Events

Abstract

“Continuum con addensamenti”, ‘continuum with agglomerations’: this is how Berruto once described the Italian linguistic repertoire. Much has been discussed about the extremes of this continuum; however, little do we know about those intermediate “agglomerations”. How many are there? How are they organized? Do they share features? To address these questions, we adopt a phonetic perspective and borrow a technique typically used in commercial profiling. Examining established Neapolitan phonetic features alongside new prosodic parameters, we identify possible speaker profiles and features agglomerations, shedding a new light on the intermediate varieties of the Italian standard-dialect continuum. In this talk, I will discuss preliminary studies and findings, applying this innovative methodology to offer new insights into the nature of the concept of variety.

Prof. Ceri Ashley (British Museum, London): "Pathways through the Forest? Reflecting on the Archaeology of Early Farming Communities in Great Lakes Africa".

On December 12 we have the honour to welcome Prof. Ceri Ashley (British Museum, London) with a talk on "Pathways through the Forest? Reflecting on the Archaeology of Early Farming Communities in Great Lakes Africa". Her talk will be followed by a BantuFirst research pitch on "The New West-Coastal Bantu Homeland: An Archaeological Assessment" by Sara Pacchiarotti & Dirk Seidensticker.