PHONOLOGY in Italo-Albanian dialect: San Benedetto Ullano, Province of Cosenza, Italy

Abstract

This paper reports a normative study on the phonological development of the Italo-Albanian dialect of San Benedetto Ullano.

It is a description that including geographic isolation of the speakers and the rudimentary state of informants’ knowledge. Many villages today have lost the dialect.

To give a general notion of the structure of this dialect it is convenient at the outset to list the phonemes which are used by the people. The phonemes are ordered on the basis of their sequential distribution in the dialects, or forms of speech, under discuss.

Italo-Albanian has, like all Albanian dialects, for each of its consonants rather few readily perceptible allophones, e very few allophones indeed. All consonants are articulated with moderate tension. It is the consonant articulation that perceives the most marked characteristics of individual variation in the dialect.

Many of the general features of consonants accord with the well known characteristics of Italian articulation.

Phonology of a language constitutes a highly organized system of knowledge. It is useful for anyone interested in how learners acquire such knowledge.