An analysis of vowel reduction in Bolognese

This study presents an analysis of vowel reduction in Bolognese. The vowels of Bolognese’s vowel inventory reduce to be [+high] and [+ATR], becoming either [i] for front vowels or [u] for back ones. The context in which this occurs is known as a derived environment, in which a vowel that can be stressed in another form of the respective word but is no longer stressed in the current form of the word is targeted for vowel reduction. In contrast, vowels that are never stressed in any form of the respective word are not targets for vowel reduction. The ranking of the necessary constraints to derive the correct surface form of the word explains how this observed reduction to the corresponding high-tense counterpart occurs. There is another observed vowel reduction pattern in Bolognese which only targets the vowels [ɛː], [aː], and [a] in which we see these vowels reduce either to [a] or simply to nothing. To account for this second reduction pattern, we adopt two separate phonologies each with their own ranking of the constraints. In comparing Bolognese words that demonstrate the second pattern to their Italian cognates there appears to be a correlation, where the vowels in Bolognese reduce, and in Italian an adjacent consonant to the target vowel will be lengthened. This suggests that there may be historical evidence in Bolognese for favoring the second reduction pattern over the first, though for modern speakers this choice seems to be arbitrary.

Recommended citation: Osgan, Brandon. 2024. An analysis of vowel reduction in Bolognese. RANGE: Journal of Undergraduate Research. 25(1).
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