LEXICAL ACCESS IN ITALIAN: WORDS WITH AND WITHOUT PALATALIZATION

Abstract

Velar palatalization is a fairly common process in Romance. Its roots are to be found in late Latin, although its distribution (as well as its phonetic implementation) differs from variety to variety, suggesting that the pro cess was still expanding at the time when Romance languages arose. The phonetic trigger is quite obvious, for it consists of the advanced point of articulation induced by front vowels on preceding velar consonants. One may thus reasonably assume that this phonological process was fairly re gularly applied at some point in time (and possibly for an extended period). Indeed, this has left abundant traces in the phonology of most Romance langua ges, specifi cally in root-internal positions, as shown by the following Ita lian examples: [ʧ]elo 'heaven', la[ʧ]erto 'biseps', auda[ʧ]e 'bold', from Latin CAELŬM, LACERTŬM, AUDĀCĔM. The present distribution in most Romance varieties, however, shows that palatalization is no more active as an across-the-board phonetic process. This is certainly the case in Italian, where palatalization (as a synchronic phonological mechanism) is now restricted to morphophonological environments, apart from its pre sence as a result of historical change. This is refl ected in the lexical shape of existing words like the ones quoted above, whose phonological representations involve palatal phonemes. Moreover, palatalization in Modern Italian is only triggered by the front high vowel /i/, whereas the examples quoted show that in the past it was also caused by the front mid vowels /e ɛ/. Most importantly, one now observes a somewhat capricious distribution, as wit