ITALIAN DIALECTOLOGY

The course is part of the Master Degree in Italian Literature and Philology and also of the Master Degree in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnology and Ethnolinguistics.
Aim of the course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the contemporary Italo-Romance dialects, both diachronically and synchronically, as far as the internal structures and the socio-linguistic uses and contexts are concerned. The achievement of this objective will enable students to apply autonomously the methods and tools of historical and general linguistics to the Italo-Romance dialects and sociolects, both oral and written, pertaining to the Contemporary Era and to the past.

1. Knowledge and comprehension:
1.1 to acquire the main principles of socio-linguistics (linguistic variety, dialect, variation, norm, bilingualism, diglossia, linguistic code);
1.2 to learn the most important classifications of the Italo-Romance linguistic area and of its varieties;
1.3 to learn the main phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of the Italo-Romance dialects;
1.4 to get acquainted with the methodology of field research, data gathering and the presentation and use of field data in dialectological studies.
2. Capability of applying knowledge and comprehension:
2.1 to be able to use correctly linguistic terminology concerning the internal and external (socio-linguistic) phenomena of the Italo-Romance varieties;
2.2 to know how to transcribe a dialectal word in IPA and to interpret other transcription systems;
2.3 to be able to read a linguistic map and recognize the main isoglosses;
2.4 to recognize the linguistic features of the main Italo-Romance varieties;
2.5 to be able to apply autonomously the methodologies of dialectological research.
Judgement ability:
3.1 to be able to evaluate critically the adequateness of models of structural and socio-linguistic analysis to particular forms of language and contexts of communication.
4. Communicative abilities:
4.1 to be able to communicate the specific characteristics of the Italo-Romance dialects, by making use of a convenient scientific terminology.
5. Learning abilities:
5.1 to be able to study critically the reference texts, by hierarchizing information and allowing notions to interact mutually.

Students must be acquainted with the main notions of Italian and General Linguistics, both synchronic and diachronic. These notions are generally acquired during the classes of Italian and General Linguistics of the Bachelor Degree in "Lettere".
Students must have reached the formative objectives of History of the Italian Language I (or Italian Linguistics I) and Principles of Linguistics I. In particular, students are expected to possess the basic principles of Italian phonology, morphology and syntax and be familiar with the most important phenomena of evolution of Latin into Italian (and, more generally, into Romance). Furthermore, students are expected to know how to transcribe Italian words in IPA.

The first part of the course will be devoted to general principles of socio-linguistics and geolinguistics, such as language, dialect, linguistic variety, repertoire, continuum, linguistic area and isogloss. In the second part of the course the classification and internal description of the main Italo-Romance dialectal types will be treated, with a special focus on Northern and Southern dialects. Finally, methods, tools and techniques of dialectological research will be illustrated and applied to the dialects of Veneto.

Michele Loporcaro, Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani, 2nd edition, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013.
Corrado Grassi, Alberto A. Sobrero, Tullio Telmon, Fondamenti di dialettologia italiana, 9th edition, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012, chapters 4 and 5 and Appendices (pages 161-379).

Students will have to pass an oral exam of 20-30 minutes. During the exam, students will prove their knowledge of the subjects that have been illustrated in the lessons and that are described in the reference texts. In particular, students are expected to orientate themselves in the contemporary Italo-Romance socio-linguistic and geolinguistic context, by making use of a convenient scientific terminology and proving able to recognize structural and socio-linguistic similarities and divergences in different dialect areas.

Frontal lectures. All materials (linguistic maps, graphics, texts in transcription, Powerpoint presentations) will be available in the e-learning platform moodle.unive.it. Although the course is not conceived as a seminar, feedback from students will be constantly solicited, according to an interactive and dynamic idea of teaching which suits very well to this subject (especially if students regularly speak an Italian dialect or at least can understand it).

Italian

Students not attending the classes will have to study the whole handbooks by Loporcaro and Grassi/Sobrero/Telmon.

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