HOME

PHONOLOGY 
PART I

 
Phonology is the study and the classification of all the meaningful sounds of a language and include, according to some schools, the phonetics and the phonemics.

PHONETIC NOTATION >>>

DIPHTONGS

[***] - hypothetical or impossible (inexistent) diphtongs 

[1] The Italian (e)i or (e)j of sc(e)jene it is not a graphic sign but it constitutes the semivowel of diphtong.

[2] The double jj or jji, being the result of the Italian palatal gl, you/he/she can consider him is as semivocale that as semiconsonante.

The dittonghis, formed with one of the contracted vowels, they are generally found in atonic syllable.

The difference of the pronunciation of the dialect sanmartinese in comparison to Italian as all the similar southern dialects, is tied up principally to the vowels that is generally very closed. The e atonic sounds always as the French mute e (in the international phonetic alphabet it is transcribed as an upside-down e). The a generally it is more closed than in Italian and it sounds about as the second vowel in the German word Mutter. This is also transcribed (likewise to the e), as one upside-down a . We will transcribe it with â however. The o can be open as in Italian, especially in the diphtongs iò, uò or in accented syllables. It can be closed (as in Italian). But often it is even more closed and we will transcribe it with ô indicating a contraction. The same discourse is worth for the vowel u and i that generally are more closed than in Italian When they are semivowels, the u and the i (in diphtongs uo, ua, ue, ui, me, ia, iu, ii) they are pronounced as in Italian. With û and î we will indicate the contracted corresponding sounds. Reassuming. In the transcription we will always consider:

The consonants (excepted the hevy g and h) are similar to Italian's. An obvious distinction however it would need to do for the unvoiced s and the soft z. The s generally sounds unvoiced. Ex.. pajése, cose, rose, contrarily to the Italian words paese, cosa, rosa, where the s sounds soft. The z sounds more or less as in Italian. Ex.: zappe, zizì, zone, (hoe, uncle, zone). But there are exceptions as zemarre, whose unvoiced z in the Italian zimarra sounds soft. The z in the words that end in -zejône [-ziône] is pronounced unvoiced as in Italian. The same is worth for the double z. Ex.: tazze, pazze, palazze, terrazze (cup, crazy, building, balcony). The words that end in -enza, -inza, -anza, unza have the soft z.

At times in the dialect sanmartinese the semiconsonant i [j] is double and can be transcribed therefore with jj. Ex.: ajjie, uojjie (garlic. oil). It corresponds to the derivative of the Italian palatal gl that transforms it in jj.
As also in other Center-Southern dialects the Italian palatal gl changes in jj (or jji). Ex.:
- paglia > pajjie
- aglio > ajjie
- piglia > pijjie
- raglio > rajjie 
- etc...

The apostrophe placed before (apheresis) or postponed (elision or apocopation) to a word it often indicate the fall of one or more letters (generally a vowel or a consonant or more letters) in the correspondent Italian word: Ex.:
- 'ndenzejône < intenzione
- 'ndése < inteso
- cu' < con
- 'ndregande < intrigante
- etc...

In the phonetic transcription we will indicate with k the guttural c. We will indicate instead normally with ch when it is placed before a false diphtong (io, ia, ie, iu) that as in Italian it has a different sound from k. We hear a light palatization. In short the Italian c of chiesa is not the same one of the Italian c of casa. Therefore we will have ch and k for the two guttural sounds of c.

The semivocalis (or semiconsonant) i and u, in the aforementioned phonetic transcription, they will be respectively j and w

ALPHABET

[1] - Chj, cj, ghj, gj, scj are respectively the transcription of the sounds chi, ci, ghi, gi, sci, followed by a vowel (a, e, u, o), where the i represents a pure graphic sign.

[2] - The sanmartinese alphabet counts three letters in more [j, š, ž] of that Italian.

In Italian the alphabet is formed from 21 letters but it has 31 real sounds. While the sanmartinese dialect has five vowel sounds in more for the addition of the contractions vowel , ê, î, ô, û. It misses the palatal sound of gl that is replaced by jj. Then the dialect sounds are more than 37, also considering the sound ž and h (and also keeping in mind the indeterminateness of the hevy g and the digraph gu)

PHONOSYNTAX

The phonosyntax is the whole the phonetic phenomenons that is in relationship with the position of the words in the sentence.

