Italian phonology

Main article: Italian language

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This article is about the phonology of the Italian language. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Standard Italian as well as with geographical variants.

Vowels

Vowels of Italian. From Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Notes:

• In Italian there is no phonemic distinction between long and short vowels. However, vowels in stressed open syllables are long (except when word-final).
• The pairs /e/~/ɛ/ and /o/~/ɔ/ only contrast in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables only /e/ and /o/ are found.
• Unstressed /u/ as the last phoneme of a word is rare. Major exceptions are onomatopoeic terms (babau); loanwords (guru); and place or family names of Sardinian origin (Gennargentu, Porcu). Words in the last category are not strictly Italian words.
• When the last phoneme of a word is an unstressed vowel and the first phoneme of the following word is any vowel, the former vowel tends to become non-syllabic. This phenomenon is called synalepha and should be taken in account when counting syllables e.g. in poetry.

Consonants

Consonants of Italian

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Plosive	p b		t̪ d̪			k g
Affricate			t̪s̪ d̪z̪	tʃ dʒ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ
Trill			r
Lateral			l		ʎ
Approximant					j	w

Notes:

• Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant (/l/, /r/, /j/ or /w/), consonants can be both single or geminated. Geminated consonants belong to different syllables (this shortens the preceding vowel) and the first geminated element is unreleased. For example, /fato/ [ˈfaː.t̪o] ~ /fatto/ [ˈfat̪̚.t̪o]. However, /ɲɲ/, /ʃʃ/, /ʎʎ/, are always geminated, except when they are at the beginning of the word and when they follow a consonant.
• /z/ is the only consonant that cannot be geminated.
• The trill /r/ is sometimes simplified to a flap [ɾ] when single.
• Nasals assimilate to the point of articulation of whatever consonant they precede. For example, /ng/ is realized as [ŋg].
• /s/ assimilates to the voicing of a consonant it precedes.

Non-standard variants

Main article: Italian dialects

The above IPA symbols and description refer to standard Italian, based on a somewhat idealized version of the Tuscan-derived national language. As is common in many cultures, this single version of the language was pushed as neutral, proper, and eventually superior, leading to some stigmatization of varying accents. Television news anchors and other high-profile figures had to put aside their regional Italian when in the public sphere. However, in more recent years the enforcement of this standard has fallen out of favor in Italy, and news reporters, actors, and the like are now more free to deliver their words in their native regional variety of Italian, which appeals to the Italian population's range of linguistic diversity. Though it is still technically the standard, the loosened restrictions have led to Tuscan being seen for what it is, just one dialect among many with its own regional peculiarities and qualities, many of which are shared with Umbria, Southern Marche and Northern Lazio:

• In genuine Tuscan, whether indigenous local dialect or regional Italian, single /p/, /t/, /k/ between two vowels (even across word boundaries) are pronounced as [ɸ], [θ], [h] respectively. Example: la casa /la ˈkaːsa/ [la ˈhaːsa]. In a much more widespread area of Central and Southern Italy, post-vocalic /tʃ/, /dʒ/ are realized as [ʃ] and [ʒ]: [in tʃiːna] in Cina but [laʃiːna] la Cina. Since /ʃ/ surfaces as long post-vocalically, this can produce minimal pairs distinguished only by length of the word-initial consonant: [laʃenaːta] la cenata vs. [laʃʃenaːta] la scenata.
• In supposedly nonstandard varieties of Central and Southern Italian, some stops at the end of a syllable completely assimilate to the following consonant.
• Examples: a Venetian might say tecnica as [ˈtɛknika] in violation of normal Italian consonant contact restrictions, while a Florentine would likely pronounce tecnica as [ˈtɛnniha], a Roman on a range from [ˈtɛnnika] to [ˈtɛnniga]. Similarly, although the cluster /kt/ has developed historically as /tt/ through assimilation, a learned word such as ictus will be pronounced [ittus] by some, [iktus] by others.

/s/ ~ /z/

These phonemes are in complementary distribution everywhere except between two vowels within the same word, and even in this environment the minimal pairs are very rare (there are fewer than a dozen). Even in standard Italian, there are many words in which now dictionaries indicate that both pronunciations are possible. Thus they have merged in many varieties of Italian: when between two vowels within the same word, it tends to always be pronounced [z] in Northern Italy, and [s] in Central and Southern Italy. A notable example is the word casa ("house" or "home"): in Northern-Central Italy it is pronounced [ˈkaza]; in Southern-Central Italy it's pronounced [ˈkaːsa].

