Metaphonic Raising and Diphthongization in Some Dialects of Piedmont: A Geolinguistic and Structural Analysis

In this paper we address the question of how to systematize all the possible metaphonic outputs attested in the dialects of Piedmont, a region in North-Western Italy. Starting from an analysis of the possible targets of metaphony in these dialects, we argue that both raising, and diphthongization are two faces of the same phenomenon triggered by a final [i]. The question is discussed in paragraph 3 by means of the Dependency Phonology framework. Specifically, we address the question if diphthongization and raising could be considered as two possible diachronic stages of metaphony. Through a rich exemplification of data from different areas of Piedmont, we also tried to present a detailed picture of how metaphony works in the Piedmontese and Occitan dialects of this region of Italy.