Ciocc ain't here man.

The name is simply nonsense as explained by the originator (who it should be noted is no longer the owner of the brand!) so trying to determine what influenced him seems pointless. The pronunciation of the whole name is definitely not German and your average German would not have any idea as to how to pronounce the combination of letters. It is a bit like Häagen Dazs, it is simply nonsensical but does evoke a certain feel. You would hear many different pronunciations if you presented the name to your average German. I can't think of any German word that combines iö. Furthermore to get the pronunciation accorded to it by Pelizzoli, in German you would likely need at least an S following the ö. The pronunciation of the ö does however seem to follow what your average Italian would be taught as being the way to pronounce the German ö.


As regards the linguistic situation of Bergamo, I am not very well-informed but do believe it is fair to say that the city of Bergamo has never been part of the region of German language influence, but that it has likewise been under Germanic rule at some time in its long history. Perhaps some of the very outlying Northern parts of the province of Bergamo might have felt a bit of influence of the German language but not the city. Typically, influence radiates out from the cities outward in Italy and not the other way around and there are some major physical barriers (lakes and mountains) between Bergamo and the areas of German language influence.

Given the beating I took commenting on the pronuciation of "Bottecchia" I was reluctant to post on the pronuciation of "Ciocc." Sig. Pelizzoli does pronounce it in the video, however, and his pronunciation sounds like "Ciocc" should be pronounced with the "ch" of "church" plus a diphthong consisting of a short "e" rapidly elided with an "oach" sound, as in "roach" or "coach," something like "chee-oach." Pelizzoli claims that this word "non significa nulla" "it doesn't mean nothing," with the sort of double negative that Italians often employ when they want to emphasize a negative statement. I have no idea what "ciocc" means, if anything. It might be a Northern italian dialect. There is a word in the Arzan Reggiano dialect that sounds a bit like this and means "blockhead," "dummy," or "moron." Some have suggested that "ciocc" means "poker-face," which could be cognate to "blockhead." Just my humble opinion. Only Pelizzoli knows for sure.

Nice place, Bergamo - lovely old town, accessible via a funicular, had a very pleasant afternoon there a few years back whilst waiting for an evening flight out from the airport. Great coffee.

Hey, How about some of our Italian members giving their opinion!

Robbie, I think you need to get a new doctor.

So the bike was named after one of Topcats sidekicks?

A good occasion to re-up this pronunciation clip.

Bianchi, Bottechia, Campagnolo, Carrerra, Cinelli, Ciocc, Gios (!), Colnago, Daccordi, Dedacciai, De Rosa, Longorni, Marzocchi, Pinarello, Selle Italia, Selle San Marco.

i ve been 2 weeks ago at senior Pelozzoli atelier and one of the topics was the name and the pronuntiation of Ciocc. In romanian Ciocc means bird bill.

i was under the impression Ciocc was a nickname. It can be pronounced either "chooch" or "cheech".
Not to be confused with US Comedians Cheech and Chong.

Heres my CIOCC at Siena (Italy) railway station, I asked a few people (including the guy in the Bianchi shop) how to say it correctly, they were all Italian and I got about 3-4 different versions, the most popular being "chow ch"
Glad I can clear that one up for everyone !!

Like "Choice or "Choke" but ending with the "ch" sound as in "church" = "Choich" or :Choch" ... as told to me by Lee Katz of Chicago who imported various bikes and components from Europe in the 1970s.

t=18s in the video from the man himself.

When I bought my Ciocc, I pronounced it "choke"...
But the saleman pronounced it "choss"
Read a review in Bicycling or somewhere where they assured everyone it was "choach"
Since it's not a real word, it doesn't have to conform to Italian pronunciation.
Probably the most mispronounced brand in cycledom..

I've always heard it pronounced cheeoach, but as has been pointed out, it's a made up silly word anyway. Italian doesn't use umlauts. An actual Italian would likely add a rudimentary 'e to the end, as in CHEEoach'e. They have a hard time ending a word with a consonant.

(and don't throw stones, I grew up Italian-American and know this from personal experience )

It's been a while, but I took a couple of years of Italian in college.
The standard Italian pronunciations of the letter C

Ci = ch as in Ciao bella! say it like "chow" in English
Chi = key as in Bianchi, say Bee-on-key
Cc - depends what follows, ie: Gucci has ch sound. cc with i or e following sounds like this

With a, o or u will make a k sound. Can't think of a word right now like that.

Bene!

In certain US Italian subcultures a "chooch" is a rat that runs around in a circle chasing it's tail until it turns itself inside out!

The implication may have something to do with "sleeps with the fishes"....

That's why I'm always amused by the name ciöcc....

verktyg

Chas.

You guys are all Americans: what do you know about pronunciation ? You think a Lancia is a Lawnchair !

Only joking, however Churchill did once say two great nations divided by a common language. - that is the USA and England.

Jon.

Churchill missed saying that Great Britain is even more divided by that common language. Geographically and socially.

Were not all Americans. Bike Forums has members World Wide. Any Nation that speaks the same Language will have different variations of it depending on where you are on the Map. Whether it has to do with accents or pronunciation.

People who don't know any Italian would surely butcher the pronunciations of Guerciotti, Pogliaghi, Legnano, etc. The interesting thing is that most Italians don't know how to pronounce CIöCC either, because it's not a real word, and it only uses half of the Italian rules for pronunciation.

Compare to Cervelo - which is a made up word supposedly the first half of the Italian word for "brain", added to the word Velo. But the guy who made up the word gets to decide what the pronunciation is and he doesn't use the Italian rules either - so almost nobody pronounces it the way it should be by the rules... except maybe Italians who don't know it doesn't follow the rules.

Lighten up guys, it was a tongue in cheek comment.

Jon.

You're qualified to make that remark - and America isn't a divided nation ?

Jon.