articolano

Articolano is a hypothetical language group used in linguistic discussions to describe a proposed cluster of Romance-based varieties arising from long-standing contact among Italian dialects and neighboring languages. The term is not widely accepted as a genealogical category but serves as a framework for analyzing shared features that do not fit neatly into established Italo-Romance classifications.

Name and origin: The label Articolano is an artificial coinage derived from the Italian word articolo (article) and the adjectival suffix -ano. It reflects a central focus of some accounts on how definite articles behave across the varieties attributed to this group.

Geographic scope: Geographic scope typically centers on a corridor of contact zones in southern and central Italy and adjacent coastal regions, though there is no consensus on precise boundaries or dating. Proponents tie its emergence to centuries of trade, migration, and political change.

Linguistic features: Commonly cited features include increased analytic tendencies, with reduced inflectional morphology; use of periphrastic past tenses; a relatively uniform system of definite and indefinite articles; retention but regional variation in pronoun clitics; and some consonantal shifts shared across the grouped varieties. Phonology is described as retaining a core Romance vowel inventory with regional diphthongs, alongside sporadic consonant changes.

Evaluation and status: The Articolano hypothesis remains controversial. Critics argue that the observed similarities result from long-term dialect contact and are better accounted for by a dense dialect continuum rather than a single unitary lineage. As such, Articolano is primarily discussed as a conceptual tool rather than an established linguistic category.

See also: Italo-Romance languages; Romance languages; language contact; dialect continuum; creole linguistics.