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GLOSSARY

affix - [from Lat. affixus, pp. of affigere ‘affliggere’] ech morpheme employed for the formation of word that can be placed to the beginning (prefix), to the ending (suffix) or in the middle of word (infix). 

cacuminal or retroflex [from Lat. cacumen - minis ‘top, summit’] - it is the sound produced leaning the anterior part of tongue to the vault of the palate. - the cacuminals consonants are in some Italian dialects and in English... Ex.:
a) - Calabrien-Sicilian: cavaddu (horse), beddu (beautiful), iddu (him), etc...
b) - English: them, that, those, etc...

digram or digraph [comp. of di- (two) and the gr. grámma ‘letter’] - succession of two letters (double sign) representing only one sound. Ex.: 
- the gn in gnorande
- the ch in pecché
- the jj in pajje
- the qu in quadre
- etc...

digraph SEE digram

ending or termination - varying ending part of a word that is added to a fixed part (theme or root or stem) to get various forms of flexion (inflexion). The nominal ending concerns nouns and adjectives; while that verbal, the verbs.

entry SEE headword 

gemination, geminated - double, doubled; consonants or semiconsonants (j and u) repeated in the writing to indicated a phonic reinforcement. Ex.: 'ccattà, pecché, patte, pejjià, etc... At times the consonantal or semiconsonatic reinforcement can be indicated with apostrophe that it precede the consonant . Ctr. halving or becoming single.

group - it is two or more letters that don't form digram or trigram. Ex.. 
- the group squr of squrellà
- the group tr of trescà
- the group có of cóme
- etc... 
The groups vre- vra- vru- of vrétte, vrascejère, vrùscele, etc... they belong to the Sanmartinese but not Italian phonemic system.

halving or becoming simgle - it is a consonant or semiconsonant that from double it becomes simple as it happens in the Venetian dialects by the halving of the geminated consonants. - ctr. gemination.

headword or entry - each entry of a dictionary. 

homograph [from the gr. homógraphos ‘equal sign’] - word that has equal writing but origin, meaning and eventually also pronunciation different. Ex.: vènnes (they come) and vénne (they sell)]

homonym [from the late Lat. homonýmu(m), from the gr. homonymos, ‘equal name’] words that have the same sound (homophonic), the same writing (homographic) or both. Ex.:
a) only homographic: pénne (pen or plume) and pènne (to hang)
b) only homophonic: the Italian words hanno (they have) and anno (year) 
c) homophonic and homographic: the dialectal words pésche (peach) and pésche (fishing).

homophonic [from the gr. homóphonos, ‘equal sound’] - words that have equal sound, also having different atymon and meaning [còlle (neck) and còlle (hill)] and at times also different writing [it. hanno (they have) and anno (year), ha (it has) and a (at or to)]. One can also say about of different graphic signs that represent the same sound [š of šcattazze and sc of scegne] or about of groups of words that, also being composed in different way, they are pronounced in the same way [c'anne (they have got) and canne (reed, reeds)]

improper derivation - At times we can form the words through transposition without suffers changes from a syntactic category to another. Ex.:
- piacé (v.)
- 'u piacé (sost.)
- magnà (v.)
- 'u magnà (sost.)  

letter [Lat. littera(m) ‘alphabetical character’] - each sign of the alphabet. To every letter it generally corresponds a sound; at times, as the h of the Italian linguistic system, there are letters that by itself they don't have sound, but they are pure graphic signs. Some letters can constitute a group, a digramma, a trigramma, etc...

metathesis [late Lat. metathesi(m), from the gr. metáthesis ‘to move’] - transposition or inversion of sounds inside a word. Ex.: areoplane < aeroplane.

moneme [from fr. monème, dal gr. mónos ‘unico, solo’] it is the smallest linguistic unity endowed with meaning or grammatical function (morpheme, root, affix y ending). Ex.: 
- The Italian commemorare > com-memor-are has got three monemes
   1) com- (prefix)
   2) memor- (root)
   3) -are (suffix)
- The Italian surriscaldato > sur-ris-cald-ato has got four monemes 
   1) sur- (prefix)
   2) -ris- (infix)
   3) cald- (root)
   4) -ato (suffix)
Excluding the roots memor and cald, the remaining affixes have also a grammatical function and therefore they are called morphemes. 
- di, da, con, il, quel, gas, etc... each of this words (entry) is a moneme.

morpheme [from the gr. morphé ‘forms’] every element that inside a word it serves to indicate its grammatical function. Ex.: -o, -i, -a, -iamo, -ate, -ano they are morphemes (coincident with the endings) of the indicative present of the verbs of the first conjugation. While -o, -a, -e, -i can be the endings of the Italian roots bimb-, bambin-, maestr-, sart-, amic-, etc... The morpheme is an unity, that can be a word (it.: e, perché, dove, sé, ce, ... all the invariable parts of the discourse) or a part of it (root, affix, ending). Another subdivision establishes a number defined of grammatical morphemes (what they serve to define the function logical and grammatical) and one indefinite of lexical morphemes that communicate a meaning. A same grammatical morpheme can have different functions. Ex.:
-a can create the Italian words cant-a, pall-a, sent-a, mand-a, etc...
-e can create the Italian words sent-e, lent-e, gent-e, ved-e, etc...

phone SEE sound

phoneme [fr. phonème, from the gr. phonema ‘voice’] - the least phonological unity of a linguistic system, the smallest unity of sound. The phonemes are classified in base of the sonority, the opening and the point of articulation. SEE phonetic annotation.

sound or phone - the smallest sound unity, considered independently from the linguistic system to which belongs.

termination SEE ending

trigram or trigraph [comp. with trios- and the gr. grámma ‘letter’] - succession of three letters (triple sign) indicating only one sound or phoneme. Ex.: 
- ski [scj] of 'ngascià
- ghi [ghj] of ghianghià
- jji [jj] of pajjie
- etc...

trigraph SEE trigram

superior lexical units - it is composed with two words (or more words) tied up with a preposition. Ex.: tàvele da pranze, ferre da stîre. They have the same functionality of a single word. 
 

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