Come è mutato il mutamento (con esemplificazione dall’ambito romanzo)

Abstract

The article addresses the four historical steps concerning our understanding of phonetic change: (1) The sound laws of the Neogrammarians, who, in accordance to the model of natural sciences, conceived sound change exclusively on the diachronic dimension; (2) The change according to the Geolinguists, who conceived language change not only on the diachronic ordinate, but primarily on the diatopic abscissa; (3) The change in the language, understood as a diasystem (a “systems’ system”), rather than a monolithic system; (4) The diasystemic consequences of a change which starts in a subsystem of the diasystem. Examples for each point from the Italo-Romance area are provided.