Italian phonology

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The phonology of Italian describes the sound system—the phonology and phonetics—of standard Italian and its geographical variants.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
	Labial		Dental/ alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n		ɲ
Stop	p	b	t	d			k	ɡ
Affricate			t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ	(ʒ)
Approximant						j		w
Lateral				l		ʎ
Trill				r

Notes:

Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant (/j, w/) or a liquid (/l, r/), consonants can be both singleton or geminate. Geminate consonants shorten the preceding vowel (or block phonetic lengthening) and the first element of the geminate is unreleased. For example, compare /fato/ [ˈfaːto] ('fate') with /fatto/ [ˈfat̚to] ('fact' or 'did'/'done').^[1]^[2] However, /ɲ/, /ʃ/, /ʎ/, /d͡z/, /t͡s/ are always geminate intervocalically, including across word boundaries.^[3] Similarly, nasals, liquids, and sibilants are pronounced slightly longer in medial consonant clusters.^[4]
/j/, /w/, and /z/ are the only consonants that cannot be geminated.
/t, d/ are laminal denti-alveolar [t̪, d̪],^[5]^[6]^[3] commonly called "dental" for simplicity.
/k, ɡ/ are pre-velar before /i, e, ɛ, j/.^[6]
/t͡s, d͡z, s, z/ have two variants:
- Dentalized laminal alveolar [t̪͡s̪, d̪͡z̪, s̪, z̪]^[5]^[7] (commonly called "dental" for simplicity), pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the upper front teeth, with the tip of the tongue resting behind lower front teeth.^[7]
- Non-retracted apical alveolar [t͡s̺, d͡z̺, s̺, z̺].^[7] The stop component of the "apical" affricates is actually laminal denti-alveolar.^[7]
/n, l, r/ are apical alveolar [n̺, l̺, r̺] in most environments.^[5]^[3]^[8] /n, l/ are laminal denti-alveolar [n̪, l̪] before /t, d, t͡s, d͡z, s, z/^[3]^[9]^[10] and palatalized laminal postalveolar [n̠ʲ, l̠ʲ] before /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ʃ/.^[11]^[12]^{[dubious – discuss]} /n/ is velar [ŋ] before /k, ɡ/.^[13]^[14]
/m/ and /n/ do not contrast before /p, b/ and /f, v/, where they are pronounced [m] and [ɱ], respectively.^[13]^[15]
/ɲ/ and /ʎ/ are alveolo-palatal.^[16] In a large number of accents, /ʎ/ is a fricative [ʎ̝].^[17]
Intervocalically, single /r/ is realised as a trill with one or two contacts.^[18] Some literature treats the single-contact trill as a tap [ɾ].^[19]^[20] Single-contact trills can also occur elsewhere, particularly in unstressed syllables.^[21] Geminate /rr/ manifests as a trill with three to seven contacts.^[18]
The phonemic distinction between /s/ and /z/ is neutralized before consonants and at the beginning of words: the former is used before voiceless consonants and before vowels at the beginning of words; the latter is used before voiced consonants. The two can contrast only between vowels within a word, e.g. fuso /ˈfuzo/ 'melted' versus fuso /ˈfuso/ 'spindle'. According to Canepari,^[20] although, the traditional standard has been replaced by a modern neutral pronunciation which always prefers /z/ when intervocalic, except when the intervocalic s is the initial sound of a word, if the compound is still felt as such: for example, presento /preˈsɛnto/^[22] ('I foresee', with pre- meaning 'before' and sento meaning 'I perceive') vs presento /preˈzɛnto/^[23] ('I present'). There are many words for which dictionaries now indicate that both pronunciations, either [z] or [s], are acceptable. Word-internally between vowels, the two phonemes have merged in many regional varieties of Italian, as either /z/ (northern-central) or /s/ (southern-central).

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

In Italian phonemic distinction between long and short vowels is rare and limited to a few words and one morphological class, namely the pair composed by the first and third person of the historic past in verbs of the third conjugation—compare sentii (/senˈtiː/, "I felt/heard'), and sentì (/senˈti/, "he felt/heard").

Normally vowels in stressed open syllables, unless word-final, are long at the end of the intonational phrase (including isolated words) or when emphasized.^[24]^[25] Adjacent identical vowels found at morpheme boundaries are not resyllabified, but pronounced separately ("quickly rearticulated"), and they might be reduced to a single short vowel in rapid speech.^[26]

Although Italian contrasts close-mid (/e, o/) and open-mid (/ɛ, ɔ/) vowels in stressed syllables, the distinction is neutralised in unstressed position^[24] in which only the close-mid vowels occur. The height of such vowels in unstressed position is context-sensitive; they are somewhat lowered ([e̞, o̞]) in the vicinity of more open vowels.^[27] The distinction between close-mid and open-mid vowels is lost entirely in a few southern varieties of Regional Italian, especially in northern Sicily (e.g. Palermo), where they are realized as open-mid [ɛ, ɔ], as well as in some northern varieties (in particular in Piedmont), where they are realized as mid [e̞, o̞].

