Comparative Historical Dialectology: Italo-Romance clues to Ibero-Romance sound change (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

This brief monograph explores the historical motivations for two sets of phonological changes in some varieties of Romance: restructured voicing of intervocalic /p t k/, and palatalization of initial /l/ and /n/. These developments have been treated repeatedly over the decades, yet neither has enjoyed a satisfactory solution. This book attempts to demonstrate that both outcomes are ultimately attributable to the loss of early pan-Romance consonant gemination. This study is of interest not only to the language-specific field of historical Romance linguistics, but also to general historical linguistics. The central problems examined here constitute classic cases of questions that cannot be answered by confining analysis solely to the individual languages under investigation. The passage of time, the indirect nature of fragmentary and accidental documentation, and the nature of the changes themselves conspire to deny access to the most essential facts. However, comparison of closely cognate languages now undergoing change supplies a perspective for discerning conditions that may ultimately lead to states achieved in the distant past by the languages under investigation. CILT 231 COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL DIALECTO LOGY 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Dedication 6 Acknowledgements 8 Table of contents 10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 14 Purpose 14 Ibero-Romance voicing 15 Palatalization of initial /l/ and /n/ in Ibero-Romance 20 Approaching the problems 21 Inherent limitations 22 Theoretical concerns 25 The role of modern comparative evidence 26 Plan of this study 27 CHAPTER 2. SUBSTRATUM 28 Background 28 Two substratum hypotheses reviewed 30 Celtic Substratum: Voicing in Western Romance 30 Critique 38 Conclusion 40 Basque Substratum: Absence of Voicing in the West-Central Pyrenees 42 Critique 45 Conclusion 49 CHAPTER 3. CRUCIAL INGREDIENTS: INTERVOCALIC VOICING IN LATIN, ASSIMILATION AT WORD BOUNDARIES 53 Background 53 Approaching the evidence 54 Some modern parallels 57 Interpreting spelling errors 58 Objections 63 Sporadic misspelling 64 Lack of voicing in Italy, Rumania, and the Pyrenees 72 From assimilation in Latin to rafforzamento sintattico 72 Conclusion 77 CHAPTER 4. VOICING IN WESTERN ROMANCE 79 Introduction 79 The problem 80 Structure-based accounts 81 Martinet's push chains 82 Weinrich's Verständigungsprinzip der Sprache 82 Hall 1975 and Bichakjian 1977 88 Below La Spezia - Rimini 92 Northeast Corsican: Sisco 92 Campidanese Sardinian 94 Considering rafforzamento sintattico 97 Canary Island Spanish 99 Phases in the development 102 Conclusion 104 CHAPTER 5. PALATALIZATION OF WORD-INITIAL /l/ AND /n/ IN IBERO-ROMANCE 106 Introduction 106 Word-internal developments in Catalan, Castilian, and Portugue 106 Initial sonorants in Catalan, Castilian, and Portuguese 107 More extensive palatalization of initials: Leonese and Asturian 107 Martinet's hypothesis 109 Internal /ll/ and initial /l/ in two varieties of Italo-Romance 111 Northwestern Tuscany (Garfagnana) 112 Corsica 116 Origin of initial strengthening 117 "Flower" in Naples 118 Considering rafforzamento sintattico again 119 Diachroniedevelopments in the Garfagnana and Corsica 120 Positing Ibero-Romance developments 122 Conclusion 127 CHAPTER 6. LOOSE ENDS: NON-VOICING IN RUMANIA AND THE DIALECTS OF THE PYRENEES, IRREGULAR VOICING IN ITALIAN 129 The two problems 129 Irregular voicing in Italian 129 Homogeneous regularity (Neogrammarian positions) 130 Ordered heterogeneity (Variationist positions) 130 1980 and after 131 Izzo's findings 132 Objections to the Northern Borrowing Hypothesis 133 Variation and rule loss (Wanner and Cravens) 139 Rule replacement (Giannelli & Savoia) 140 The modem case of Buti (Franceschini) 144 Rumanian and the dialects of the West-Central Pyrenee 146 Conclusion 152 CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION 154 REFERENCES 157 INDEX OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS 172 INDEX OF NAMES 174 Ch. 1. Introduction -- Ch. 2. Substratum -- Ch. 3. Crucial Ingredients: Intervocalic Voicing In Latin, Assimilation At Word Boundaries -- Ch. 4. Voicing In Western Romance -- Ch. 5. Palatalization Of Word-initial/l/ And /n/ In Ibero-romance -- Ch. 6. Loose Ends: Non-voicing In Rumania And The Dialects Of The Pyrenees, Irregular Voicing In Italian -- Ch. 7. Conclusion. Thomas D. Cravens. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [144]-158) And Indexes.