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Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation
Edited by Ermenegildo Bidese, Federica Cognola and Manuela Caterina Moroni
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 234] 2016
► pp. 205–236

Variation and change in Italian phonology

On the mutual dependence of grammar and lexicon in Optimality Theory

| UiT The Arctic University of Norway

In this paper I discuss the influence of language acquisition and borrowing on the reorganisation of grammar and lexicon in the development from Latin into Italian. We will have a look at the historical sequencing of the introduction of new phonological processes, velar palatalization, mid vowel breaking, and lateral palatalization, and how they conspire to create new contrasts or reintroduce contrasts that have been subject to neutralisation. The amphichronic analysis proposed here brings together insights from acquisition and loanword phonology in Optimality Theory to explain the historical development.

Keywords: acquisition, diachronic microvariation, Italian phonology, language change, Optimality Theory, palatalization
Published online: 1 December 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.234.08kra
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