Abstract
This study compares results obtained from analyses of spontaneous and controlled speech in the dialects of Cavergno and Olivone, two small villages situated in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. In Cavergno, the contrast between the voiceless palatal plosive [c] and the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate [ʧ ] was studied using the ‘center of gravity’ (CoG) as an acoustic correlation of the place of articulation. In Olivone, we focused on the contex- tual distribution of the mid front vowels ([e] in paroxytone words, [ɛ] in oxytone words). Thanks to the collaboration of six informants (three in each village), data from a sample of spontaneous speech and from a questionnaire of controlled speech were collected for both locations to verify if spontaneous speech, unlike controlled speech, could detect an incipient language change.
Bernardasci, Camilla