Word-final stressed /ɔ/ is found in a small number of words: però, ciò, paltò.^[28] However, as a productive morpheme, it marks the first person singular of all future tense verbs (e.g. dormirò 'I will sleep') and the third person singular preterite of first conjugation verbs (parlò 's/he spoke', but credé 's/he believed', dormì 's/he slept'). Word-final unstressed /u/ is rare, ^[29] found in onomatopoeic terms (babau),^[30] loanwords (guru),^[31] and place or family names derived from the Sardinian language (Gennargentu,^[32] Porcu).^[33]

When the last phoneme of a word is an unstressed vowel and the first phoneme of the following word is any vowel, the former vowel tends to become non-syllabic. This phenomenon is called synalepha and should be taken into account when counting syllables, e.g. in poetry.

In addition to monophthongs, Italian has diphthongs, which, however, are both phonemically and phonetically simply combinations of the other vowels. Some are very common (e.g. /ai, au/), others are rarer (e.g. /ɛi/) and some never occur within native Italian words (e.g. /ou/). However, none of the diphthongs are considered to have distinct phonemic status since their constituents do not behave differently from how they occur in isolation, unlike the diphthongs in other languages such as English and German. Grammatical tradition distinguishes 'falling' from 'rising' diphthongs, but since rising diphthongs are composed of one semiconsonantal sound [j] or [w] and one vowel sound, they are not actually diphthongs. The practice of referring to them as 'diphthongs' has been criticised by phoneticians such as Luciano Canepari.^[20]

Phonotactics

Onset

Italian allows up to three consonants in syllable-initial position, although there are limitations:^[34]

CC

/s/ + any voiceless stop or /f/. E.g. spavento ('fright')
/z/ + any voiced stop, /v d͡ʒ m n l r/. E.g. srotolare ('unroll')
/f v/, or any stop + /r/. E.g. frana ('landslide')
/f v/, or any stop except /t d g/ + /l/. E.g. platano ('planetree')
/f v s z/, or any stop or nasal + /j w/. E.g. fiume ('river'), vuole ('he/she wants'), siamo ('we are'), suono ('sound')
In words of foreign origin (mostly Greek), which are only partially assimilated, other combinations such as /pn/ (e.g. pneumatico), /mn/ (e.g. mnemonico), /tm/ (e.g. tmesi), and /ps/ (e.g. pseudo-) occur.

As an onset, the cluster /s/ + voiceless consonant is inherently unstable. Phonetically, word-internal s+C normally syllabifies as [s.C]: [ˈrɔs.po] rospo 'toad', [tras.ˈteː.ve.re] Trastevere (neighborhood of Rome).^[35]^[36] Phonetic syllabification of the cluster also occurs at word boundaries if a vowel precedes it without pause, e.g. [las.ˈtɔː.rja] la storia 'the history', implying the same syllable break at the structural level, /sˈtɔrja/,^[37] thus always latent due to the extrasyllabic /s/, but unrealized phonetically unless a vowel precedes.^[38] A competing analysis accepts that while the syllabification /s.C/ is accurate historically, modern retreat of i-prosthesis before word initial /s/+C (e.g. erstwhile con isforzo 'with effort' has generally given way to con sforzo) suggests that the structure is now underdetermined, with occurrence of /s.C/ or /.sC/ variable "according to the context and the idiosyncratic behaviour of the speakers."^[39]

CCC

/s/ + voiceless stop or /f/ + /r/. E.g. spregiare ('to despise')
/z/ + voiced stop + /r/. E.g. sbracciato ('with bare arms'), sdraiare ('to lay down'), sgravare ('to relieve')
/spl/. E.g. splendido ('splendid')
/skl/. E.g. sclerosi ('sclerosis')
/zbl/. E.g. sbloccato ('unblocked')
/f v/ or any stop + /rj rw/. E.g. priego (antiquated form of prego 'I pray'), proprio ('(one's) own' / proper / properly), pruovo (antiquated form of provo 'I try')
/f v/ or any stop or nasal + /wj/. E.g. quieto ('quiet'), continuiamo ('we continue')

The last combination is however rare and one of the approximants is often vocalised, e.g. quieto /kwiˈɛto, kuˈjɛto/, continuiamo /kontinuˈjamo, kontinwiˈamo, ((kontiˈnwjamo))/

Nucleus

The nucleus is the only mandatory part of a syllable (for instance, a 'to, at' is a word) and must be a vowel or a diphthong. In a falling diphthong the most common second elements are /i̯/ or /u̯/ but other combinations such as idea /iˈdɛa̯/, trae /ˈtrae̯/ may also be interpreted as diphthongs.^[20] Combinations of /j w/ with vowels are often labelled diphthongs, allowing for combinations of /j w/ with falling diphthongs to be called triphthongs. One view holds that it is more accurate to label /j w/ as consonants and /jV wV/ as consonant-vowel sequences rather than rising diphthongs. In that interpretation, Italian has only falling diphthongs (phonemically at least, cf. Synaeresis) and no triphthongs.^[20]

Nucleus
VP1	VC	VD	VP	VC	VC	VD	VC
j	a	i̯	j	a	a	i̯	a
	ɛ			ɛ	ɛ		-
	ɛ			ɛ	i̯ɛ		-
	ɔ			ɔ	ɔ		ɔ
	ɔ			u̯ɔ	u̯ɔ		u̯ɔ
(k/ɡ)w	a		(k/ɡ)w	a	a	u̯	-
	ɛ			ɛ	ɛ		ɛ
	ɛ			i̯ɛ	ɛ		i̯ɛ
	ɔ			ɔ	ɔ		-
	ɔ			ɔ	-		-
			j	e	e	i̯	o
				o	o		(u̯o)
				u	u		u
			(k/ɡ)w	e	e	u̯	e

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

[39]