Phonetic Features of Neapolitan and Campania Regional Italian in Migrants’ Speech

Abstract

The study is part of the HELLO CAMPANIA! project and concerns the impact of local linguistic varieties spoken in Campania (Italy), namely Neapolitan dialect and Campania regional variety of spoken Italian, on Italian as foreign language speech of migrants living in Naples. Specifically, the study aims at exploring the presence and the extent of phonetic features on first- and second-generation Sri Lankan migrants’ speech, i.e. realization of intervocalic /b/ and /dʒ/, /s/ following nasals, -uo- and -ie- diphthongs, /s/ preceding consonants, and the effect of a number of sociolinguistic factors on their speech. Results show that first generation Sri Lankans partially present Campania features, while second generation speech is strongly affected by Campanian local traits, except for one, i.e. palatalization of /s/ before consonants. Overall, it appears that migrants’ generation, exposure to Neapolitan and attendance to Italian classes affect the presence vs absence of given Campania features, with some being the exclusive variant, e.g. closed diphthongs, and some being unconsciously used by first generation speakers and consciously avoided by second generation speakers, e g. palatalized /s/. Results are discussed in terms of different degrees of migrants’ awareness of the perceived ‘Neapolitanness’ of given phonetic features.