fascination, and it really is essential information for people who are trying to research their families using Italian or Latin records, and they don't understand the logic behind all the spelling variants.

I do hope you enjoy it and find it useful.