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Quite possibly the most misspelled and mispronounced word that exists, but all misspelling and mispronunciations lead to the most popular sandwhich in Louisiana.
The correct spelling is muffoletta. The word is derived from the Sicilian/Italian word muffola, which means a fingerless mitten, with the diminutive suffix etta, which provides a small and endearing connotation. Alternate spellings are incorrect but common and understandable.
They are understandable because the correct word requires the pronunciation of four different vowels in a single word -- a, e, o and u -- and this is difficult for the tongue. As a result, mispronunciation is common: the sound of the first u carries over to the second vowel, so the word becomes muffuletta, which is one of the most common alternate spellings. Other mispronunciations cause other misspellings.
In March 1861, the prosperous Kingdom of Two Sicilies (Sicily and Naples) was defeated by Garibaldi (the famous Italian), who merged Sicily into Italy. During the next 30 years, Italy ruled Sicily harshly, and many residents lost hope as Sicily lost its prosperity.
Beginning in 1890 until about 1900, thousands of Sicilians (records show that just more than 200,000) began to immigrate to the U.S. in order to escape...