A sociophonetic analysis of rhotic variation in Italian schoolchildren

This paper investigates the production of Italian rhotics in the speech of 75 schoolchildren (6-10 years old) in the area of Biella, in the North-West of Italy. As rhotics are subject to a high degree of variation in Italian, their distribution and phonetic realisations were taken into account to te...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rossi, Martina|||0000-0001-5970-3366, Sbacco, Lucia
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:286476
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/286476
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/qdi.570
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Rhotics
Italian
Sociophonetic variation
Phonological acquisition
Child language
Heritage languages
Majority language
Rotiche
Italiano
Variazione sociofonetica
Acquisizione fonologica
Lingua infantile
Lingue ereditarie
Lingua maggioritaria
Ròtiques
Italià
Variació sociofonètica
Adquisició fonològica
Llenguatge infantil
Llengues d'herència
Llengua majoritària
Róticas
Variación sociolingüistica
Adquisición fonológica
Lenguaje infantil
Lenguas de herencia
Lengua mayoritaria
Descripción
Sumario:This paper investigates the production of Italian rhotics in the speech of 75 schoolchildren (6-10 years old) in the area of Biella, in the North-West of Italy. As rhotics are subject to a high degree of variation in Italian, their distribution and phonetic realisations were taken into account to test the influence of linguistic and sociolinguistic variables, i.e., phonological context, age and migratory background of the children's families. Results show that children's production varies across contexts and ages, as older subjects' patterns of variation seem to be approaching the distribution and the characteristics that would be expected in the target. Moreover, we propose that the migratory backgrounds and, in particular, the different Heritage Languages present in the children's repertoires, might be explanatory to the high degree of variability observed, e.g., in subjects of the same age.