Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/suvlin.2019.087.06
Influence of Italian orthography on pronunciation of phonemes in Regional Italian
Irena Marković
orcid.org/0000-0002-3563-9862
; Sveučilište u Zadru
Abstract
There is evidence today that, depending on different regions, Italians pronounce certain phonemes
in different way. For example, the grapheme <z> in zio ‘uncle’ and zitto ‘quiet’ in Northern Italy is
always pronounced as [dz], while in the South we hear [ts]. The situation is very similar with the
grapheme <s>, which has two different outcomes, [s] and [z], depending on diatopic variable and
distributional context (Berruto; Benincà ; Sobrero; Telmon; Canepari). These particular types of
pronunciation and articulation can be explained by several factors: dialectal influence on Regional
Italian, incoherence of the orthographic system for certain phonemes (with some of the phonemic
distinctions being graphemically undistinguished) (Maraschio; Cignetti and Demartini), phonemic
(non)functionality and problematic phonemes in Italian language (Muljačić). In this paper we will
try to examine the significance of each of these factors that have influenced the variation in pronunciation of Regional Italian as well as the usage of the problematic phonemes in Italian language in
the future. On one hand, this paper will compare studies on different articulation and perception of
Italian phonemes depending on regional variability (Regional Italian), especially for the problematic
phonemes in Italian language. On the other hand, we will analyse the possible influence that the
incoherent orthographic system has on the loss of distinctive functions in pronouncing those phonemes (today and in the past). In this way we will try to understand what is going to happen in the
future with the (non)articulation/perception of certain phonemes of Standard Italian and how this
will affect the phonemic system of Italian language.
Keywords
Italian; dialectology; pronunciation; phonemes; orthographic system
Hrčak ID:
223086
URI
Publication date:
20.7.2019.
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