My Isetta on Top Gear!!!!

[richard]

sorry steve but i will have another rant  - on this site we should really be able to spell Isetta   indeed the tax concession in england was for it being a tricycle rather than its cc which didnt matter.

[steven mandell]

My apologies if my finger dangling on the s tab on my keyboard allowed the phonetically more proper spelling of the archetypal micro car to show itself despite my using the spellcheck feature on this site.
Spell check of [brace your self] "Issetta" yields the top suggestion of "Assert"- not its phonetic relative ("Ass hurt").
Spell check of the properly spelled "Isetta" yields the top suggestion of "Lisetta"- a lady I have not yet had the fortune of meeting.
Besides whom so ever came up with the spelling in the first place  either pronounced it differently or spelled it wrong as an "I" with just one "s" after it is normally pronounced as it is in the word "is"  Sorry about all the "is's- sounds like a Clinton era speech.
I guess the name "Isetta" never made it into the English dictionary that this spellcheck uses as reference.
When will the English learn to speak?  Sorry- the musical "My Fair Lady" just took over the text.

[richard]

hi steve

wikipedia has it as always - the manufacturing company was founded ,manufacturing refrigeration units, pre wwII as Isotherma . after being taken over in 1942 by industrialist Renzo Rivolta the company became Iso Rivolta. By 1953 becoming Iso Autoveicoli S.p.a. thus the car becoming when launched the Isetta , i believe the term for little Iso. so endeth todays lesson.

spell check also makes endeth not a word !! but does suggest Edith !! i think i would rather meet your Lisetta 

[steven mandell]

See what I mean.  Iso is pronounced eeso.  So Isetta should be pronounced Eesetta.  So has it been misspelled or mispronounced for the last 55 years?

[marcus]

In Italy it is pronounced eeezETTa (accent on ETT). For English speakers it is natural to say it like eyes etter, (but without the gap). As many Isettas were made in UK, and many sold here and to other Anglophone countries, I think that there is no need for us to say it the Italian way. Even though it does sound nice!

[richard]

and i was only talking about the speeling 

[marcus]

Correct speling is SO impotant.

[steven mandell]

I'll presume that you are pronouncing that "eyes otter"- impudent impotent linguists be damned.

[g-o-g-g-o]

I have an American brochure for the Isetta 300 and it says in brackets ( pronounced I-SETTA )
                                                                                                                                              Mike

[Big Al]

I am not surprised the Isetta/Esetta/Red Eyed Setter, whatever it is, bit of film was chopped. Even Top Gear cannot really create such a wrong bit of information for general release surely. They ask for a lampoon called Top Git with Marcus playing a long dollop slagging off borrowed Supercars for being the wrong size, not working etc etc just as they do with anything deemed 'uncool' and hyping clearly niche market machines for the masses, like JCBs on the M25 as you have something to do when your in a traffic jam. I guess I get to be the Fat Hamster and Root can be May as he knows many in depth facts on odd subjects and is not keen on driving. Stick it on You Tube and get a following so we can make these prongs look as stupid as they try and make us look for having a hobby.
Isetta owners are lucky. It could have been called a Rivoltetta.

'What have you done with the car, Rochester?'
'I'z et 'er, Boss'

[steven mandell]

Mike-I do not doubt the accepted spelling or pronunciation.  I just find it amusing that in this case the English were able to butcher the Italian pronunciation and there own rules of phonic spelling thus enabling the Americans (whom usually do not require any enabling) to follow suit.