Δανεισμός ονομάτων και απόδοση γένους στην Επτανησιακή διάλεκτο

Abstract

This paper deals with gender assignment to nominal loanwords drawing data from Heptanesian, a Greek dialect which has been heavily influenced by Standard Italian and Venetian. The examination of the Heptanesian data reveals that a number of grammatical factors, i.e. phonological, morphological, and semantic, are decisive for the integration of Romance loanwords with respect to gender. It is shown that the structural characteristics of the recipient language (i.e. Greek) contribute considerably to the final outcome of the borrowing process. Moreover, we shed light on the way nominal inflection operates as a testing hypothesis field for a plethora of language-contact theoretical approaches.