Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:35:31.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Consonant weakening in Florentine Italian: A cross-disciplinary approach to gradient and variable sound change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2008

Christina Villafaña Dalcher
Christina Villafaña Dalcher
Affiliation:
City University London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Few acoustic studies of the intervocalic consonant lenition in central Italian dialects (a process known as Gorgia Toscana) have been undertaken. This study examines speech data from Florentine Italian in order to describe the process of Gorgia Toscana quantitatively and to assess the roles of physiological, perceptual, phonological, and social factors in the process. Results of acoustic and statistical analysis indicate gradient and variable output, with certain patterns occurring in the variation. The observations that emerge from the data cannot all be accounted for if Gorgia Toscana is characterized as a purely phonetic, phonological, or socially driven process of sound change. Rather, different aspects of the process are attributed to different motivators: gradience and velar preference to articulator movements, resistance of nonvelar lenition to perceptual constraints, targeting of a natural class and categorical weakening to abstract featural representations, and intersubject variation in velar lenition to external social factors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 275 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agostiniani, L., & Giannelli, L. (1990). Considerazioni per un analisi del parlato toscano. In Cortelazzo, M. A. & Mioni, A. M. (eds.), L'italiano Regionale, Atti del XVIII Congresso Internazionale di Studi SLI. Roma: Bulzoni. 219–237.Google Scholar
Albano Leoni, F., Bertinetto, P. M., Locchi, D., & Refice, M. (2000). AVIP—Archivio delle varietà di italiano parlato. ftp://ftp.cirass.unina.it/cirass/avip.Google Scholar
Allen, W. S. (1978). The names of the letters of the Latin alphabet (Appendix C). In Vox Latina—A guide to the pronunciation of classical Latin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antelmi, D. (1989). Caratteristiche fonetiche e morfosintattiche nella varietà fiorentina di italiano. Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia Scuola Società Territorio 13:47–73.Google Scholar
Ash, S. (2002). Social class. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, P., & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bafile, L. (1997). La spirantizzazione toscana nell'ambito della teoria degli elementi. In AA., VV. Autori vari-(Italian “various author”), Studi linguistici offerti a G. Giacomelli dagli amici e dagli allievi. Firenze: Unipress. 27–38.Google Scholar
Balise, R. R., & Diehl, R. L. (1994). Some distributional facts about fricatives and a perceptual explanation. Phonetica 51:99–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertinetto, P. M., & Loporcaro, M. (2005). The sound pattern of Standard Italian as compared with the varieties spoken in Florence, Milan and Rome. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2):131–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P. (1993). Accurate short-term analysis of the fundamental frequency and the harmonics-to-noise ratio of a sampled sound. Proceedings of the Institute of Phonetic Sciences Amsterdam 17:97–110.Google Scholar
Boersma, P. (1998). Functional phonology: Formalizing the interactions between articulatory and perceptual drives. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.Google Scholar
Boersma, P & Weenink, D. (2006). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 4.4.12) [Computer program]. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://www.praat.org.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Browman, C. P., & Goldstein, L. (1990). Tiers in articulatory phonology, with some implications for casual speech. In Kingston, J. & Beckman, M. (eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology I: Between the grammar and physics of speechCambridge: Cambridge University Press. 341–376.Google Scholar
Browman, C. P., & Goldstein, L. (1992). Articulatory phonology: An overview. Phonetica 49:155–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. (1977). Listening to spoken English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M. (1999). Why be normal?: Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language and Society 28:203–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Certeau, M.. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Clements, G. N. (1990). The role of the sonority cycle in core syllabification. In Kingston, J. & Beckman, M. (eds.), Papers in laboratory phonology I: Between the grammar and the physics of speechCambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1998). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Contini, G. (1960). Per un'interpretazione strutturale della cosiddetta “gorgia toscana.” Boletim de Filologia 19:269–281.Google Scholar
Cravens, T. (1984) Intervocalic consonant weakening in a phonetic-based strength phonology: Foleyan hierarchies and the gorgia toscana. Theoretical Linguistics 11:269–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cravens, T. (2000). Sociolinguistic subversion of a phonological hierarchy. Word 51 (1):1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cravens, T & Giannelli, L. (1995). Relative salience of gender and class in a situation of multiple competing norms. Language Variation and Change 7:261–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feagin, C. (1979). Variation and change in Alabama English: A sociolinguistic study of the white community. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Fujimura, O. & Erickson, D. (1997). Acoustic phonetics. In Hardcastle, W. J. & Laver, J. (eds.), The handbook of phonetic sciences. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Giannelli, L., & Cravens, T. (1997). Consonantal weakening. In Maiden, M. & Parry, M. (eds.), The dialects of Italy. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Giannelli, L., & Savoia, L. M. (1978). L'indebolimento consonantico in Toscana I. Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia 2:25–58.Google Scholar
Giannelli, L.. (1979–80). L'indebolimento consonantico in Toscana II. Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia 3–4:39–101.Google Scholar
I Grandi Dizionari: Hazon: inglese-italiano, italiano-inglese (2005). Milan: Garzanti.Google Scholar
Hall, R. A. Jr. (1949). A note on gorgia Toscana. Italica 26:64–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J., & Urua, E.-A. (2001). Lenition degrades information: Consonant allophony in Ibibio. Speech, Hearing and Language: Work in Progress 13:72–105.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. (1999). Phonetically-driven phonology: The role of optimality theory and inductive grounding. In Darnell, M., Moravscik, E., Noonan, M., Newmeyer, F., & Wheatly, Ka. (eds.), Functionalism and formalism in linguistics, volume I: General papers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 243–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horvath, B. (1985). Variation in Australian English: The sociolects of Sydney. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, E., & Johnson, K. (2001). A model of the interplay of speech perception and phonology. In Hume, E. & Johnson, K. (eds.), The role of speech perception in phonology. New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, L. (1977). Phonologicization. In Juilland, A. (ed.), Linguistic studies presented to Joseph H. Greenberg. Saratoga, CA: Anma Libri. 407–418.Google Scholar
