Non-structural vowel reduction in Italian. A study on diaphasic and diatopic variation

The contribution investigates diaphasic and diatopic variation in the production of extreme tonic vowels by eight female speakers from four distinct Italian regions (Campania, Lazio, Puglia, Sardegna). The analysis focuses on deviations in vowel space and the potential for unsystematic reduction across two communicative contexts. Data collection involved two phases: the first consisted of sentence reading; for the second phase, a spot the difference task was chosen. the analyses show that the variables considered have a significant effect especially for /a/, and for the Campanian /u/.