Approaches to Metaphony in the Languages of Italy

Description

This volume presents current work on a topic in Romance linguistics that still informs linguistic theory to this day: metaphony in the languages of Italy. Papers discuss fundamental research topics such as phonological opacity in the light of chain shifts, post-tonic harmony and consonant transparency, the role of morphosyntax in the typology of metaphony, the explanatory adequacy of feature-based versus element-based analyses, and the locus of metaphony in grammar. Other chapters present new experimental data, thus building a more accurate empirical foundation for the study of metaphony. We envision the volume to become a reference book not only for an updated descriptive survey of metaphonic patterns in Italy but also a thorough discussion of the challenges that metaphony poses for different (morpho)phonological theories. The book bridges the gap between descriptive works and theoretical thinking in the study of metaphony.   Contents List of contributors Introduction Harmonic processes and metaphony in some Italian varieties Metaphony and diphthongization in Southern Italy: reconstructive implications for sound change in early Romance On the morphophonology of metaphonic alternations in Altamurano Metaphony in the Ticino Canton and phonological features Progressive metaphony in the Abruzzese dialect of Teramo Metaphony and Raddoppiamento Fonosintattico in plural nouns in the dialect of Airola On integrating different methodologies in phonological research: acoustic, articulatory, behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in the study of a metaphony system Which syntactic information gets interpreted by phonosyntactic processes? Evidence from /u/ propagation in Southern Italian dialects On the typology of metaphony/stress dependent harmony Metaphonic chain shifts, vowel height and markedness Positional prominence and consonantal interactions in metaphony and post-tonic harmony Opaque interactions between vowel merger and metaphony Abruzzese metaphony and the A eater Index