Zegna

the people at zegna (when i asked) and the italians that i know will tell you that it's along the lines of: er' men eh g_hill' do zeg' nah there are region differences due to dialect it is a separate family controlled company of the textile zegna fame but has no financial ties to the gucci group or the armani group of companies that i am aware of i do believe, however, as someone posted here before, that one of the zegna factories is making some of the armani suits and clothing (perhaps the licensed collezioni line?)  i don't recall specificially but someone else will know for sure

A woman from Milan works for me and she told me it's pronounced cey-nya, with the g being silent.

well to add to the mystery, i just asked three different italians who happen to come from three different areas in italy (calabria, roma and sicily) and i got three slightly different pronounciations - go figure

my 2 cents: think of the words 'lasagna', 'gnocchi', 'gnosis', 'benign' (from latin), or 'bologna'. the 'g' is slient when in front of an 'n'. the italian 'z' sounds like our 'z', but with a very slight 'd' in front of it. i say "dzen-ya." i learned what is called 'standardized' italian, which is based on the milanese dialect.

It's pronounced Zane-yuh. I've never heard anyone in the clothing industry say it any other way. Stu's version - cey-nya works too.

mr. harris, "zane-yuh" would be the safe, american pronunciation. that is not italian however. the letter 'e' in italian sounds like our letter 'e' in the words bed, red, fred, ted, etc... there is no need for that long 'a' sound. for example, say "buona sera." it is not 'say-ra', but 'se-ra.' your friends in the clothing industry are wrong. for some reason americans have a fear of pronouncing foriegn words correctly. they think it sounds pretentious.

We're not worried about sounding pretentious - we just know that if we try to say it with an Italian accent we would most likely mess it up and sound like idiots

The most recent egregious example of this was the movie Moulin Rouge. Now, I don't speak French, but I speak enough to know that while everyone pronounced it Moo-Lon (including the film's trailers), it should be pronounced Moo-Lan. It's not as if they adopted a purely anglicized pronouciation (Mow-Lyn, anyone?) - it's as if they made up something that sounds vaguely French.

Here is a link to some audio pronunciations of designer names, including Ermenegildo Zegna. [url=http://fashion.about.com/blpronounce.htm]

I have wondered the same thing - the guy at Nordstroms put in the "g" Zeg - na

but I have heard it with the "g" slient

Maybe this Youtube video will put it to rest - Thank Milia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYXGOdj9sHQ

 

She introduces the online Zegna shopping experience

From a real reliable source, Zegna does make the suits for Armani, Gucci, and Tom Ford.  As to what lines, I didn't ask.  For Armani, it could go all the way up to the Georgio's.  Lower lines probably aren't (like Collezione).
 

My wife speaks fluent Italian and she says the g is silent (I always tease her by pronounciating the "g" in all sorts of Italian word like Pulgiese.  Her dialect is more Napolitane, but she says it's pretty consistent with the silent g in all of Italy and on Ischia, where she lived.

 

Funny one is how people also butcher Isaia.  They keep adding an extra "i" in the pronunciation.