Studia Polensia, Vol. 14 No. 1, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32728/studpol/2025.14.01.06
The Influence of the Croatian Prosodic System on Accent Placement in Italian as a Foreign Language
Sarah Zancovich
; Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
The paper aims to analyse the results obtained from research
conducted among university students of the Italian Language and Literature
course. The study focuses on the way in which the Croatian language’s dual
prosodic system, the pitch accent and the stress-accent variety, affects the
placement of the accent in Italian polysyllabic words. The results obtained
from Croatian language speakers belonging to both systems were used to
evaluate if the similarities between the Croatian dynamic system used in
Istria, Rijeka, and Zagreb and the Italian language’s system facilitate the
ability to predict the accent’s placement in polysyllabic words. In order for
the results to be reliable, the words were, for the most part, unknown to
the students in order to study the factors that would affect their preferences
when placing the accent (for example, in the case of homographs). Thus,
the list of words that the students were asked to read predominantly
consisted of learned words of limited circulation. The results obtained
from croatophone speakers belonging to both systems were compared to
the ones produced by native speakers, students who speak Italian and/or
the Istrovenetian dialect in their household, and have received all their
previous education in Italian.
Keywords
prosody; Italian L2; accent placement; Italian language learning; Croatian
Hrčak ID:
340349
URI
Publication date:
5.12.2025.
Visits: 0 *