Chapter 2. Gender, number and inflectional class in some Northern Italian dialects

Possessives, from Franco-Provençal and Occitan Systems to Contact Dialects in Apulia and Calabria

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6020063 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Benedetta Baldi ◽

Leonardo Maria Savoia

Keyword(s):

Language Variation ◽

Final Part ◽

Definite Article ◽

Test Bed ◽

North West ◽

12Th Century ◽

Complex Knowledge ◽

Italian Dialects ◽

Transfer Mechanisms

This article investigates the contact-induced reorganization of the possessive system in the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken from around the 12th century in the villages of Celle and Faeto in North Apulia and Guardia Piemontese in North-West Calabria. Gallo-Romance possessives exclude the article in the prenominal position, whereas in the Southern Italian dialects, possessives follow the noun preceded by the definite article. This original contrast is no longer visible in the varieties of Celle, Faeto and Guardia which changed the original prenominal position to the postnominal position combining with the article, except with kinship terms, preserving the original prenominal position. At the heart of contact phenomena, there are bilingualism and transfer mechanisms between the languages included in the complex knowledge of the speaker, suggesting a test bed for the treatment of language variation and parameterization. We propose an account of morpho-syntactic and interpretive properties of possessives, making use of the insights from the comparison of contact systems with prenominal (Franco-Provençal and Occitan varieties) and postnominal (Southern Italian dialects) possessives. The final part examines the distribution of possessives, tracing it back to the definiteness properties of DP and proposes a phasal treatment based on syntactic and interpretive constraints.

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Preverbal negation and clitic ordering, with particular reference to a group of North-West Italian dialects

Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (ZrP) ◽

10.1515/zrph.1997.113.2.243 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 113 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M. Mair Parry

Keyword(s):

North West ◽

Italian Dialects

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Italian Dialects in the United States. II

American Speech ◽

10.2307/451686 ◽

1926 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 13

Author(s):

Herbert H. Vaughan

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Italian Dialects

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Dialects Among Young Italian-Australians: A Shift in Attitude and Perception

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia ◽

10.1515/stap-2017-0021 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 467-483 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ruben Benatti ◽

Angela Tiziana Tarantini

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Social Identity ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Family Members ◽

Third Generation ◽

Instrumental Function ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

The Family ◽

The Relationship ◽

Italian Dialects

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the relationship that second- and third-generation Italian migrants in Australia have with the Italian dialect of their family. We report on the survey we recently carried out among young Italian-Australians, mainly learners of Italian as a second language. First, we analyse the motivation behind learning Italian as a heritage language. We then move on to describe their self-evaluation of their competence in the dialect of their family, and their perception thereof. Surprisingly, our survey reveals that not only are Italian dialects still understood by most second- and third-generation Italians (contrary to what people may think), but Italian dialects are also perceived by young Italian-Australians as an important part of their identity. For them, dialect is the language of the family, particularly in relation to the older members. It fulfills an instrumental function, as it enables communication with some family members who master neither English nor Italian, but above all, it is functional to the construction of their self and their social identity.

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“Subject” clitics and particles in Provençal

Probus ◽

10.1515/probus-2014-0007 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 183-215

Author(s):

Paola Benincà

Keyword(s):

Left Periphery ◽

Peculiar Behaviour ◽

Subject Clitics ◽

Interrogative Clauses ◽

Italian Dialects ◽

Theoretical Side

Abstract Several Occitan dialects spoken in Western Piedmont exhibit no 1sg subject clitic form (a situation widely attested in Northern Italian dialects), although interrogative clauses with a 1sg subject feature an enclitic particle ke, identical to the complementiser. Many attempts have been made to interpret this ke as a reflex of Lat. E(G)O ‘I’ or originating from the reanalysis of the analogical -k displayed by verbs such as dik ‘I say’. Rather, I claim that ke is what it seems, namely the complementiser, and entertain the hypothesis that in these varieties the complementiser ended up satisfying EPP-like features. To support this analysis, I examine data from a wider area including Provençal, Gascon and Ibero-Romance dialects in which the complementiser is used as a proclitic particle in assertive clauses (Etxepare 2010 a.o.). On the theoretical side, I submit the hypothesis that the peculiar behaviour of the complementiser ke in that area has to do with the checking of a ‘speaker’ feature in the left periphery of the clause.

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Global Masterpieces and Italian Dialects

Journal of World Literature ◽

10.1163/24056480-00202007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 236-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elisa Segnini

Keyword(s):

World Literature ◽

Historical Memory ◽

Minority Status ◽

Minor Literature ◽

Theoretical Concepts ◽

The Tempest ◽

Definition Of ◽

Italian Dialects

This essay suggests that the ultraminor can function as a paradigm to examine literature that emphasizes the minority status of the language in which it is composed. Engaging with Deleuze and Guattari’s definition of minor literature and with Pascale Casanova and Lawrence Venuti’s reflections on the role of translation in the shaping of world literature, it develops a comparison between two rewritings of Shakespeare into Italian dialects: Eduardo De Filippo’s translation of The Tempest into Neapolitan and Luigi Meneghello’s translation of Hamlet into vicentino. The essay underlines how these endeavors represent translations into languages that, at the time of writing, are considered by their authors in decline and doomed to extinction, and argues that both authors use translation to emphasize the historical memory of their native idioms. Both De Filippo and Meneghello, in fact, set out to challenge the subordinate status of Neapolitan and vicentino by proving that dialects are apt to express great thought as well as philosophical, abstract, and theoretical concepts.

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