Izzo, H. J. (1972). Tuscan and Etruscan. University of Toronto Romance Series, 20. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janda, R. D. (2003). “Phonologization” as the start of dephoneticization—Or, on sound change and its aftermath: Of extension, generalization, lexicalization, and morphologization. In Joseph, B. & Janda, R. (eds.), The handbook of historical linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Janda, R. D & Joseph, B. D. (2003). Reconsidering the cannons of sound change: Towards a “Big Bang” theory. In Blake, B. & Burridge, K. (eds.), Selected papers from the 15th International Conference on Historical LinguisticsAmsterdam: John Benjamins. 205–219.Google Scholar
Jongman, A., Wang, Y., & Kim, B. (2003). Contributions of sentential and facial information to perception of fricatives. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46:1367–1377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement 20:141–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaye, J., Lowenstamm, J., & Vergnaud, J.-R. (1985). The internal structure of phonological elements: A theory of charm and government. Phonology Yearbook 2:305–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirchner, R. (1998). An effort-based approach to consonant lenition. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kirchner, R. (2001). Phonological contrast and articulatory effort. In Lombardi, L. (ed.), Segmental phonology and optimality theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kirchner, R. (2004). Consonant lenition. In Hayes, B., Kirchner, R., & Steriade, D. (eds.), Phonetically based phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972a). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972b). Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society, 1:97–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (2001). Vowels and consonants: an introduction to the sounds of the world's languages. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Landau, S. & Everitt, B.S. (2003). A handbook of statistical analyses using SPSS. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavoie, L. (2001). Consonant strength: Phonological patterns and phonetic manifestations. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Leech, N. L., Barrett, K. C., & Morgan, G. A. (2005). SPSS for intermediate statistics use and interpretation. 2nd ed.Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Lepschy, A. L. & Lepschy, G. (1977). The Italian language today. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (2001). Weakening of intervocalic /p, t, k/ in two Spanish dialects: Toward the quantification of lenition processes. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Maddieson, I. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, I.. (2005). Bilabial and labio-dental fricatives in Ewe. In UC Berkeley Phonology Annual Lab Report (2005). 199–215.Google Scholar
Marotta, G. (2001). Non solo spiranti. La “gorgia toscana” nel parlato di Pisa. L'Italia Dialettale 62 (1):27–60.Google Scholar
Marotta, G.. (2003). Una rivisitazione acustica della ‘gorgia’ toscana. In Leoni, F. Albano, Cutugno, F., Pettorino, M., & Savy, R. (eds.), Atti del Convegno Nazionale “Il parlato italiano.” CD-ROM. Naples: D'Auria Editore.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A., & Nicely, P. E. (1955). An analysis of perceptual confusions among some English consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 27:338–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nespor, M., & Vogel, I. (1986). Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris.Google Scholar
Ohala, J. J. (1993). The phonetics of sound change. In Jones, C. (ed.), Historical linguistics: Problems and perspectives. London: Longman. 237–278.Google Scholar
Ohala, J. J.. (1997). Aerodynamics of phonology. In Linguistics in the morning calm, selected papers from SICOL 1997, Linguistic Society of Korea. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing House. 92–97.Google Scholar
Pacini, B. (1998). Il processo di cambiamento dell'indebolimento consonantico a Cortona: Studio sociolinguistico. Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia 22:15–57.Google Scholar
Rohlfs, G. (1930). Vorlateinische Einflüsse in den Mundarten des heutigen Italiens? Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift 18:37–56.Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, N. (2002). Field methods. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, P., & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, N., & Wolfram, W. (1999). Alternative models of dialect death: Dissipation vs. concentration. Language 75 (3):486–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shadle, C. H. (1997). The aerodynamics of speech. In Hardcastle, W. & Laver, J. (eds.), The handbook of phonetic sciences. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sorianello, P. (2001). Un'analisi acustica della “gorgia” fiorentina. L'Italia Dialettale 62 (1):61–94.Google Scholar
Sorianello, P.. (2003a). Proprietà spettrali del rumore di frizione nel consonantismo fiorentino. In Leoni, F. Albano, Cutugno, F., Pettorino, M., & Savy, R. (eds.), Atti del Convegno Nazionale “Il parlato italiano.” CD-ROM. Naples: D'Auria Editore.Google Scholar
Sorianello, P.. (2003b). Spectral characteristics of voiceless fricative consonants in Florentine Italian. In Solé, M. J., Recasens, D., & Romero, J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic SciencesBarcelona. 3081–3084.Google Scholar
Stevens, K. N. (1997). Articulatory-acoustic-auditory relationships. In Hardcastle, W. & Laver, J. (eds.), The handbook of phonetic sciences. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stevens, K. N., & Blumstein, S. E. (1978). Invariant cues for place of articulation in stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 64:1358–1368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sturtevant, E. H. (1947). An introduction to linguistic science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Trask, R. L. (1996). A dictionary of phonetics and phonology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P.. (1986). Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P.. (2002). Social differentiation. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, P., & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vennemann, T. (1988). Preference laws for syllable structure and the explanation of sound change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Vogel, I. (1997). Prosodic phonology. In Maiden, M. & Parry, M. (eds.), The dialects of Italy. New York: Routledge. 58–67.Google Scholar
Zec, D. (1995). Sonority constraints on syllable structure. Phonology 12:85–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zsiga, E. C. (1997). Features, gestures and Igbo vowels: An approach to the phonology/phonetics interface. Language 73 (2):227–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar