One data point: To my American English tongue, I find a slight word aversion to Galilei due to the final vowel construction. Galileo presents no aversion to me.
I didn't say it was difficult. I said that, for whatever phonetic reason, I don't like to pronounce it, and I can't exactly articulate why. That's the root of the research on word aversions.
I think it's because the final two vowel sounds, 'e' and 'i', are created using the same basic mouth/tongue positions, and thus, to differentiate the two sounds, you exert more force in controlling your muscles. On the other hand, with 'e' and 'o', the mouth positions are so different, that you can be a lot more loose with the vowel sounding and still get the final vowel combination to come out right. I hope that makes sense.
Ah, I see... weird, but I guess it's a matter of taste. There are a few words in Italian that really are tricky. Not many, but I took a while to get this one right:
ammortizzatore
it really twists your mouth around if you're saying it right.
It's a lot scarier looking than it is... 'sz' and 'cz' are both phonemes, somewhat similar in sound to the English 'sh'. Still not easy to pronounce, sure.
No, it comes from a common Slavic root of unclear origin chet- or shet- with meanings, in various languages, of "comb", "picket fence", "bristle", "fir needles", etc.
For non-Polish Slavic speakers Polish is not difficult to pronounce, just funny. It's very soft sounding and even normal words often have forms that would be diminutive in other Slavic language. So everything sounds like a baby talk.
It's Szczecin, and it's not entirely impossible to pronounce, but it does require practice. The inital szcz is pronounced about the same way as sh ch in fresh cheese.
Aaargh! I had a sinking feeling I had it wrong, should have checked the map. It's a border town between Poland and Germany, I've crossed that border quite a few times and I still can't remember the spelling... Polish is hard for foreigners!
If it were spelled "Galilay" it would be nearly the right sound, but wouldn't be so strange to English speakers. (Having sung a lot in Italian, I'm very used to the "ei" dipthong, but it just doesn't occur like that in English with that spelling.)
As an American who spent a few months in Italy, I can attest unless you spend a lot of time with the language, Italian phonemes are weird. Italian is incredibly easy to pronounce, but feels strange to an American used to different (and more varied) vowel sets.
For more on word aversions, check out these many Language Log posts: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&...