Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not con... more Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not contain a geminate? In this paper I review previous approaches to this problem, and suggest that they are insufficient in accounting for consonant length contrasts in English loan words in North American varieties of Italian. I suggest that many factors are involved in the determination of consonant length in loans, including aspects of the grammar of the borrowing language (in this case, Italian)-such as the inventory of segments, the structure of the stressed syllable, and the presence of similar native lexical items-as well as the interpretation of the morphological structure and phonetic details of the foreign word.
The quality of an epenthetic vowel in a particular language may vary depending on segmental and p... more The quality of an epenthetic vowel in a particular language may vary depending on segmental and prosodic factors, such as the quality of the surrounding consonants, the quality of other vowels in the word, and the position of the epenthetic vowel within the word. This last factor has received little attention in the literature. I have identified a number of cases in Italian in which the quality of the inserted vowel is determined by its position within the word. Through an in-depth study of loan word integration we see that the choice of the inserted vowel is influenced not only by phonology, but by phonetics and morphology as well.
This study presents new data on pitch accent alignment in Sardinian, a Romance language spoken in... more This study presents new data on pitch accent alignment in Sardinian, a Romance language spoken in Italy. We propose that what has been described as “stress shift” in encliticization processes is not a change in the word level stress, but variation in the association of the pitch accent. Our claim is that word level stress remains in situ, and the falling tune which our data exhibit can be interpreted as a bitonal pitch accent (HL*) associated with the entire verb + enclitic unit: the starred tone is associated with the rightmost metrically prominent syllable, and the leading tone is associated with the word-level stressed syllable. The research questions we address are twofold: (i) how are the landing sites of the two tonal targets phonetically identified; (ii) how are the phonetic facts reconciled with prosodic structure.
... Three such words are pullover, Mississippi, and Cincinnati. Each of these words is pronounced... more ... Three such words are pullover, Mississippi, and Cincinnati. Each of these words is pronounced with long consonants where geminates appear in the written form: [pull55ver], [missis-sippi], and [6indinn6ati]. ... Firenze: Sansoni. Monelli, P. (1957). Barbaro dominio. Milano: Hoepli. ...
Many varieties of Italo-Romance spoken in northern Italy have both long and short vowels, but lac... more Many varieties of Italo-Romance spoken in northern Italy have both long and short vowels, but lack consonant length distinctions. Using a moraic model to organize and analyze the data, first, I will show that the long vowels in the dialects of northern Italy derive from different historical processes. In sorne northern Italian dialects (Emilian) long vowels arise from lengthened vowels in original open syllables, but the long vowels of some other northern dialects (Friulian) are the result of compensatory lengthening due to apocope of word final vowels (save a). Second, I will suggest a model for the synchronic generation of the various types of stressed syllables in northern Italian dialects. * I would like to thank Christina Bethin, Bruce Hayes, Glauco Sanga, Edward Tuttle, Arianna Uguzzoni, and an anonymous reviewer for Probus for their invaluable advice and comments on the analysis presented here. This research was partially funded through the State University of New York Faculty Research Development Grant and the New York State University Professions New Facuity Development A ward. l A third alternative was νφ#> with an empty second mora. It is this structure which leads to raddoppiamento fonosintattico (Repetti 1991). Diachronically, Latin extra-heavy ([V:C]) and extra-light ([V]) syllables were integrated into one of the aforementioned bimoraic structures.
