“GABAGOOL”. Dan Nosowitz also explains why the “c” sound in “capicola” becomes pronounced as “gabagool” by many Italian-Americans. Although I knew the word “pruh-zhootâ€, I didn’t—to Mary Jane’s surprise—recall encountering either “capicola” or “gabagool”. This wikipedia entry has helpful pictures and recognizes both the “capicola” and “gabagool” pronunciations: “Capocollo [kapoˈkÉ”llo], also known as [gaba’goul] (in certain parts of the United States, notably among Italian-Americans in New Jersey, as made famous by the HBO Television series “The Sopranos”; cappicola, coppa in Canada, capicollo or capicolla), is a traditional Italian pork cold cut (salume)….”
The linguistic principle explaining how the “k” sound becomes a “g” sound is stated by Olivo-Shaw: “A lot of what we call the voiceless consonants, like a ‘k’ sound, will be pronounced as a voiced consonant.†A voiced consonant will cause a vibration in your vocal chords and a voiceless one will not. In “capicola” there are two voiceless “k” sounds which become voiced “g” sounds, and there is a voiceless “p” sound which becomes a voiced “b” sound.