L’alternanza dittongo/monottongo nei verbi völë̀ (‘volere’) e pödë̀ (‘potere’) in testi novecenteschi nel dialetto galloitalico di Nicosia

The alternation between diphthongised and non-diphthongised forms in Italo-Romance verbal paradigms reflects the development of the ŏ and ĕ of the stem in stressed open syllables (diphthongised) vs. unstressed syllables (non-diphthongised) (Rohlfs [1949] 1968: § 538; Maiden 2004, 2018). However, in Nicosiano the alternation unexpectedly also characterises rhizotonic forms of the present indicative of two specific verbs – völë̀ ‘want’ and pödë̀ ‘can’ – so that one and the same rhizotonic form occurs both diphthongised and non-diphthongised: vuoghjö/voghjö ‘want.1sg’, vuoë/ voë 2sg, vuò/vò 3sg, vuonö/vonö 3pl; puozzö/pozzö ‘can.1sg’, puoë/poë 2sg, può/pò 3sg and puonö/ ponö 3pl. Undiphthongised forms occur when völë̀ and pödë̀ are followed by an infinitive verb; diphtongised forms occur elsewhere. The data may be explained by hypothesising a sequence of (morpho)phonological processes at play in distinct diachronic stages: a diphthongisation triggered by phonological phrase prominence (Nespor 1993: § 8.5; Kager / Zonneveld 1999) is at play only at an earlier stage; due to the new status acquired by ‘want’ and ‘can’ when subcategorising an infinitive clause, two distinct pairs of entries (with and without diphthongised roots) are then stored in the lexicon.