Contact-Induced Language Change in Minority Languages: The Case of Diminutives in Francoprovençal Varieties of Apulia

Abstract

Apulian Francoprovençal, spoken in Faeto and Celle di San Vito, is a minority language that is particularly suitable for studying language contact phenomena due to its close contact with Italo-Romance varieties since medieval times. In this paper, we will focus on evaluative morphology, specifically on diminutives, an area of grammar that has received particular attention in the last few decades, although not many studies have been devoted to it from a language contact perspective. After a brief theoretical introduction, we will try to outline the diachronic development of Apulian Francoprovençal diminutives from the earliest documentation available up to the present day, and we will provide an analysis of data collected by us through questionnaires and elicitation tasks, in order to assess whether and to what extent Italo-Romance varieties (including Italian) had an impact on this area of Apulian Francoprovençal morphology.