Jotation in the History of Italian Present-Tense Conjugation

Abstract

This article examines the attestation of jotation (i.e., the phonetic effect of jot on preceding consonants) in the present tense of Italian, where a reflex is expected in the stem-final consonant throughout the subjunctive and in certain forms of the indicative of some verbs in the E conjugation and all verbs in the I conjugation. I establish a correlation between the point of articulation of the stem-final consonant and the likelihood of the expected reflex of jotation being attested. I argue that this correlation, heretofore unnoticed and therefore unexamined, is systemically motivated.

Keywords:

• Italian
• jotation
• present tense
• verb