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⇱ Andrea Scala - Università degli Studi di Milano - State University of Milan (Italy)

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Papers by Andrea Scala

A Case of Clitic Personal Pronoun Borrowing in Abruzzian Romani. Premises, Processes and Outcomes of a Rare Contact-Induced Innovation
l’analisi linguistica e letteraria , 2026
Among the many Romani varieties spoken in Italy for centuries, Southern Italy Romani probably sho... more Among the many Romani varieties spoken in Italy for centuries, Southern Italy Romani probably shows the highest degree of Romancisation, to be understood as a convergence toward Romance lexicon and structural patterns. The article takes into account Abruzzian Romani – the best described and most vital variety of Southern Italy Romani – and focuses on a cross-linguistically rather uncommon phenomenon: the borrowing of a clitic personal pronoun. Namely, Abruzzian Romani 1pl non-nominative clitic =ʧǝ cannot be traced back to an Indo-Aryan etymology, but must be considered a borrowing from Abruzzese. The article maintains that such an uncommon sort of borrowing must arise from special predisposing conditions and attempts to reconstruct them, concluding that only a cluster of cooperating factors, including common Indo-European origin of Romani and Abruzzese, independent sound changes and deep and centuries-long bilingualism of Abruzzian Roma, made this rare outcome of language contact possible.
Alessandria. Rivista di Glottologia, 2023
Abstract: In the modern standard varieties of Armenian the words expressing the concept of “crisi... more Abstract: In the modern standard varieties of Armenian the words expressing the concept of “crisis” are ճգնաժամ čgnažam, կրիզիս krizis and տագնապ tagnap. The lexemes ճգնաժամ čgnažam and կրիզիս
krizis are the most common terms in Eastern Armenian and are used respectively to indicate a “heavy and difficult crisis” and a “minor crisis”. In cultivated Western Armenian the main word for “crisis” seems to be տագնապ tagnap, that in Eastern Armenian means “anguish, distress”. Starting from these differences between Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian the article investigates some semantic, structural, and historical issues regarding the lexical expression of the concept of “crisis” in the history of Armenian language.
Lo strato lessicale armeno nella romaní: riconsiderazioni, ipotesi e un nuovo prestito (xem ʻbordo del setaccioʼ)
Atti del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese, 2023
The Armenian lexical layer in Romani: Riconsiderations, hypotheses and a new loanword (xem ʻedge... more The Armenian lexical layer in Romani: Riconsiderations, hypotheses and
a new loanword (xem ʻedge of the sieveʼ).

Armenian loanwords represent a historically significant part of Early Romani lexicon. The number of loanwords that can be traced back to this exogenous layer consists of about 50 lexemes. The phonetic shape shown by the Armenian loanwords in Romani implies that they have been acquired before the 11th century in a dialectal area that had not undergone the so-called 2nd Armenian consonant shift. The paper discusses some general issues regarding the Armenian layer in Romani and proposes some new observations about the phonological integration of Arm. ǝ and the loanwords endanis ʻfamliyʼ and patragi ʻEaster, feastʼ. Finally, an Armenian origin is proposed for the Romani word xem ʻedge of the sieveʼ.
Motivazioni semantiche del nome della trottola tra India ed Europa orientale. Esplorazioni e riflessioni
A. Scala, Motivazioni semantiche del nome della trottola tra India ed Europa orientale. Esplorazioni e riflessioni, in C. Lambrugo (ed.), A TURNING WORLD. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Spinning Tops and Other Toys and Games, Milan, Milan University Press, pp. 157-168, 2023
The article deals with the names of the spinning top in a wide range of Indo-European languages... more The article deals with the names of  the spinning top in a wide range of  Indo-European languages spoken between Indian Subcontinent and Eastern Europe. The main focus is represented by the study of  the semantic motivations of  these names, which reveal inter-esting processes of  categorization of  the spinning top. A remarkable evidence emerging from  this  exploration  is  the  rather  frequent  zoonymic  motivation  of  the  names  of  the  spinning top. Animal names, especially insects, are often the starting point for naming the spinning top in different languages. Such semantic motivations seem to highlight the im-portant role played by the hum (together with the movement) in the processes of  naming the spinning top. This typological trend finds some confirmation in Western Europe as well, for example, in the dialects of  Sicily.
