Influence of Italian orthography on pronunciation of phonemes in Regional Italian
Influence of Italian orthography on pronunciation of phonemes in Regional Italian

Summary/Abstract: There is evidence today that, depending on different regions, Italians pronounce certain phonemes in different way. For example, the grapheme in zio ‘uncle’ and zitto ‘quiet’ in Northern Italy is always pronounced as [dz], while in the South we hear [ts]. The situation is very similar with the grapheme , which has two different outcomes, [s] and [z], depending on diatopic variable and distributional context (Berruto; Benincà ; Sobrero; Telmon; Canepari). These particular types of pronunciation and articulation can be explained by several factors: dialectal influence on Regional Italian, incoherence of the orthographic system for certain phonemes (with some of the phonemic distinctions being graphemically undistinguished) (Maraschio; Cignetti and Demartini), phonemic (non)functionality and problematic phonemes in Italian language (Muljačić). In this paper we will try to examine the significance of each of these factors that have influenced the variation in pronunciation of Regional Italian as well as the usage of the problematic phonemes in Italian language in the future. On one hand, this paper will compare studies on different articulation and perception of Italian phonemes depending on regional variability (Regional Italian), especially for the problematic phonemes in Italian language. On the other hand, we will analyse the possible influence that the incoherent orthographic system has on the loss of distinctive functions in pronouncing those phonemes (today and in the past). In this way we will try to understand what is going to happen in the future with the (non)articulation/perception of certain phonemes of Standard Italian and how this will affect the phonemic system of Italian language.

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