/t/ in 'pizza'

Question

Why is 'pizza' said as /pi:tse/ while it doesn't contain a 't' in spelling?

Thank you

Answer 1

Pizza is originally an Italian word. In Italian, before "zz", a "t" sound is inserted Before the zz while pronouncing the word. You have certainly heard some Italian soccer players' names like Materazzi that is pronounced as Materatzi or Materatsi.

Comments

Very helpful!

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Thank you very much indeed.

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It's my pleasure Ali.

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It's just pronounced as "Matzerati". There is no other alternative :)

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There certainly is.

Another example: Angelo Peruzzi = آنجلو پروتزی / پروتسی

And this is what an Italian said about 'pizza' and its pronunciation, which refers to how 'zz' is pronounced in Italian:

In Italian we have two different z sounds. Wikibooks explains it correctly and very clearly:

"Z" can be pronounced voiced, producing the "dz" sound, or devoiced, producing the "ts" sound.
Example voiced: zero (DZEH-roh) [ˈdzɛro], "zero"
Exaple devoiced: pizza (PEET-tsa) [ˈpittsa], "pizza"

http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/pizza-pronunciation.1514031/