Kocharov, D. Kölligan (eds.), Studies in Armenian Grammar and Lexicon, Proceedings of the Workshop on Armenian Linguistics, Würzburg, 4-5 April 2022, «Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft», Beiheft 35, Dettelbach, J.H. Röll GmbH, pp. 375-399., 2024
The relationship between semantics and nominal inflection in the history of Armenian represents a... more The relationship between semantics and nominal inflection in the history of Armenian represents a topic scantly explored thus far. The aim of this article is to propose some data and reflections about this relationship with reference to the dialect of Kʽesab, still spoken in northwestern Syria. In the majority of Armenian dialects, as well as in Classical Armenian, inflectional classes are governed by form rules; consequently, a noun's inflectional pattern can be considered an index of some formal feature possessed by the lexeme. In the Armenian diasystem, cases in which the noun inflectional pattern is selected on the ground of lexical semantics, becoming an index of some semantic feature of the noun, are in general rare. However, some Armenian dialects display an increased role played by lexical semantics in assigning nouns to inflectional classes. This is especially true for those dialects that admit many different ways to form the plural of nouns. The dialect of Kʽesab, a probable continuation of Cilician Middle Armenian, allows us to observe such usually uncommon phenomenon, perhaps in a better way and to a larger extent than any other Armenian dialect can do.
Per una migliore comprensione dei rapporti storici tra sinto piemontese di Piemonte e sinto piemontese di Francia: alcune considerazioni a partire da evidenze morfologiche e lessicali
Quaderns d’Italià 28, 175-190, 2023
In Piedmont (Italy) and in the South of France live two Sinti communities who define themselves a... more In Piedmont (Italy) and in the South of France live two Sinti communities who define themselves as “Piedmontese”. Their past historical relations are unknown. The common self-appellation can suggest a common origin and in particular that Piedmontese Sinti of France represent a group of Piedmontese Sinti of Piedmont that reached Southern France. The exploration of the Romani dialects spoken by the two communities clearly shows that such a historical reconstruction is too simplistic, especially because the Romani variety spoken by Piedmontese Sinti of France share some morphological and lexical features with the Romani of Lombard Sinti, another Sinti community of Northern Italy. The article discusses some dialectal features of these Romani dialects and, on the basis of linguistic evidences, proposes that the Piedmontese Sinti currently settled in France are descendants of a community once settled in an intermediate area between those of Piedmontese Sinti of Piedmont and Lombard Sinti.
Nome, identità e territorio. Nombre, identitad y territorio. A cura di F. M. Dovetto e R. Frías Urrea, Roma, Aracneeditore, Roma, Aracne editore, 2022
The article deals with the relation between ethnonyms and language names in Biblical Armenian, fo... more The article deals with the relation between ethnonyms and language names in Biblical Armenian, focusing on the three languages
of the titulus crucis: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. In the Armenian translation of the Bible (5th Century A.D.) both John’s and Luke’s Gospels report that the inscription on the cross of Jesus was written
ebrayecʽerēn ‘in Hebrew’, yownarēn ‘in Greek’ and dałmatarēn/dałmaterēn ‘in Latin’. After analyzing the morphological formation of language names in Biblical Armenian, the article discusses the
Iranian origin of the suix –arēn/–erēn and explores the linguistic and historical background of the Armenian glottonyms indicating Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The name of Latin dałmatarēn/dałmaterēn,
clearly linked with the ethnonym Dalmatian, i.e., inhabitant of Dalmatia, is very remarkable. This way of naming Latin, unparalleled in the languages attested in the Late Antiquity, can be explained as a result of the interplay between external (historical)
and internal (lexico–semantic) factors in 5th Century Armenian.
S. Baggio e P. Taravacci (a cura di), Lingue naturali, lingue inventate, Atti della Giornata di studi (Trento, Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Palazzo P. Prodi, 29 novembre 2019), Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2020, pp. 215-229, 2020
P. Del Puente, F. Guazzelli, L. Molinu, S. Pisano (a cura di), Tra etimologia romanza e dialettologia. Studi in onore di Franco Fanciullo, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2020, pp. 475-481, 2020
Greek, Syriac and Iranian Loanwords in Ancient Armenian: Reflexes of Voiceless Stops in Word-Initial Position
D. Romagno, F. Rovai, M. Bianconi, M. Capano (eds.), Variation, Contact, and Reconstruction in the Ancient Indo-European Languages. Between Linguistics and Philology, 2022
In the Late Antiquity plurilingualism was a very widespread phenomenon in Armenia. As a consequen... more In the Late Antiquity plurilingualism was a very widespread phenomenon in Armenia. As a consequence a significant part of Ancient Armenian lexicon consists in lexical borrowings from Middle Iranian, Syriac and Greek. However, these languages were in turn in contact with one another outside Armenia and, for this reason, it is important to establish criteria to      identify / find the real source of the loanwords penetrated in Armenian from these languages. In some cases for example Greek words entered the Armenian lexicon with the intermediation of Middle Iranian or Syriac. Voiceless stops in word initial position can provide some interesting evidence about this issue. Thanks to the phonological contrast existing in Armenian between aspirate  and non-aspirate voiceless stops, aspiration is very accurately reproduced in Armenian, when it was present in the donor language. The article discusses several aspects regarding the reproduction in Armenian of initial aspirate and non-aspirate voiceless stops in loanwords coming from Syriac, Greek and Middle Iranian. In particular Armenian seems to provide significant clues to help reconstruct the pronunciation of initial stops in different Middle Iranian dialects.
