Advances in Spoken Italian

Dear Colleagues,

Although much has been written about spoken Italian in recent decades (Voghera 2022), there is currently no comprehensive overview of Italian research that considers all the emerging levels of analysis. General contributions can be found in the classic work by Koch & Oesterreicher (1990) or in books linked to the publication of corpora, but these are now quite dated (De Mauro, 1994; Cresti & Moneglia, 2005).

We aim to bring together a series of papers that use innovative approach, considering not only the traditional levels of linguistic analysis, such as lexicon and morphosyntax, but also the essential elements of speech production, reception and perception; the use of non-verbal language and prosody as an integral part of spoken communication. The volume will also benefit from a historical–theoretical overview of speech studies and a contriution on highly relevant sociolinguistic issues in the context of high multilingualism, such as in Italy. (Cerruti&Vietti 2022).

The authors will be asked to not only report on the state of research on Italian but also highlight any distinctiveness in Italian studies and how they have contributed to general research on the various topics. Each contribution should therefore cover both descriptive and theoretical aspects, offering a general overview that does not currently exist for Italian.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors (voghera@unisa.it). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring a proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

Tentative Completion Schedule
Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 May 2026
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 30 May 2026
Full Manuscript Deadline: 31 December 2026

References
Bertinetto, Pier Marco. 2021. "Rhythm in the romance languages." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

De Mauro, Tullio. 1994. Come parlano gli italiani, La Nuova Italia, Firenze.

Cerruti, Massimo, Vietti, Alessandro. 2022.  Identifying language varieties: Coexisting standards in spoken Italian, in  Karen V. Beaman/Gregory R. Guy (a cura di) The Coherence of Linguistic Communities. Routledge, p. 261-280.

Cresti, Emanuela, and Massimo Moneglia, eds. 2005. C-ORAL-ROM: integrated reference corpora for spoken romance languages. John Benjamins Publishing, 2005.

Gili Fivela, Barbara. "Prosodic Domains in the Romance Languages." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2025.

Koch, Peter, Oesterreicher, Wulf. 2011 (1st ed. 1990). Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch. Vol. 31. Walter de Gruyter, 2011.

Redford, Melissa, and Melissa Baese-Berk. "Acoustic theories of speech perception." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2023.

Voghera, Miriam ed., From Speaking to Grammar, Berlin, Peter Lang.

Prof. Dr. Miriam Voghera
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.