L'acquisizione del tratto di lunghezza consonantica in italiano L2

This study is focused on the conditions of acquisition of consonant gemination in L2 Italian by German adult learners. The material considered is constituted by free longitudinal conversations. The speech sample was labeled and annotated on five text grids and then acoustically analized. The empirical data were obtained by means of specific automatic scripts. The results collected show that the production of Italian geminates represents a very difficult area for the German-speaking learners. The subjects show not only evident phenomena of temporal reduction, but also overcorrection processes. This complex situation seems to be much more interesting if considered from the point of view of the acquisition of Italian by adult learners whose L1 does not possesses the length contrast The Italian long phonemes are complex sounds, in line with the typological degree of markedness of the segments involved. The experimental results confirm the main interlanguage phonology assumptions. The formation of a new phonological category, that is the class of geminate phonemes, meets the criteria of naturalness and typological markedness.