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana, 2022
The political and cultural relations between the Armenian Principality and, later, Kingdom of Cil... more The political and cultural relations between the Armenian Principality and, later, Kingdom of Cilicia (1198‒1375) and the Crusader States were particularly intense and produced a not small number of innovations in the Cilician Armenian lay elites. The high prestige of the French speaking elites of the Crusader States induced the Armenian nobles to import many western cultural innovations in the Armenian society. Among these innovations it is worth to be mentioned that, during the kingdom of Hethum II (1289–1301), the royal chancellery of Sis, in addition to Armenian and Latin, begun to use French as well. A clear trace of the circulation of French among the Armenian cultivated lay elites is represented by the many loanwords attested in Armenian documents and literary works written in the Kingdom of Cilicia. These loanwords are of outstanding interest for the history of French, especially for the French variety usually labelled as Outremer French, which was spoken in the Crusader States. Thanks to the richness in sounds of the Armenian phonological inventory and in letters of the Armenian alphabet, the phonetic shape of the Outremer French loanwords is well preserved and faithfully represented in Cilician Armenian texts. So, the French loanwords in Cilician Armenian can offer valuable information about the phonetics of Outremer French, otherwise scantly documented. The article discusses the Outremer French loanwords in Cilician Armenian, paying particular attention to their dialectal features. The vocalism and the consonantism of these loanwords confirm the non-Francien character of Outremer French and, in addition, show some slightly conservative features. Such phonetic archaisms can be explained in different manners, but in any case they seem to detach Outremer French from some important streams of linguistic innovation that were spreading in France.
Journal of Language Relationship
Borrowing of phonological rules is a topic that has received scant attention outside the domain o... more Borrowing of phonological rules is a topic that has received scant attention outside the domain of language learning. If transferring of L1 phonological rules in L2 utterances is a banal phenomenon, more interesting is the case in which phonological rules borrowing affects a still well preserved minority language, innovating its syntagmatic phonology. In these cases the intra-communitarian language of a minority community adopts, partially or totally, the phonological rules of the inter-communitarian language, i.e. of the language of the majority community. The article discusses several examples of phonological rules borrowing, notably two Italo-Romance phonological rules borrowed in Abruzzian Romani, Turkic vowel harmony in the Armenian dialect of Karchevan and Belarus akanie in Belarus Yiddish. After discussing the rules and the way they have been imported, the article proposes some general reflections about the structural and sociolinguistic background of the phenomenon.
Romani Lexicon
Y. Matras-A. Tenser (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan , 2020
M. Del Savio, A. Pons, M. Rivoira (a cura di), Lingue e migranti nell'area alpina e subalpina occidentale, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2019
The paper deals with the linguistic codes used by some socially marginal groups of North Western ... more The paper deals with the linguistic codes used by some socially marginal groups of North Western Italy and South Eastern France. Speakers attitude towards these codes can be very different: there are codes the speakers are very proud of and other codes that produce in their speakers a feeling of shame. The first ones generally show more vitality and are regularly transmitted to the new generations. Among these codes Circus and Funfair slangs represent a very interesting case. In the considered area Circus and Funfair people can have both Italian and Sinti origin. The Italian families use two slangs called respectively Dritto, close to the old Italian criminal slang, and Sinto, a code with Italo-Romance grammar and many Romani loanwords. The features and the use of such codes are discussed in the paper on the basis of some data acquired through field research. Another linguistic code spoken in North Western Italy and South Eastern France and strongly linked with social marginality is Romani. In the considered area three different Romani dialects have been spoken for centuries: notably, Piedmontese Sinti of France, Piedmontese Sinti of Italy and Lombard Sinti. The first two varieties, despite the similar label "Piedmontese Sinti", are rather different and probably represent the dialects of two Sinti groups that have reached Piedmont in two independent migrations and that have developed a strong link with this area. The vitality of the Romani dialects of North Western Italy is explored and discussed with reference to the diachronic evolution of the linguistic repertoires owned by the different groups of Sinti in the last generations. The current vitality of the Sinti dialects in the area is very different: Lombard Sinti has been transmitted very well to young generations, whereas Piedmontese Sinti appears to be moribund. Interestingly the strong reduction in use and transmission of Piedmontese Sinti seems to be accompanied by the emergence of a Para-Romani like variety, still very little known, that preserves some Romani lexicon, but shows Piedmontese structural features.
