Syncope in the languages of Ancient Italy

• Grant number: 13/09069-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: January 01, 2014
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Principal Investigator: José Marcos Mariani de Macedo
• Grantee: Jasmim Sedie Drigo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/26156-0 - Vowel syncope in ancient Italy, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Latin, Sabellic and Etruscan are languages that have many parallels. First, these languages existed during the centuries VI-I BC, although it is not possible to say that the languages Sabellic and Etruscan disappeared completely after the Roman expansion, after c. I BC there is no relevant records of these languages. Second, they existed in a specific location, what is now called Italy. An interesting and intriguing phonological similarity between these languages is vowel syncope, because is a recurring phonological process, vowel syncope is the complete disappearance of medial vowels. Until a few decades ago, scholars believed not to be possible to define the conditions under which syncope occurs in Latin, because they are very complex. However, more recent researches show that this is somehow possible, though the analysis is difficult. The occurrence of vowel syncope in Etruscan and Sabellic seems to be less complex than in Latin. In Etruscan, the phenomenon occurs often and it is possible to analyze the process in a diachronic way, so that syncope is one of the distinctive features used to divide the language between Archaic Etruscan and Neo-Etruscan. In Sabellic, the contexts in which syncope occurs are more limited, but still of considerable value to demonstrate that it is not a specific process of Latin and/or Etruscan. The possibility of analyzing the phenomenon as regional has not been properly discussed, because there are very few scholars who analyze the process taking into account all major Italic languages. From the regional hypothesis perspective, the aim is to achieve two results: 1) to clarify the understanding of vowel syncope, especially in Latin, in which the process is still considered obscure; 2) improve understanding of the Sabellic, and especially of the Etruscan, in which the vowel syncope is very expressive. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

DRIGO, Jasmim Sedie. Vowel Syncope in ancient Italy. 2016. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.