Introduction: Sociophonetic perspectives on language variation 9
The paper illustrates the usefulness of spontaneous speech sound archives for a
better understanding of some crucial phonetic phenomena, such as spontane-
ous diphthongization, which are of interest in the domain of sociophonetics.
As in several previous works (e.g., Sornicola 2002, 2006), the Campania regions
assumes the role of a linguistic laboratory allowing the verification of different
models of geographical, stylistic, and social variation. In this paper, particular
attention is devoted to spontaneous speech analysis and the possibility of detecting
the variability of the speaker’s consciousness in adopting apparently contradic-
tory speech behaviours, partly to be referred to local vernacular norms, partly to
regional koinés, and partly to adherence to the standard language. The reflections
of the author find their roots in Schuchardt, Jespersen, and Mathesius’s thoughts
and indirectly join the manifesto Empirical foundations for a theory of Language
Change by Weinreich, Labov, Herzog (1968).
The Phlegrean area is characterized by considerable phenomena of diph-
thongization and vowel alteration which have only partially been studied by dia-
lectologists. Phlegrean diphthongs represent an interesting case of “structural
polymorphism”, according to which the same structural unit appears in different
forms because of segmental processes and/or the combined or alternate action of
pragmatic and prosodic parameters. Such phenomena often happen beneath the
speaker’s level of awareness and appear to be highly irregular and unstable in dia-
chronic terms. While former dialectologists such as Salvioni (1911) and Rohlfs
(1949–54) only reported regular, unequivocal results (e.g. [e] > [ai], [o] > [au]), the
meticulous examination of spontaneous, unplanned speech allows the sociophone-
tician to detect the highly variable nature of these diphthongs: the individual vowels
follow different trajectories of diphthongisation inside the same text produced by
the same speaker, according to variability in the prosodic and pragmatic conditions.
The paper therefore demonstrates that micro-variationist analysis is an excellent
tool for studying highly variable phenomena which seem to be indifferent to the
traditional parameters of sociolinguistic variation (e.g. gender, age, social class).
The paper also stresses the potential of sound archives in offering phonetic
data distributed over a long chronological stretch. One of the points that close the
paper recalls Labov’s (1994) reflections on the dichotomy between apparent time
and real time: as linguists, we feel compelled to be able to trace linguistic changes
over long periods of time. According to Labov (1994: 11), there are essentially two
ways of accumulating real-time data: by “reviewing the past”, and by “repeating
the past”. The limits of the first way are well known by field researchers: historical
documents survive by chance and not by design, they are fragmentary and can
only provide positive evidence. By contrast, to achieve the “repetition” of the past,
it is necessary to return to the scene of a previous study and repeat it as closely
as possible, in a time and money consuming field research (“it is important to