180 Rosanna Sornicola and Silvia Calamai
Speaker II has a polarized range of variants with uneven grammatical and lexical
distribution: (e) = {e, ɛ, ʌ, ʌe}.
While there is no diphthongization in nominal contexts, verbal forms and
pronominal contexts show the phenomenon, as can be seen in Table 3.Table 3. Grammatical contexts.
variants imperfect indicative forms pronominal context
[e] [təˈnevə] ‘I had’
[ɛ] [rumˈmɛnəkə] ‘Sunday’ −
[ʌ] [təˈnʌvənə] ‘they held’; [faˈʃʌvə] ‘I did’;
[vuˈlʌva] ‘s/he wanted’[ˈmmʌ] ‘me’[ʌe] [nnə kkjuˈlʌevənə] ‘they closed us’; [teˈnʌevənə] ‘they held’;
[puˈtʌevənə] ‘they could’; [vəˈnʌevə] ‘s/he came’[ˈkʌeɟɟə] ‘that (fem.)’Speaker III too has a polarized range of variants, but unlike speaker II, this is rich
in lowered and back forms: (e) = {e, ei, ʌ, ʌe, ʌə, ʌᶷ}. Examples are given in Table 4.Table 4. Grammatical and lexical contexts.
variantsimperfect indicative forms nominal forms pronouns
[e] [təˈnevə] ‘I had’ [rumˈmenəka] ‘Sunday’[ˈkeɟɟə] ‘that (fem.)’
[ei] [appartəˈneivənə] ‘they belonged’ − −
[ʌ] [ssə nə ˈjʌvə] ‘s/he went away’; [vuˈlʌvə]
‘s/he wanted’; [e rreflətˈtʌvə] ‘they
reflected them’; [aˈvʌva fa] ‘s/he had to
do’; [kanuʃˈʃʌvə] ‘s/he knew’; [traˈsʌvə]
‘s/he went in’[kurˈtʌɟɟə] ‘court’,
[ˈlʌttərə] ‘letter’[a mˈmʌ] ‘to me’,
[ˈjʌssa] ‘s/he’[ʌe] [təˈnʌevə] ‘I had, s/he had’, [təˈnʌevənə]
‘they held’,
[skriˈvʌevə] ‘I wrote’, [faˈʃʌevənə]
‘they did’[pjaˈtʃʌerə] ‘pleasure’,
[lumˈmʌenəka] ‘Sunday’[a mˈmʌe] ‘to me’[ʌə] [təˈnʌəvənə] ‘they held’ − −
[ʌᶷ] [e ssaɟˈɟʌᶷvə] ‘s/he brought up’ − −Interestingly, despite the above mentioned differences, all three speakers always
have the variants [ʌ], [ʌe], [ʌᶷ] in apocopated infinitive. This seems to be cru-
cial evidence of the importance of the prosodic components of stress as fac-
tors influencing the diphthongal processes investigated. To the same conclusion
points the fact that – whatever the individual and areal variability – in Pozzuoli
and Forio, triphthongs are possible when the vowel has unusually high pitch/
loudness/ duration (i.e. in conditions of heavy stress): [diˈçəʌiva] ‘s/he said’,
[ˈsəʌʊrdə] ‘deaf (fem.)’.