Chapter 5. New parameters for the sociophonetic indexes 149
appears to be more morphologically-driven. By contrast, the phenomenon is com-
pletely missing in the North of Italy, where there is no consonant length contrast.
In terms of a phonological rule, a possible shape of the process is:
(10) C → Cː / [V ] # _ ⎧ [C, +snrt] ⎫
[+stress] ⎩ G ⎭
In Tuscany, the process is sensitive to the prosodic context too, since the target
consonant is particularly lengthened in the case of a stress clash, that is when the
first word ends with a stressed vowel and the following word begins with a stressed
syllable: consider for instance città grande ‘a big city’ [tʃiˌtːa ˈgːːrande] vs. città gran-
dissima ‘a very big city’ [tʃiˌtːa gːranˈdisːima]; caffè nero ‘black coffee’ [kaˌfːɛ ˈnːːeːro]
vs. caffè nerissimo ‘very black coffee’ [kaˌfːɛ nːeˈrisːimo] (Marotta 1983–1986). This
over-lengthening of the consonant in case of stress clash is the effect of a prosodic
constraint working at the surface phonetic level and showing the usual aspects of
gradualness typical of such a level of analysis (see also §5.6).
5.5 s-affrication
A special attention has to be devoted to the process of /s/-affrication occurring in
post-consonantal context; in particular, in Tuscany the process is triggered by a
preceding alveolar sonorant (Celata 2008, 2009), as shown in (11):
(11) SI salsa ‘sauce’, Tsc [ˈsaltsa]; SI borsa ‘bag’, Tsc [ˈbortsa]; SI pensiero ‘thought’,
Tsc [penˈtsjɛːro]; SI ansioso ‘anxious’, Tsc [anˈtsjoːso]; SI orso ‘bear’, Tsc [ˈortso];
SI arso ‘burned’, Tsc [ˈartso]; morso ‘bite’ Tsc [ˈmɔrtso].
The process applies not only within the word domain, but also in the phrase
domain; e.g. il sole ‘the sun’, Tsc [il ˈtsoːle]; del sale ‘some salt’, Tsc [del ˈtsaːle];
in sala ‘in the dinner room’, Tsc [in ˈtsaːla]; con Simone ‘with Simon’, Tsc [kon
tsiˈmoːne], or even [ko tːsiˈmoːne], with total assimilation of the nasal consonant
in coda position.
A possible formalization of this process is:
(12) [s] → [ts] / C [+snrt] _
This strengthening process is normally not considered a typical stereotype of
Tuscan speech, as it is spreading through a large area of Central and Southern
Italy (Holtus et al. 1988; Telmon 1996). Tuscan speakers do not seem to have
explicit awareness of the process. However, this process of allophonic variation
constitutes a possible source of phonemic ambiguity, since the affrication of a