| The present work is intended to provide a detailed analysis of the development of word-initial and word-medial consonants in the Abruzzese dialect of Civita d'Antino, and as such will contribute to the general linguistic knowledge of the immediate valley area (La Valle Roveto or La Val Roveto 'The Roveto Valley'), the Abruzzo region of Italy, and the Romance languages as a whole. The data presented in this work may also be of use to Romance linguists interested in lexical studies. The entire Roveto Valley provides fertile ground for linguists interested in conducting field research, as two isoglosses pass through the area; just south of Civita d'Antino runs a significant central-southern Italian isogloss (PL- > pj- in DCA and to the north, kj- to the south), and just north of the town final atonic vowels are pronounced as unreduced, whereas from Civita d'Antino toward the south, all final atonic vowels except historical -A reduce to schwa. Linguistic inquiry focused on single speech varieties can contribute to obtaining a detailed understanding of micro-regions, leading eventually to an accurate description of entire macro-areas. Although it is convenient to refer to a vast geolinguistic area based on the knowledge of a few local speech types (often, such areas arbitrarily follow administrative boundaries, such as "Abruzzese dialects", "Tuscan dialects", etc.), the present analysis will help to underscore the importance and usefulness of researching local dialects, challenge traditionally held notions about broad geolinguistic areas, and reveal oversimplifications which can obscure the linguistic facts. The present work offers current data to scholars who are interested not only in Romance dialectology or the dialects of Italy in particular, but who also have an interest in historical phonological processes in general. |
