Gemination variation in three varieties of regional Italian

Abstract

Consonant gemination in Italian is phonologically distinctive, being acoustically realized with consonant closure duration and duration of the preceding vowel as primary cues. Southern varieties of Italian have been claimed to geminate more than Northern varieties. The purpose of these study is to analyze variation in gemination in two Northern varieties of Italian (Veneto Italian and Friuli-Venezia Giulia Italian) and Neapolitan Italian, spoken in the South. Moreover, generational variation will be analyzed for Venetian speakers. The study involved 40 speakers: 10 young speakers per region and 10 older speakers from Veneto. The speakers read aloud bisyllabic Italian words with voiceless stop geminates or singletons. Results show that there is no significant difference in gemination between younger (VY) and older Venetians (VO). This is surprising, as VO are more proficient in Venetian, a non-geminating language. Moreover, while VY and Friulian (F) speakers geminate similarly, a significant difference was found with how Neapolitan (N) speakers geminate, but not on whether N speakers geminate more than VY and F speakers. In fact, while VO and F geminate by lengthening the consonant closure more than shortening the preceding vowel, N speakers appear to shorten the preceding vowel much more than lengthening the consonant closure.