Prosodic convergence across varieties of Italian

Polar question intonation in Italian is subject to regional variation. Here we investigate how far speakers of one variety (Bari Italian) converge in the production of such questions when playing a game with a partner from a different variety (Lecce Italian). Although these two varieties each have a number of contours in their repertoire, the distribution of these contours differs considerably. Bari Italian uses mainly Rise-Falls and Rise-Fall-Rises, whereas the Lecce variety uses mainly simple Rises. We show that speakers of Bari Italian produce fewer complex contours and more rises when interacting with a Lecce partner. They thus more frequently select the contour that is typical of the partner's variety. By contrast, an analysis of continuous properties of Rises and Rise-Fall-Rises reveals only minimal adjustments to the phonetic properties of each contour. Convergence thus appears to take place predominantly at the contour selection stage.