Rhythmic and prosodic contrast in Venetan and Sicilian Italian
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Laurence White
Abstract
We compared the Italian of speakers from the Veneto, in the north of Italy, and from Sicily, in the far south, looking for evidence of rhythmic and prosodic differences. We found no reliable differences in scores for rhythm metrics (VarcoV, %V, VarcoC) for Venetan and Sicilian, with both varieties having scores similar to French and indicative of a greater durational marking of stress than Spanish. However, we found much stronger prosodic timing effects in Sicilian Italian, with stressed vowels in nuclear utterance-final position twice as long as in prenuclear utterance-medial position. We also found evidence of differential patterns of vowel reduction: Sicilian showed greater modulation of F1 and F2 values according to stress and prosodic position, indicating greater vowel centralisation in prosodically-weak contexts than in Venetan Italian. Overall, the results indicated greater prosodic contrast in southern Italian, and suggest that multiple factors contribute to the perception of rhythmic differences.
Abstract
We compared the Italian of speakers from the Veneto, in the north of Italy, and from Sicily, in the far south, looking for evidence of rhythmic and prosodic differences. We found no reliable differences in scores for rhythm metrics (VarcoV, %V, VarcoC) for Venetan and Sicilian, with both varieties having scores similar to French and indicative of a greater durational marking of stress than Spanish. However, we found much stronger prosodic timing effects in Sicilian Italian, with stressed vowels in nuclear utterance-final position twice as long as in prenuclear utterance-medial position. We also found evidence of differential patterns of vowel reduction: Sicilian showed greater modulation of F1 and F2 values according to stress and prosodic position, indicating greater vowel centralisation in prosodically-weak contexts than in Venetan Italian. Overall, the results indicated greater prosodic contrast in southern Italian, and suggest that multiple factors contribute to the perception of rhythmic differences.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Between phonetics and phonology
- Schwa in American English V+/r/ sequences 15
- Perception of word stress in Castilian Spanish 35
- Do complex pitch gestures induce syllable lengthening in Catalan and Spanish? 51
- Cues to contrastive focus in Romanian 71
- The phonetics of sentence-initial topic and focus in adult and child Dutch 91
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Part II. Segmental and prosodic interactions
- Prosodic structure and consonant development across languages 109
- Rhythmic and prosodic contrast in Venetan and Sicilian Italian 137
- Stem boundary and stress effects on syllabification in Spanish 159
- Prosodic and segmental effects on vowel intrusion duration in Spanish /rC/ clusters 181
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Part III. Interactions between segments and features
- Acoustic and aerodynamic factors in the interaction of features 205
- Fixed and variable properties of the palatalization of dental stops in Brazilian Portuguese 235
- Post-tonic vowel harmony in some dialects of Central Italy 247
- Vowel reduction and vowel harmony in Eastern Catalan loanword phonology 267
- Index of Subjects and Languages 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Between phonetics and phonology
- Schwa in American English V+/r/ sequences 15
- Perception of word stress in Castilian Spanish 35
- Do complex pitch gestures induce syllable lengthening in Catalan and Spanish? 51
- Cues to contrastive focus in Romanian 71
- The phonetics of sentence-initial topic and focus in adult and child Dutch 91
-
Part II. Segmental and prosodic interactions
- Prosodic structure and consonant development across languages 109
- Rhythmic and prosodic contrast in Venetan and Sicilian Italian 137
- Stem boundary and stress effects on syllabification in Spanish 159
- Prosodic and segmental effects on vowel intrusion duration in Spanish /rC/ clusters 181
-
Part III. Interactions between segments and features
- Acoustic and aerodynamic factors in the interaction of features 205
- Fixed and variable properties of the palatalization of dental stops in Brazilian Portuguese 235
- Post-tonic vowel harmony in some dialects of Central Italy 247
- Vowel reduction and vowel harmony in Eastern Catalan loanword phonology 267
- Index of Subjects and Languages 287
