Coarticulation vs Phonologization: Evidence from Southern Italo-Romance.

Abstract

This study compares the variety of Italian spoken in Campania and the Italo-Romance variety of Mormanno (Calabria) to investigate the acoustic differences between phonetic vowel-to-vowel coarticulation and phonologized metaphony. The study analyzed time-varying F1 trajectories and quantified mutual information between stem and suffix vowels. While coarticulation was temporally localized in Campanian Italian, Mormanno showed a phonologized pattern in which the suffix influence extended from stem onset to offset. Despite this stronger influence, there was reduced mutual information and reduced suffix distinctiveness in Mormanno. These findings indicate that sound change involves decoupling acoustic cues from coarticulatory sources, signaling a transition from phonetic variation to phonological change.