Gemination of /b/ and /dʒ/

In popular Central and Southern Italian speech, /b/ and /dʒ/ tend to always be geminated ([bb] and [ddʒ]) when between two vowels, or a vowel and a sonorant (/j/, /w/, /l/, or /r/). Sometimes this is also used in written language, e.g. writing robba instead of roba ("stuff" or "property"), to suggest a regional accent, even if this usage is considered incorrect.

/e/ ~ ɛ and /o/ ~ /ɔ/

The distinction between open-mid and closed-mid vowels corresponding vowels in standard Italian is much weaker and less widespread than the tendency to use more the close-mid variants in Northern Italian, and only the open-mid variants in Southern Italian. While some minimal pairs distinguishing them do exist (as the most famous one, pésca /peska/ = fishing vs. pèsca /pɛska/ = peach), the distinction is actually observed only by speakers who have been specifically trained to it, mostly for professional usage (like actors and television news anchors), and because of that, it is never observed by listeners - context is used to distinguish before them, even by trained speakers.

Sample texts

From the Bible, Luke 2, 1-7 (for an English version click here)

You can listen to a rendition of this text as recorded by an Italian native speaker from Milan. One should notice that this speaker sometimes does not respect the standard pronunciation of the letter "e" (as represented in the phonetic translation), and he is at points unable to articulate correctly the rolling R.

2:1 In quei giorni, un decreto di Cesare Augusto ordinava che si facesse un censimento di tutta la terra.
2 Questo primo censimento fu fatto quando Quirino era governatore della Siria.
3 Tutti andavano a farsi registrare, ciascuno nella propria città.
4 Anche Giuseppe, che era della casa e della famiglia di Davide, dalla città di Nazaret e dalla Galilea si recò in Giudea nella città di Davide, chiamata Betlemme,
5 per farsi registrare insieme a Maria, sua sposa, che era incinta.
6 Proprio mentre si trovavano lì, venne il tempo per lei di partorire.
7 Mise al mondo il suo primogenito, lo avvolse in fasce e lo depose in una mangiatoia, poiché non c'era posto per loro nella locanda.

Standard pronunciation:

2:1[iŋ kwej ˈdʒoːrni un deˈkreːto di ˈtʃeːzare auˈɡuːsto ordɪˈnaːva ke sɪ faˈtʃesse un tʃensɪˈmento di ˈtutta la ˈtɛrra.
2

ˈkwesto ˈpriːmo tʃensiˈmento fu fˈfatto ˈkwando kwiˈriːno ˈɛːra ɡovernaˈtoːre ˈdella ˈsiːrja.
3 ˈtutti anˈdaːvano a fˈfarsi redʒisˈtraːre, tʃasˈkuːno ˈnella ˈprɔːprja tʃitˈta.
4 ˈanke dʒuˈzɛppe, ke ˈɛːra ˈdella ˈkaːsa e dˈdella faˈmiʎʎja di ˈdaːvɪde, ˈdalla tʃɪtˈta ddɪ ˈnaddzaret e dˈdalla galiˈlɛːa si reˈkɔ in dʒuˈdɛːa ˈnella tʃitˈta ddi ˈdaːvide, kjaˈmaːta beˈtlɛmme,
5per ˈfarsɪ redʒɪsˈtraːre inˈsjɛːme a mmaˈriːa, ˈsuːa ˈspɔːza, ke ˈɛːra inˈtʃɪnta.
6 ˈprɔːprjo ˈmentre si troˈvaːvano li, ˈvenne il ˈtɛmpo per lɛi di partoˈriːre.
7 ˈmiːze al ˈmondo il ˈsuːo primoˈdʒɛːnito, lo avˈvɔlse ɪn ˈfaʃʃe e llo deˈpoːse in ˈuːna mandʒaˈtoːja, pɔjˈke nnon tʃˈɛːra ˈposto per ˈloːro ˈnella loˈkanda.]

Bibliography

• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121

See also

• Italian alphabet
• Italian language
• Italian grammar
• Syntactic doubling

External links

• The online edition (2007) of the Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia (DOP), a pronouncing dictionary of standard Italian