Lausberg area


The Lausberg area is a part of southern Italy, covering much of Basilicata and the northern edge of Calabria, where Southern Italian dialects are spoken that show vowel developments atypical of Italo-Romance. The area is named after Heinrich Lausberg, who brought it to the attention of scholarship in 1939.

Stressed vowel outcomes

There are three main subdivisions, as can be seen on the map to the right.

Romanian-like

Dubbed the Vorposten by Lausberg, this area encompasses the towns of Castelmezzano, Potenza, and Picerno. Here the Latin vowel merged with, while merged with. The same asymmetric vowel development characterizes Balkan Romance languages such as Romanian.

Transitional

The western part of Lausberg's Mittelzone encompasses the towns of Lauria, Maratea, Scalea, Diamante, and Verbicaro. Here the majority of words show a stressed vowel development similar to that of Sicilian, although many words show Sardinian-like outcomes as well.

Sardinian-like

The eastern part of the Mittelzone encompasses the towns of Senise, Tursi, and Oriolo. Here the tonic vowels developed approximately as in Sardinian. There is evidence, however, of an earlier distinction between Latin and. In the variety spoken in Senise, for instance, the outcomes of Latin and were subject to diphthongization when stressed and followed by a syllable containing a close vowel, while the outcomes of and were not. Cf. Latin > >.

Selected lexical comparisons

Below are the stressed vowel outcomes in the three regions, each represented here by one dialect.
Here is a comparison of the present indicative conjugations of the verb meaning “to die” in the Mittelzone. Asterisks indicate forms that induce syntactic doubling.
San ChiricoAlianoCastelluccioNoepoliAmendolaraPapasidero