Jango, Gianfranco Messaggi passed away this morning

[rwk]

Was Jango Italian? His real name started with a G. Italian doesn't use J, K, W, X, or Y in native Italian words. So, names that start with J in English like John start with Gi in Italian so the Italian version of John is Giovanni. Very few languages pronounce J like English, with a juh sound. Spanish pronounces it like an H like Jose (Joseph) but for Juan (John) it sounds more like a W. French does pronounce it with a zh sound like the end of garage which is close to the English J. Sorry for his loss.

 

[Pendolino]

Yes, he was Italian and was one of the founding members of TrainZItalia and a great friend.

His real name was Gianfranco (a composite name that in English should be something like "John Frank"; there are many such names in Italian). His nick came from the spaghetti western movie "Django" (1966).