Phonosyntactic doubling in Italian

In this video I am going to talk about a phenomenon called phonosyntactic doubling.

This video is aimed at those amazing people who are learning Italian as a second language.

If you are one of them and wish to learn Italian well, you've come to the right place!

(Channel Intro)

Hi, everybody! I am Luca and in this video I wanted to talk about the so called "raddoppiamento fonosintattico".

This video is my reply to a request I received not long ago from one of my suscribers, who specifically asked me to make a video about the so called "raddoppiamento fonosintattico".

This phenomenon is typically referred to by this name. There are also people who say: "raddoppiamento sintattico". Just "sintattico", not "fonosintattico". There are also more technical terms which are used in the field of linguistics, but at the moment we are not interested in them.

Our goal is to understand what the phonosyntactic gemination is.

I would say that the term "raddoppiamento fonosintattico" is rather complex, but in fact this phrase refers to a phenomenon which is quite easy to explain.

The term "raddoppiamento fonosintattico" does sound like a reference to some secret technique. In actual fact, though, it refers to something quite simple. That is, to the fact that, in some cases, the word-initial consonant in certain words is pronounced as if it were a double consonant. Even though in fact it is a single consonant.

For example, let's consider the word combination "qualche" + "volta". Some people say /qualchevvolta/, as if there were two letters V. As if this V were double.

Well, this is an example of phonosyntactic doubling.

Let me give you another example!

If we consider the word combination "è" + "giusto", some people say /eggiusto/, as if this G were a double consonant. That is, as if there were two Gs. In actual fact, there is one single G, but it is pronounced as if it were double.

Similarly, if we have the combination "più tardi", some people say /piuttardi/, as if there were a double T. In fact there is one single T, but it is pronounced as if it were double.

Another example could be: "Perché mai?" (question mark) Some people say /perchemmai/ and next comes the interrogative clause. That is, as if there were two Ms. There's only one M, but this M is pronounced as if it were geminated.

Well, I hope that from these examples you understood what we mean by "raddoppiamento fonosintattico".

But let's try to understand when you should double the word-initial consonant and when by contrast the word-initial consonant should not be doubled.

Alright! First of all let me say that the phonosyntactic gemination is quite common in the Tuscan variety and in the varieties of Italian spoken in Central and Southern Italy. This phenomenon is very rare in the varieties of Northern Italy.

That is, in other words, in Central and Southern Italy people tend to double word-initial consonants. By contrast, in Northern Italy, people typically don't double word-initial consonants.

This is in line with what I said in my video where I discussed Italian double consonants. In the top corner I'll add a card to it.

This is also consistent with the fact that, generally speaking, in Central-Southern Italy speakers tend to add double consonants where there are none. Whereas in Northern Italy people tend not to add double consonants, but, conversely, in some cases they pronounce as single consonants consonants which in fact are double.

If you haven't watched it already, you might wanna take a look at the video about double consonants that I made some months ago.

So from what I said you understand that phonosyntactic doubling is for the most part optional. I mean, people from Central and Southern Italy tend to double word-initial consonants. By contrast, people from Northern Italy don't double them.

So in most cases, if you don't double the word-initial consonant, that's not a mistake. Both options are acceptable. That is, in other words, if you say: "Ci vediamo più tardi" pronouncing the T as if it were not double, /civediamopiutardi/, you are not making a mistake. Some people say /civediamopiutardi/, typically people from the North, while people from Central and Southern Italy usually say /civediamopiuttardi/. As if there were two Ts.

But this doesn't mean that one option is right and the other is wrong. It's just a matter of regional varieties.

Similarly, you can say either "è giusto" with one single G, the preferred option in the North, or "è ggiusto" with two Gs, which is the option preferred in Central and Southern Italy.

Similarly, you can say either "Ci sono stato qualche volta" with one V or "Ci sono stato qualche vvolta" with two Vs.

If you read grammar books, they tell you that, in fact, it's better to opt for the option with the double V, that is the option involving phonosyntactic doubling. That's because this is the standard in the Tuscan variety of Italian.

So if you speak with a purist, they will probably tell you that, yes, you should double word-initial consonants. By contrast, if you speak with normal people, you will realize that some people do double word-initial consonants and other people don't.

So my advice is very simple: if you want to double a word-initial consonant, you can do that. In most cases this is not mandatory.

You may talk with Italian language instructors who in fact tell you that the consonant should be doubled because that is the standard in the Tuscan variety. There are people who insist on Tuscan-like pronounciation. That is, they say that the consonant should be doubled. Honestly, I am telling you how it is, generally speaking.