The sanmartinese dialect (as also in other Center-Southern's) does a lot of use of apheresis, contraction, elision, apocopation... These same morphological figures can be fixed or dynamic. They are fixed when they are established a priori. Ex.: 
1) - 'na, 'nu, 'ndenzione [it implies the fall of a vowel or the initial syllable of the Italian words una, uno, indenzejône
2) - n'i [it implies an elision, or better: a contraction of the corresponding Italian words nei, negli, nelle.
3) - Cumbà, Ca', Lui' [it is an apocopation of Cumbare, Carle, Luigge]. The aforesaid fixed morphological figures can be implied therefore by the correspondent Italian words or they are directly derived from the dialect.
   The morphological dynamic figures are realized within the expression of a sentence, or rather for the connection of the words in the spoken language. Ex.:
    a) Tejènghe 'na freuovecia bèlle. 
    b) Tejènghe 'na freuovece. 
As we have seen with the first example, the adjective belle changes the final vowel of the noun to which is accompanied [-e becomes -(i)a].
This is an example of morphological dynamic figure. The same would happen if we have reverse the order noun-adjective: 

bella fruòvece

In this case it is the noun that changes the final vowel of the adjective belle.
Fijja belle, Fijju belle o bella fijje, bellu fijje. Belli Fijje. They are examples that do us understand an important thing: Even if generally the noun or the adjective by itself distinguishes neither gender nor number, in the sentence [spoken] instead the change of the vowel of the first term happens that gives us the exact identity of the gender and at times also of the number.

Fenestr 'aperte. [open window] or ti pert 'a fenestre? [have you opened the window?]. Two adjoining words have the tendency to melt eliminating and/or changing the final or initial vowel of the following word.
In the literary Italian (specifically in the poetry) a similar modification morphological dynamics happens.
   As Greek the dialect also refuses (generally) the hiatus.

In the spoken dialect, besides the phenomenon of elision and vocalic changes mentioned, all the initial free consonants often double (that is followed from vowel) bb, cc, dd, ff, gg, jj, ll, mm, nn, pp, qq, rr, ss, tt, vv, zz ... In special way where the stress of the word or the sentence falls. Ex.: 
  - 'na bbelle cóse, 
  - è 'na bbomme,  
  - l'a 'ccattà, 
  - onne 'ccîse 'u pòrche, 
  - e ddillu,  
  - a fforze
  - 'a ggiostre
  - 'a jjustre
  - ne 'llûce
  - dìccelu a mmammete
  - a nnòrete
  - a rrischie
  - fàccelu ssapé
  - è 'tterate.
[Without counting that a lot of words already have by itself the double initial consonant, if nothing else at least in the pronunciation]
   It also happens in Italian but less (although is not underlined in the writing). A lot of words can be written with the double initial consonant, due to the fall of the initial vowel in the corresponding Italian word; in this case we put the apostrophe to indicate that an apheresis has happened (real or presumed). Ex.: 'lleqquà, 'ppeccià, 'ccide, etc... respectively from alleqquà, appeccià, accide, etc...

CONSONANTIC REDUPLICATION 
at the beginning of word

The reinforcement of the digraphs sc and gn can be indicated with the sign of the apostrophe, so that to avoid the confusion among homograph terms (but not homophonic).

- sciocche (cabbage)
- 'sciocche (silly) - ['sc indicate the double sc]

- casce (cheese)
- ca'sce (box) - ['sc indicate the double sc]

The digraph gn (already by itself accented) it doesn't have need to be accented. [they have never happened me, after all, in the specific cases of homography]

The reinforcement of the digram qu, can be indicate with the sign of the apostrophe or with the reduplication consonantal of q.

Orthoepy

The orthoepy is the correct pronunciation of the sounds and the words of a language.

The words with the initial syllables gua, gue, gui, guos almost always turn the digram gu into semiconsonant u ; they are for the most refered to terms of Germanic derivation.
[N.B - Really the sound of the u is an alternative between u and gu]

 The digram ng (and also nd, mb, nz) at times in dialect it turns it into gn. It is always worthwhile to specify the etymon of the words because a term (and the correspondent derivative of the group) can, besides the Latin and Italian, to have been derived or to have suffer a change from other languages (Germanic, Arab, Greek, etc...) .

[1] - the derivative of the group ng in gn, in this case, it is to refer to an extra-Latin derivation. Really the Latin 'manducare' it passes through the ancient French 'mangier.'

SEE also False Friends

SEE also Introduction to the Dictionary

HOME