City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 The Sound Patterns Of Camuno: Description And Explanation In Evolutionary Phonology Michela Cresci Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/191 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY by MICHELA CRESCI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City Universtiy of New York 2014 i 2014 MICHELA CRESCI All rights reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. JULIETTE BLEVINS ____________________ __________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee GITA MARTOHARDJONO ____________________ ___________________________________ Date Executive Officer KATHLEEN CURRIE HALL DOUGLAS H. WHALEN GIOVANNI BONFADINI Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract THE SOUND PATTERNS OF CAMUNO: DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN EVOLUTIONARY PHONOLOGY By Michela Cresci Advisor: Professor Juliette Blevins This dissertation presents a linguistic study of the sound patterns of Camuno framed within Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins, 2004, 2006, to appear). Camuno is a variety of Eastern Lombard, a Romance language of northern Italy, spoken in Valcamonica. Camuno is not a local variety of Italian, but a sister of Italian, a local divergent development of the Latin originally spoken in Italy (Maiden & Perry, 1997, p. 2). It is an oral language with no writing system, and it is endangered. The language is understudied (Bonfadini, 1995, p. 26), and this thesis appears to be the first detailed study of Camuno phonology. The goal of this dissertation is linguistic and cultural. It will assess, characterize and explain the most striking properties of the sound patterns of Camuno as spoken in the upper part of the low valley; and it will provide a lasting documentation of an endangered language that may soon disappear. Notable sound patterns in Camuno discussed in this work include: a unique system of stress- dependent height harmony; final obstruent devoicing; and nasal/zero alternations originating from final-consonant loss. In analyzing these sound patterns in terms of their phonetic and diachronic sources, naturalistic data is combined with acoustic analysis and experimental paradigms. This description and analysis of Camuno phonology will provide a foundation for all those who wish to study Camuno word-structure, and other structural aspects of the language. At the same time, it illustrates the value of the Evolutionary approach in coming to understand a range of newly described sound patterns. iv Acknowledgments This work, and indeed, my entire doctoral experience would not have been possible without the constant help, encouragement and support of my professors, my family, my friends, and, most of all, the native speakers of Camuno who agreed to participate in this study, and did so with great patience and graciousness. My everlasting gratitude goes first and foremost to my advisor, Professor Juliette Blevins who encouraged me to pursue a study of this kind from our first meetings, and continued to support this work until it was complete. Thank you, Juliette, for your inspiration, constant academic support, for sharing your passion and profound vision of phonology, and for being an unflickering model of professional and personal strength. I have been lucky to have a team of professors to guide me in phonetics, statistics, and historical Romance. I am deeply grateful to Professor Kathleen Currie Hall who so patiently and systematically went over each draft, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and always rescuing me from disaster. Kathleen, I have tried my best to incorporate every comment you have offered, and to answer every question. If I have missed some, the thesis is weaker, but for each question I have managed to answer, it is stronger. I am deeply thankful to Professor Douglas H. Whalen who steadily guided me through the many mysteries of articulatory phonology and speech analysis. The visit to Haskins Laboratories was inspirational. I thank you again for providing this formative experience. To Giovanni Bonfadini, a lover of Camuno and Valcamonica, go my special thanks. Who else would be interested in the evolution of /ǿ/, or of the suffix /-ǿl/, and why our nasals were lost without a trace? I have learned so much from you about Romance languages and about my own dialect. Thank you! The seeds of this thesis were sown long before my time at CUNY. I am indebted to Professor Janna Oetting, who contributed to set this whole adventure in motion, to Michael Hegarty and Hugh Buckingham down at LSU, where this long journey began. v In addition to my professors, I have