In the European linguistic landscape Italy stands out for its high stratification and rich divers... more In the European linguistic landscape Italy stands out for its high stratification and rich diversity, with evolving identities, and with evolving relations between its language and dialects, alloglot languages, and a great number of immigrant tongues. While Italy boasts one of the historically most prestigious civilizations, its national language, unlike English, does not have the status of a language for international communication, and, unlike Spanish or Chinese, it does not span entire continents. Yet the language has spread across continents without an empire and armies, primarily through migrations of people who left the country at different times and with different purposes. This unique situation has led to complex and variegated social and linguistic identities in Italy. 1 Regarding the latter, Beccaria's Mia lingua italiana (2011), Bruni's Italia. Vita e avventure di un'idea (2010), Dardano's La lingua della nazione (2011) and Trifone's Storia linguistica dell'Italia disunita (2010) were all published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. Some of these texts are polemical in nature, but all are concerned with the theme of identity, the question of unity versus disunity, the relations between the unitary language and the country's multilingual history. The articles in this issue of Forum Italicum explore the theme of linguistic identities further, highlighting questions of multilingualism within Italophone territories and in the diasporas. If De Mauro (1963) was able to compare the Italian peninsula to a 'selva di dialetti' when referring to the years of the country's unification, with most people speaking dialect exclusively or predominantly in everyday communication, and relatively few mastering standard Italian, the reverse is true today. Following an astounding transformation that has taken place in the course of the last 150 years, the Italian language has reached all social strata throughout the
, the reviewers for this volume, and the audiences at the Stony Brook Linguistics Department Brow... more , the reviewers for this volume, and the audiences at the Stony Brook Linguistics Department Brown Bag series (December 12, 2001) and at the Conference on Italiano e inglese a confronto at the University of Venice, Italy (April 12-13, 2002) (which appeared as Repetti (2003)) for helpful comments on earlier versions of this work. 1 The following abbreviations are used in this paper: pl. 'plural', sg. 'singular', fem. 'feminine', mas. 'masculine', dim. 'diminutive', aug. 'augmentative'. The transcriptions given in this paper do not represent the only attested pronunciations. For example, the tenseness of the mid vowels varies greatly in Italian. 2 For loan integration processes in standard Italian see D'
Loss of linguistic diversity is viewed by many as one of the great ecological disasters of the tw... more Loss of linguistic diversity is viewed by many as one of the great ecological disasters of the twenty-first century, and the Romance language family has not been spared. This chapter deals with unique challenges to the study and documentation of endangered Romance languages. We consider the question of language vs dialect, and the added problems faced by endangered varieties deemed “dialects”. The role played by the highly prestigious and structurally related national languages of the countries in which the endangered varieties are spoken is analysedwithin the fieldwork context, as speakersmaypossess a spectrumof linguistic abilities, from thenational standard toan archaic local variety. Fieldworkmethods and language documentation/description are discussed, alongwith the types of resources producedand their accessibility.
The influence of standard Italian on the minor Romance languages spoken in Italy (i.e. the Italia... more The influence of standard Italian on the minor Romance languages spoken in Italy (i.e. the Italian dialects) permeates all aspects of their grammar. In this article, I provide an example of the way in which Italian prosody can affect dialects, a poorly studied type of influence. I show that a speaker may have a range of options available when speaking 'dialect,' including forms that are influenced by Italian to a greater or lesser degree.
Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not con... more Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not contain a geminate? In this paper I review previous approaches to this problem, and suggest that they are insufficient in accounting for consonant length contrasts in English loan words in North American varieties of Italian. I suggest that many factors are involved in the determination of consonant length in loans, including aspects of the grammar of the borrowing language (in this case, Italian)-such as the inventory of segments, the structure of the stressed syllable, and the presence of similar native lexical items-as well as the interpretation of the morphological structure and phonetic details of the foreign word.
The quality of an epenthetic vowel in a particular language may vary depending on segmental and p... more The quality of an epenthetic vowel in a particular language may vary depending on segmental and prosodic factors, such as the quality of the surrounding consonants, the quality of other vowels in the word, and the position of the epenthetic vowel within the word. This last factor has received little attention in the literature. I have identified a number of cases in Italian in which the quality of the inserted vowel is determined by its position within the word. Through an in-depth study of loan word integration we see that the choice of the inserted vowel is influenced not only by phonology, but by phonetics and morphology as well.
This study presents new data on pitch accent alignment in Sardinian, a Romance language spoken in... more This study presents new data on pitch accent alignment in Sardinian, a Romance language spoken in Italy. We propose that what has been described as “stress shift” in encliticization processes is not a change in the word level stress, but variation in the association of the pitch accent. Our claim is that word level stress remains in situ, and the falling tune which our data exhibit can be interpreted as a bitonal pitch accent (HL*) associated with the entire verb + enclitic unit: the starred tone is associated with the rightmost metrically prominent syllable, and the leading tone is associated with the word-level stressed syllable. The research questions we address are twofold: (i) how are the landing sites of the two tonal targets phonetically identified; (ii) how are the phonetic facts reconciled with prosodic structure.
... Three such words are pullover, Mississippi, and Cincinnati. Each of these words is pronounced... more ... Three such words are pullover, Mississippi, and Cincinnati. Each of these words is pronounced with long consonants where geminates appear in the written form: [pull55ver], [missis-sippi], and [6indinn6ati]. ... Firenze: Sansoni. Monelli, P. (1957). Barbaro dominio. Milano: Hoepli. ...
