Italian native speakers show two patterns concerning the selection of the singular masculine definite article allomorph before a glide /w/ or a sibilant + glide cluster /sw/. As far as Italian native lexemes are concerned, speakers select l' and il before /w/ and /sw/, respectively. Differently, il and lo are selected before loanwords showing the same contexts in first position. We propose that the observed divergence is due to two syllabifications of the phonemic strings including a glide /w/. In turn, the different syllabifications depend on the graphemic representation of the glide: in the native lexicon, mostly in loanwords. It is thus proposed that the vocalic versus consonantal status of the grapheme representing the glide influences the phonological representation of the glide itself. If /w/ is written as , it occupies a nuclear position, if /w/ is written as , it stands in onset position. We conducted an analysis on the vast Google Books corpus to corroborate this view. Moreover, a phonological analysis of Italian diphthongs is discussed.
Il trattamento di /w/ in posizione iniziale in italiano è influenzato dall'ortografia? Indizi dalla selezione dell'articolo maschile
Cossu P.
2023-01-01
Abstract
Italian native speakers show two patterns concerning the selection of the singular masculine definite article allomorph before a glide /w/ or a sibilant + glide cluster /sw/. As far as Italian native lexemes are concerned, speakers select l' and il before /w/ and /sw/, respectively. Differently, il and lo are selected before loanwords showing the same contexts in first position. We propose that the observed divergence is due to two syllabifications of the phonemic strings including a glide /w/. In turn, the different syllabifications depend on the graphemic representation of the glide: in the native lexicon, mostly in loanwords. It is thus proposed that the vocalic versus consonantal status of the grapheme representing the glide influences the phonological representation of the glide itself. If /w/ is written as , it occupies a nuclear position, if /w/ is written as , it stands in onset position. We conducted an analysis on the vast Google Books corpus to corroborate this view. Moreover, a phonological analysis of Italian diphthongs is discussed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