had assistance from others in both artistic and scientific endeavors. For the poem “i ʧɛrf 'ðo l kap”, I thank Alice Piccinelli, who created the occasion for the poem to be written and who shared it with me. For the drawings used in my „wug‟ tests, I thank the students of the 2011-2012 class 3AL, Liceo Artistico „Primo Levi‟ in Sarezzo, Brescia. For help with stastistical analysis, I thank Luca Campanelli. There are too many friends to thank individually. I send special hugs to my friends in Italy, in the States, and around the world. Clevia, Som, Bryony, Rebecca. I will never forget you, and the good times we had in Baton Rouge. Let the good times roll!!! Elaine. Your warm welcome when I arrived in New York was a gift, as was your continued support and advice. Your Thanksgiving dinners have been a solace! Mary. Your optimism, company, clever and funny jokes, and much more, have helped me laugh out the loneliness and keep up the hard work. Ignacio and Luca. Purnima and Shamim.What would I have done without you?! Always smiling, always supportive, always ready to help and for a clever joke! Patrick, John, and Enrique. I will miss all the good times we shared in the GC library, but not the hours sitting in front of a computer! Cristina, Mariangela and Mara, my childhood friends. We‟ve all come a long way. But how magical that we are still here for each other! In good times and bad times. Cristina and Dario. How wonderful that your door always opens whenever I ring the doorbell! Liliana and Gino. For all the good time we‟ve had together. For your constant support. And for the Sassicaia… Lorenzo, Franco, Francesca F. You have been such special friends, in so many different ways. Always supportive. Always caring. Marco, Adriana, Alice, Giacomo, Lorenzo. For your constant collaboration and support. For all the delicious food and spectacular wine. The terrific jokes. The flippant irony. And the hysterical card games… Giulia. Awesome Giulia. Thank you for your love, for caring for me before I was even aware of it. For the lovely hikes, and the passionate talks. vi Laura, my princess. You were a joy and reward as a student, and you are the same as a friend. Keep up the excellent work! Guiana, the hiker. Could a hike still be a hike without you? Maura, Iuri, Boris, Veronica, Cristina, Lorenzo, Hester, and all the others who have believed in this project, and shown your appreciation for the value of this kind of project, I hope I can return the support, and share this work with you. I also have many people to thank for making life in New York easy and my time at CUNY productive and worry-free. Thanks to Elyanora, Neil Gordon, and Enrique, the best landlady and landlords ever! At the Linguistics Program of the CUNY Graduate Center, a special thanks to Professor Gita Martohardjono for being the best Executive Officer one could imagine, and on top of that, for our frequent conversations in Italian! Thanks also to Nishi Bissoondial, our cheerful administrator, for answering years of practical questions. I am also grateful to the Endangered Language Initiative at the CUNY Graduate Center for grant support, allowing me to carry out fieldwork in Valcamonica during the Summers of 2011 and 2012. In addition, I thank the CUNY Graduate Center for support in the form of a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year that allowed me to bring this work to completion. Finally, I thank the Italian State Government for granting me paid doctoral leave. It has been a privilege to be able to continue my education at this stage of life. Last but not least, I‟d like to thank Francesca S. who is always keeping me on track with deadlines, and ready to help with Italian bureaucracy. This dissertation has involved serious and sustained collaboration between myself and speakers of Camuno throughout the Valcamonica region. This work simply would not have been possible without their cooperation. I hope I have done justice to the beautiful language we speak, and that this work will, in some small way, contribute to the vitality of Camuno. I thank you each, from the bottom of my heart, and share the fruits of my labor with you (in alphabetical order, ladies first): vii Agnese Baisotti, Alice Piccinelli, Angela Salvetti, Angiola Piccinelli, Antonella Puritani, Antonietta Francesetti, Bruna Salvetti, Caterina Minini, Cherubina Cresci, Cristina Frigoli, Flora Menici, Flora Vielmi, Germana Cresci, Gina Galli, Gina Nodari, Giulia Vielmi, Grazia Frigoli, Ida Testoni, Liliana Tottoli, Maria Minini, Mariangela Vangelisti, Marilí Bontempi, Marisa Finini, Milena Bonino, Nazzarena Grappoli, Paolina Finini, Patrizia Rinetti, Salva Gelfi, Teresa Pelamatti, Virna Volpi.