These articles provide new explorations into phonological patterns attested in the minor Romance languages ('dialects') spoken in Italy. The goal of this book is both theoretical and empirical. First, it aims to introduce non-Italianists to the phonological structures of the Italian dialects, including northern Gallo-Romance dialects, central and southern dialects, plus a Francoprovencal dialect spoken in southern Italy and a Catalan dialect spoken in Sardinia. Second, the collection provides readers with sophisticated analyses of complex and poorly understood and under-studied phonological phenomena. Over half of the articles contain data collected by the authors, and most of the data have not been available in English language publications. The richness of the empirical material and the sophistication of the theoretical analyses make this collection a particularly important contribution to both phonology and Romance language studies.

This volume presents current work on a topic in Romance linguistics that still informs linguistic theory to this day: metaphony in the languages of Italy. Papers discuss fundamental research topics such as phonological opacity in the light of chain shifts, post-tonic harmony and consonant transparency, the role of morphosyntax in the typology of metaphony, the explanatory adequacy of feature-based versus element-based analyses, and the locus of metaphony in grammar. Other chapters present new experimental data, thus building a more accurate empirical foundation for the study of metaphony. We envision the volume to become a reference book not only for an updated descriptive survey of metaphonic patterns in Italy but also a thorough discussion of the challenges that metaphony poses for different (morpho)phonological theories. The book bridges the gap between descriptive works and theoretical thinking in the study of metaphony.

This book makes accessible the major structural features of the dialects of Italy and emphasises the importance of a detailed understanding of the dialects for issues in general linguistic theory.This book makes accessible the major structural features of the dialects of Italy and emphasises the importance of a detailed understanding of the dialects for issues in general linguistic theory. Selected contents include:* Phonology* Morphology* Syntax* Lexis* The Dialect Areas * Sociolinguistics of DialectsContributors: Paola Benica; Gaetano Berruto; Guglielmo Cinque; Michela Cennamo; Patrizia Cordin; Thamas Cravens; Marie-Jose Dalbera Stefanaggi; Franco Fanciullo; Werner Forner; Luciano Giannelli; John Hajek; Hermann Haller; Robert Hastings; Michael Jones; Michele Loporcaro; Martin Maiden; Marco Mazzoleni; Zarko Miljacic; Mair Parry; Cecilia Poletto; Lorenzo Renzi; Lori Repetti; Giovanni Ruffino; Giampaolo Salvi; Glauco Sanga; Leonardo Savoia; Alberto Sobrero; Rosanna Sornicola; Tullio Telmon; John Trumper; Edward Tuttle; Alberto Valvaro; Laura Vanelli; Ugo Vignuzzi; Nigel Vincent; Irene Vogel.

The two volumes of the Phonological Spectrum aim at giving a comprehensive overview of current developments in phonological theory, by providing a number of papers in different areas of current theorizing which reflect on particular problems from different angles. Volume I is concerned with segmental structure, and focuses on nasality, voicing and other laryngeal features, as well as segmental timing. With respect to nasality, questions such as the phonetic underpinning of a distinctive feature [nasal] and the treatment of nasal harmony are treated. As for voicing, the behaviour of voicing assimilation in Dutch is covered while its application in German is examined with an eye to its implications for the stratification of the German lexicon. In the final section of volume I, the structure of diphthongs is examined, as well as the treatment of lenition and the relation between phonetic and phonological specification in sign language.

The two volumes of the Phonological Spectrum aim at giving a comprehensive overview of current developments in phonological theory, by providing a number of papers in different areas of current theorizing which reflect on particular problems from different angles. Volume II deals with phonological structure above the segmental level, in particular with syllable structure, metrical structure and sentence-level prosodic structure. Different syllable structure theories, as well as possible relations between segment structure and syllabic structure, and evidence from language acquisition and aphasia are examined in section 1. Metrical structure is examined in papers on foot structure, and, experimentally, on word stress in Indonesian. Finally in this volume, there are three laboratory-phonological reports on the intonation of Dutch.

This volume presents a selection of the best papers from the 2000 'Going Romance' conference, held in Utrecht. The papers discuss current topics in formal syntax in Romance languages.

The two volumes of the Phonological Spectrum aim at giving a comprehensive overview of current developments in phonological theory, by providing a number of papers in different areas of current theorizing which reflect on particular problems from different angles. Volume I is concerned with segmental structure, and focuses on nasality, voicing and other laryngeal features, as well as segmental timing. With respect to nasality, questions such as the phonetic underpinning of a distinctive feature [nasal] and the treatment of nasal harmony are treated. As for voicing, the behaviour of voicing assimilation in Dutch is covered while its application in German is examined with an eye to its implications for the stratification of the German lexicon. In the final section of volume I, the structure of diphthongs is examined, as well as the treatment of lenition and the relation between phonetic and phonological specification in sign language.