Il dialetto molisano di Villa San Michele (Isernia)

grantor: University of TorontoThe heterogeneous linguistic situation present on the Italian peninsula, perhaps more than anywhere else in Europe, has fascinated linguists and, more precisely, dialectologists, in the last centuries. Historical, descriptive and theoretical studies have focused on the dialects as a whole and also on the interesting features offered by individual vernaculars. In this vast field of Italian linguistics much attention has been given to both the Northern (i.e. Piedmontese, Venetian, Milanese) and the Southern (i.e. Neapolitan, Abruzzian, Sicilian, Calabrian) varieties. There remains, however, a great amount of work to be done regarding those regions whose vernaculars scholars only briefly mention in their studies. One such group of dialects is that of the region of Molise in Central-Southern Italy. Given this region's unquestionable historical link to Abruzzo, it is no wonder that linguists have tended to classify the dialects of Molise with those of this adjacent region. This has very often resulted in the marginalization of the Molisan dialects. Scholars have indeed produced some linguistic studies, and there are plays and poetry in the Molisan vernacular and certain rudimentary glossaries, but a rigorous and thorough study, which includes the phonetic, morphological, syntactic and lexical features of these conservative and complex language systems, is lacking. In this thesis I aim at filling the lacunae in this area by producing a scientific and in-depth study of these dialects before they become obsolete. This dissertation contains five chapters. Chapter 1 deals with elements such as the geographical and historical dimensions of the locality and the social conditions of the dialect speakers. In addition, it provides relevant information regarding the methodology used in conducting field research and the present status of the dialect speakers. Chapter 2 studies the linguistic phenomenon known as 'metaphony', while Chapters 3 and 4 present detailed descriptive analyses of the phonological and morphological systems of the dialect. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the hypothetical clause construction especially of the contrary-to-fact type. This dissertation also includes Appendices: (A) Maps; (B) List of Informants; (C) an ethnographic component aimed at documenting and explaining obsolescent terminology.Ph.D