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The term Senese Italian refers to the Italian language as spoken in and close to Siena, Tuscany. When a word ends in consonant, Senese Italian speakers tend to geminate said consonant and to follow it with a schwa. Thus we have for eng. bar sen.it. barrə, for eng. hotel sen.it. hotellə, for eng. pub sen.it. pabbə etc.

I'm aware of the fact that the addition of [ə] is a case of paragoge, but how would one describe the gemination? Is there an order in the application of the two rules?

DaG
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eslukas
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    I don't know the answer, and personally I think that this question is somewhat off-topic in this website, which is basically about standard Italian. But I can add that something very similar happens in the Roman variety of Italian: er busse (the bus), er gasse (the gas) etc. – DaG Oct 05 '17 at 12:33
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    @DaG Probably we should discuss it in meta, but I think that regional Italian (as opposed to Italian dialects) should be fully on topic. – Denis Nardin Oct 05 '17 at 16:34
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    Not sure this is on topic either. Local dialects have little to do with standard Italian apart from a few exceptions. In many cases they are completely different languages. –  Oct 05 '17 at 17:24
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    @Gio: We are not talking about local dialects, but about regional Italian. I had to study something about this last year when I was doing my C1 Italian course. – Charo Oct 05 '17 at 17:38
  • @Charo - Yes, I know what regional means here, but do you think the question is about regional variants rather than local dialect. The fact that it refers to Siena doesnt make it necessarily so. –  Oct 05 '17 at 17:46
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    Regional varieties of Italian are fascinating (and generally quite easily understandable, for what's worth). But the fact is that they involve a wholly different corpus of knowledge and reference works (if any) with respect to standard Italian. For instance, texts about standard Italian are generally available and it is studied and discussed all over the world, while its single regional varieties are often the topic of locally-published books and papers, sometimes verging on the amateurish. – DaG Oct 05 '17 at 20:00
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    The same happens elsewhere in Tuscany. Il bar is often pronounced i' barrə - or even ibbarre - in Florence, Pisa and Leghorn. Actually, I sometimes do so in informal contexts. – LSerni Oct 05 '17 at 22:36
  • Absolutely! I chose Siena only because I know that there it is quite systematical, whereas in Florence, for example, you can hear both variants. – eslukas Oct 06 '17 at 19:13
  • And regarding the 'off-topic' argument: My question can be answered without any formal knowledge of dialects or regional Italian. It has more to do with the type of a phonological process than with anything else. – eslukas Oct 06 '17 at 19:18
  • @eslukas: I am not an expert in phonological phenomena, but my hunch is that it could fall within the “raddoppiamento espressivo”, but I am ready to be refuted. – DaG Oct 08 '17 at 19:27

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I'm not from the region, but I think the gemination in these examples is natural for the speakers due to the standard rules of the raddoppiamento fonosintattico. The tonic accent is always in the last syllable in your (and DaG's) examples, so the last letter (with its schwa) is somehow treated as an unstressed particle (like in dallo, fanne etc). Would you observe the same phenomenon in words like compùter or bàncomat?

Old Man of Aran
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