Lori Repetti (ed.) (2001). Phonological theory and the dialects of Italy. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 212.) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Pp. x+301.

Abstract

This volume is a welcome addition to the literature on Italian dialectology, specifically phonology, and to the wider discourse of phonological theory.I would like to thank Sharon Hargus for her keen attention to detail on earlier drafts of this review. Originally intended as a companion volume to Syntactic theory and the dialects of Italy (Belletti 1993), this volume grew out of a project initiated by the editor in 1995. The contributions collected in this book display the enormous richness of Italy's complex linguistic situation, a complexity which arises from the interaction between Standard Italian and Italian dialects, as well as from influences from other minority languages spoken throughout the Italian peninsula. Standard Italian as a widely used national language is little over 100 years old. However, as Berruto (1993: 3) points out, ’whether or not Italian is the national language of our country, maintaining that all Italians speak (only) Italian would be a serious misrepresentation of the facts‘ (my translation). Italian dialects are classified geographically into three macro-categories: Northern (those above the La Spezia-Rimini isogloss), Tuscan and those of the Centre-South (which includes Sicily and Sardinia) (see Lepschy & Lepschy 1992, Sobrero 1993 and Maiden & Parry 1997 for detailed information pertaining to both Standard Italian and Italian dialects). As well as providing descriptive and theoretical accounts of aspects of Standard Italian phonology, the contributions in this volume cover a range of southern and northern dialects, including Friulian, a Tuscan variety (Pisan) and data from the Raeto-Romance of Eastern Switzerland. There are, however, no in-depth treatments of the dialects of Sicily or Sardinia. Theoretical frameworks include classical generative phonology, (early) Optimality Theory, derivational constraint and repair models, moraic phonology and feature-based models. The collection resembles a who's who of Italian phonology, in that it gathers together work from many important established and upcoming scholars in the field.