An areal explanation of a paradigmatic irregularity: Altamurano menünne ‘small’

Abstract

The work focuses on the paradigm of the adjective menünne ‘small’ in the dialect of Altamura, in the province of Bari. This paradigm is isolated within the system in that it presents three allomorphs distinct as to the stressed vowel according to a ternary alterna- tion that has no comparison in any other qualifying adjective in the dialect. We will show that this irregularity is explicable as a compromise solution between two different suffixes, each with its own regular metaphonetic alternation. The comparison with neighbouring dialects also allows us to frame and explain some isolated innovations within this irregular paradigm, found in individual informants and which, compared to what is observed in the production and metalinguistic judgements of the pool of our Altamurano informants, ap- pear deviant.