Many varieties of Italo-Romance spoken in northern Italy have both long and short vowels, but lac... more Many varieties of Italo-Romance spoken in northern Italy have both long and short vowels, but lack consonant length distinctions. Using a moraic model to organize and analyze the data, first, I will show that the long vowels in the dialects of northern Italy derive from different historical processes. In sorne northern Italian dialects (Emilian) long vowels arise from lengthened vowels in original open syllables, but the long vowels of some other northern dialects (Friulian) are the result of compensatory lengthening due to apocope of word final vowels (save a). Second, I will suggest a model for the synchronic generation of the various types of stressed syllables in northern Italian dialects. * I would like to thank Christina Bethin, Bruce Hayes, Glauco Sanga, Edward Tuttle, Arianna Uguzzoni, and an anonymous reviewer for Probus for their invaluable advice and comments on the analysis presented here. This research was partially funded through the State University of New York Faculty Research Development Grant and the New York State University Professions New Facuity Development A ward. l A third alternative was νφ#> with an empty second mora. It is this structure which leads to raddoppiamento fonosintattico (Repetti 1991). Diachronically, Latin extra-heavy ([V:C]) and extra-light ([V]) syllables were integrated into one of the aforementioned bimoraic structures.
In the European linguistic landscape Italy stands out for its high stratification and rich divers... more In the European linguistic landscape Italy stands out for its high stratification and rich diversity, with evolving identities, and with evolving relations between its language and dialects, alloglot languages, and a great number of immigrant tongues. While Italy boasts one of the historically most prestigious civilizations, its national language, unlike English, does not have the status of a language for international communication, and, unlike Spanish or Chinese, it does not span entire continents. Yet the language has spread across continents without an empire and armies, primarily through migrations of people who left the country at different times and with different purposes. This unique situation has led to complex and variegated social and linguistic identities in Italy. 1 Regarding the latter, Beccaria's Mia lingua italiana (2011), Bruni's Italia. Vita e avventure di un'idea (2010), Dardano's La lingua della nazione (2011) and Trifone's Storia linguistica dell'Italia disunita (2010) were all published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. Some of these texts are polemical in nature, but all are concerned with the theme of identity, the question of unity versus disunity, the relations between the unitary language and the country's multilingual history. The articles in this issue of Forum Italicum explore the theme of linguistic identities further, highlighting questions of multilingualism within Italophone territories and in the diasporas. If De Mauro (1963) was able to compare the Italian peninsula to a 'selva di dialetti' when referring to the years of the country's unification, with most people speaking dialect exclusively or predominantly in everyday communication, and relatively few mastering standard Italian, the reverse is true today. Following an astounding transformation that has taken place in the course of the last 150 years, the Italian language has reached all social strata throughout the
, the reviewers for this volume, and the audiences at the Stony Brook Linguistics Department Brow... more , the reviewers for this volume, and the audiences at the Stony Brook Linguistics Department Brown Bag series (December 12, 2001) and at the Conference on Italiano e inglese a confronto at the University of Venice, Italy (April 12-13, 2002) (which appeared as Repetti (2003)) for helpful comments on earlier versions of this work. 1 The following abbreviations are used in this paper: pl. 'plural', sg. 'singular', fem. 'feminine', mas. 'masculine', dim. 'diminutive', aug. 'augmentative'. The transcriptions given in this paper do not represent the only attested pronunciations. For example, the tenseness of the mid vowels varies greatly in Italian. 2 For loan integration processes in standard Italian see D'
Loss of linguistic diversity is viewed by many as one of the great ecological disasters of the tw... more Loss of linguistic diversity is viewed by many as one of the great ecological disasters of the twenty-first century, and the Romance language family has not been spared. This chapter deals with unique challenges to the study and documentation of endangered Romance languages. We consider the question of language vs dialect, and the added problems faced by endangered varieties deemed “dialects”. The role played by the highly prestigious and structurally related national languages of the countries in which the endangered varieties are spoken is analysedwithin the fieldwork context, as speakersmaypossess a spectrumof linguistic abilities, from thenational standard toan archaic local variety. Fieldworkmethods and language documentation/description are discussed, alongwith the types of resources producedand their accessibility.
The influence of standard Italian on the minor Romance languages spoken in Italy (i.e. the Italia... more The influence of standard Italian on the minor Romance languages spoken in Italy (i.e. the Italian dialects) permeates all aspects of their grammar. In this article, I provide an example of the way in which Italian prosody can affect dialects, a poorly studied type of influence. I show that a speaker may have a range of options available when speaking 'dialect,' including forms that are influenced by Italian to a greater or lesser degree.
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