“Phonological closeness between phonetically distinct vowel phonemes”

Standard Italian has seven vowels: /i e ɛ a o ɔ u/. But how strong is the distinction between /e/ vs. /ɛ/ and /o/ vs. /ɔ/? Do people really speak like the dictionary prescribes? Our study investigates the validity of the conventional descriptions of Italian and probes the correspondence between speakers’ productions and their intuitions, with the ultimate aim of understanding how such cases can be incorporated into theories of phonological contrast and historical change.

The Romance Languages faculty and staff would like to welcome all our new graduate students in French, Italian, Portuguese, Romance Languages, and Spanish!

UGA's Columns features Dr. Betina Kaplan and Kerry Steinberg in an article about SPAN 4090. Please click here to access the full article. 

Congratulations to Spanish Professor Luís Correa-Díaz, who "was unanimously elected as a US-based Member of the Chilean Academy of Languages (Academia Chilena de la Lengua), in recognition of his 'outstanding merits as a writer, poet, and literary critic.'"

The Department of Romance Languages would like to congratulate Spanish and Geography major Sarah Mizrah on winning the prestigious Harry S. Truman scholarship!  Please click here to access the full article. 

French graduate Student Kathleen Rizy will discuss ecofeminism, Spanish graduate student Marcela Reales will discuss extractivism, Spanish professor Mark Anderson will discuss material subjectivities, and French professor Jonathan Krell will discuss ecohumor.

The following three papers on Guaraní linguistics will be presented:

Kerry Steinberg (UGA) “Language use, language attitude, and mobility: The case of the rural and urban areas of Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay”

Elizabeth Herring (Indiana Unversity) “A historical and comparative investigation on the origins of Guaraní question markers Pa, Pio and Piko”

Bruno Estigarribia, PhD (UNC-Chapel Hill) “The status of morphologically mixed words in Guarani-Spanish mixing”