I for one, depending on the scenario, may double or not the consonant. Depending on the specific word, in some cases I prefer to double the consonant, in other cases I prefer not to double it.

Alright. Let's say that phonosyntactic doubling only concerns specific words. That is, it's not a phenomenon related to all words, it particularly concerns specific words.

Alright. The first case are the so called "parole tronche". That is, words ending with a stressed syllable. Such words are quite rare in Italian, but they do exist.

If we have one such word, for example "città", followed by another word, the word-initial consonant in the second word can be doubled.

For example the phrase "città nuova": some people say "città nnuova", as if there were two Ns and not just one.

Similary the phrase "città santa": /cittassanta/ as if there were two Ss.

Earlier I gave you an example with "perché", /perchemmai/, some people pronounce this M like it is double. By contrast, other people simply say /perchemai/.

Another typical example of "parole tronche" are the forms of the future tense.

Next, well, there are stressed monosyllabic words such as "è", for example "è giusto": some people say /egiusto/, other people double the letter G and say /eggiusto/. For example, some people say: "Non è giusto". Other people say: "Non è ggiusto".

Next there's the word "più", for example "più tardi". Some people say /piutardi/, without doubling the word-initial consonant. Other people double the T and say /piuttardi/. For example: "Ci vediamo più ttardi".

Next, there are certain unstressed monosyllabic words such as the preposition A.

For example, some people say "Andiamo a casa". Other people say "Andiamo a ccasa". That is, they double the letter C.

For sure you should never double consonants following articles or clitic pronouns.

This phenomenon could also concern the interrogative particle "che". For example, some people say "Che ffai?" with two Fs. Other people say "Che fai?" with one single S.

Lastly, the phonosyntactic gemination concerns a limited group of words.

For example, we mentioned the word "qualche". We can say "qualche volta" or "qualche vvolta".

Speaking of the word "qualche", this word is quite problematic and many non-native speakers who are studying Italian make mistakes when using this word. Not long ago I made a video about this word. In the top corner I'll add a card to it. Check it out, because there's an error made by 90% of the people who are studying the Italian language which is precisely related to the word "qualche".

Another word concerned by this phenomenon is the word "come". Some people say "come te", while other people say "come tte", as if there were two Ts.

A theory has been proposed to expalain this phenomenon. For some researchers, this phenomenon is arguably due to the fact that many words, which in Italian end with a vocal, in Latin actually ended with a consonant.

For example, in Italian we have the preposition A, which derives from AD. So, according to some authors, people arguably pronounce "a ccasa" with a double C because, even though the word-ending consonant D in the word AD disappeared, in actual fact it didn't disappear entirely. But it left this thing which causes phonosyntactic doubling.

Similarly, if we consider the combination "già fatto", some people say "già ffatto". According to some reserchers, this is arguably due to the fact that "già" in Latin was "iam" and ended with M. So in theory this M disappeared, but it was somewhat invisibly kept and it causes doubling.

So in other words, the M in the Latin word disappeared, but, when this word is followed by another word, the first consonant of the latter is doubled.

So, yes, the idea is that Latin word-ending consonants disappeared but left some traces. Which have an impact on pronunciation.

Alright. Phonosyntactic doubling generally speaking is a phenomenon concerning pronunciation, not writing. The word is written with one single consonant, yet 2 consonants are pronounced, that is, a double consonant.

That being said, in Italian there are some words that were clearly formed by phonosyntactic doubling, including words that you surely know.

For example, you surely know the word "abbastanza", right?! Well, originally it was "a bastanza", then this combination became "abbastanza".

Similarly, "soprattutto" originally it was "sopra tutto", then it turned into "soprattutto".

Similarly "appena": it was "a pena", it turned into "appena".

"Davvero": "da vero" > "davvero".

"Cosiddetto" comes from "così detto", it became "cossiddetto". Phonosyntactic doubling took place, the letter D was doubled.

In other words, originally these were word combinations which fused together due to phonosyntactic doubling and they had been since fixed with such spelling, which techically speaking is called "grafia univerbata". That is, single-word spelling.

Needless to say, in this case, if we talk about these words, what I said earlier doesn't apply. Meaning that these words should be pronounced with a double consonant. Words that are spelled with a double consonant should be pronounced with a double consonant.

In other cases, it's up to you, honestly. If you want to double the word-initial consonant, you can do that. Otherwise, you don't have to do that. People from Central and Southern Italy tend to do that, people from Northern Italy tend not to do that.

Generally speaking, if you wish to better understand double consonants, not long ago I made two videos about this topic. These videos are rather long and detailed. In the top corner I'll add a card to the first one. Check it out, because if you watch it you could find out a number of things about double consonants that you probably don't know.