Aspetti della lenizione in alcune varietà dell'italiano meridionale

Abstract

This study deals with the lenition of voiceless fricatives in two varieties of southern Italian. In the first part, we recall not only different ways in which the very notion of ‘lenition’ has been used in the traditional literature and in recent theoretical proposals, but we will also discuss the fortis vs. lenis distinction (as well as the related feature [±tense]), finally adhering to a rather narrow interpretation of the two concepts. A review of the available descriptions of southern varieties of Italian shows that an allophonic Show more