UMR 7320 : Bases, Corpus, Langage

The lenition of sonorant plosives is a process characterizing the Southern Italo-Romance varieties (Weinrich 1958, Rohlfs 1966 : 291-99, Ledgeway 2016, among others). While lenition of labial and dental plosives results in unique outcomes for each plosive, namely [v] and [ð], the velar /ɡ/ weakens into [ɣ] fricative or [j] approximant depending on the area. In these same regions, a process of consonantal epenthesis is documented, typically resulting in the insertion of the same sounds derived from weakening, as shown in (1) : (1) Lenition Epenthesis lat. GALLINACEUS ‘rooster’ lat. ALTUS ‘high’ Faeto (FG) – lu ˈ[ɣ]allə ˈɛ ˈ[ɣ]awtə Roccasicura (IS) – rə [j]oˈallə ˈe ˈ[j]avətə Despite the extensive interest of the literature in these subjects, several aspects remain to be studied. The areas of lenition ɡ > [ɣ] and ɡ > [j], as well as the areas of epenthesis of [ɣ] or [j], have been identified with limited precision (Festa 1917, Lausberg 1939:113-14, Rohlfs 1966:155-56, Giammarco 1979, among others). Furthermore, there is no consensus regarding the trajectory that led to the two outcomes of lenition [ɣ] and [j] (Rohlfs 1966:155-56, Loporcaro 1988:87-88). Moreover, lenition is a relevant process for assessing the strength of consonantal positions in the sound sequence, but there is a scholarly divide concerning the strength of the absolute initial position in Southern Italo-Romance dialects (Fanciullo 1986, Andalò and Bafile 1991, Bafile 2014, Ledgeway 2016). My PhD thesis work aims to shed light on the aspects of sonorant lenition and the remaining questions, building upon my master’s thesis where I explored the correlation between the phonological processes of lenition and consonantal epenthesis in Southern Italo-Romance varieties, particularly in the Teramo variety. The study I plan to conduct for my thesis to address the aforementioned issues is dialectological in nature, but it will also draw on formal theoretical concepts concerning the study of lenition trajectories and consonantal position strength. Therefore, it aligns seamlessly with the research directions of the BCL laboratory, especially within the Dialectology and Formal Linguistics team, where my co-directors Professors Diana Passino and Diego Pescarini operate.