How will you say 12Cilindri, as in the new Ferrari, if you’re an English speaker?
Will you opt for ‘Twelve Cylinders’ or will you give it the full ‘Dodici Cilindri’, perhaps touching your forefingers to your thumbs and chucking in a Dolmio Family accent as you go?
I ask because I have a colleague or two who say they will not call the new car the Dodici Cilindri. They think it will make them sound like the sort of person who says Paree instead of plain old Paris (insufferably pretentious, in other words).
I thought that was reasonable until I remembered they say Ferrari Roma and not Ferrari Rome, and that they don’t translate Quattroporte (four door) or Testarossa (red head) to English either. So what gives?
I’ve said Dodici Cilindri a few times out loud and I rather fear it does make me sound pretentious, a bit like saying Porsch-er, which I’m afraid I also do. Yet I feel no embarrassment saying Maserati Granturismo, nor did I with Fiats Cinquecento (500) or Seicento (600).
Although for some of the 500 models, like the new ones, I do instead say Five Hundred. And it’s possible that the potential problem lies in numbers: the mix in the 12Cilindri’s name of both numerals and letters.
If it were numerals only, I’d do the translation: like we do Five Hundred, or Nine Eleven rather than Neun Elf (Porsche). Yet if it were spelled out, as it is with Europa (Lotus) or Torino (Ford), I would say it in its natural form.
There’s almost enough evidence there to make a solid call for the style guide. Almost, but not quite: because the Ferrari 250 Europa is surely a Two Fifty Europa, and what is a 458 Italia if not a Four Five Eight Italia?
Alas, I don’t think there’s a definitive precedent. So I’m going to give Dodici Cilindri the full Captain Alberto Bertorelli treatment, and you can think what you like.