Dialetto e storia: continuità e discontinuità nei fenomeni di betacismo nei Quartieri Spagnoli

This article investigates the dynamics of linguistic conservation and innovation of the Neapolitan dialect in semi-spontaneous speech data produced by a group of artisans in the Spanish Quarter of historic center of Naples. The research perspective is sociolinguistic and concerns a contemporary historical scenario. The Spanish Quarter is historically characterized by constant socioenvironmental conditions which favor the preservation of habits of life and language but in re cent years various factors have disrupted these traditional balances. Particularly relevant among these has been the conspicuous settlement of non-EU citizens. These changes have interrupted the continuity that for decades had guaranteed the preservation of social, cultural, and linguistic habits. The analysis focuses on the variational dynamics of a phonetic phenomenon, betacism. Betacism is a complex phenomenon, which presents an extremely articulated and unstable dynamics both in synchrony and in diachrony. The study shows evidence of persistence, resistance, and innovation of a local variety in a traditionally dialectal area under the pressure of the Italianization processes.