La flessione dell'imperfetto nella romaní d'Abruzzo e la sua genesi
Archivio Glottologico Italiano, 2020
The inflection of the imperfect in Abruzzian Romani and its genesis. The unusual inflection of th... more The inflection of the imperfect in Abruzzian Romani and its genesis. The unusual inflection of the imperfect tense in Abruzzian Romani has been repeatedly pointed out. As correctly suggested by Yaron Matras and Viktor Elšik the remoteness morpheme -sənə, one of the two morpheme variants that characterizes Abruzzian Romani imperfect (and pluperfect), can be compared with the remotness marker -sine, that we find, for example, in the Romani dialects spoken by Arli groups in the Balkans and originates from the 3sg. of the past tense of the copula, which has been grammaticalized as a tense marker. The process of grammaticalization of the past 3sg. of the copula as a morpheme indicating remoteness is ubiquitous in Romani, but the more common outcomes are forms such as  -ahi, -as, -a, -e usually traced back to Middle Indo-Aryan āsī/āsi “(he/she/it) was”. In the case of Abruzzian Romani the remoteness morpheme has two variants -sənə and -sa. The article aims to reconstruct the genesis of both variants and, more in general, of the inflectional pattern of imperfect (and pluperfect) displayed  by Arbuzzian Romani. Thanks to the comparison with other Romani dialects it is possible to outline the path of evolution that produced the innovative inflection of the imperfect in Abruzzian Romani and to propose an etymology for the remoteness morphemes -sənə and -sa. Moreover, starting from this specific case study a new form *sasi can be proposed for the Proto-Romani past 3s of the copula. Besides being interesting for Indo-Aryan diachronic linguistics, the remoteness morpheme of Abruzzian Romani, and more in general of Romani, is noteworthy also from a structural point of view, especially for being placed after the person/number morpheme. Finally also its current content, limited to tense information, deserves attention in diachronic perspective. In fact the past 3s of the copula, the form which Romani remoteness morpheme is historically based on, in its evolution path has lost every context inflection content and has preserved only tense content, i.e. only an inherent inflection feature. Such an innovation originates from a language change that implies a process of grammaticalization, but can be described also as a moving back along the cline of grammaticality, in other words as a process of degrammaticalization. In the complex genesis of Romani remoteness morpheme different and only apparently opposite processes of innovation seem to coexist.
L. Biondi, F. Dedè, A. Scala (eds.), Change in Grammar: Triggers, Paths, and Outcomes, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2021
👁 Table 5: Morphological structure of imperfect indicative in K‘esab (Table 3). The starting point to explain the genesis of the innovative remoteness morpheme in the dialect of K‘esab can be found in the 3s. In fact, the imperfect indicative inflection of the 3s can be interpreted as a zero-marked form, i.e. a form in which contextual inflection features unrepresented; therefore, the imperfect 3s (3 person + singular) are phonetically of the verb ‘to love’ can be analyzed as ha(i)- si'r-jer-O, as may be seen from comparison with the forms of other persons, cf. e.g. 2pl ha(i)-si'r-er-ek" in which -ek", placed after the remoteness morpheme -er-, carries the person (2"*) and number (pl) contents form which can be etymologically traced . At the same time, the 3s represents the only back to the OA imperfect. While the forms of the other persons have undergone a deep morphological restructuring, the imperfect 3s in the dialect of K‘esab can be interpre ed as a regular outcome of the OA imperfect 3s, as it is clearly visible when comparing OA <sirér> ‘s/he loved, il/elle amait’ (phonologically /sirejc/ or /sirer/) with K‘esab ha(i)-si'r-jer. The phonetic outcome - je- from OA <é> in final-stressed closed syllable is quite regular in K‘esab, cf. OA <tér> ‘lord’, K‘esab djer. When compared with the 3s, the remaining persons can be analyzed as [3s + person/number morpheme]; the fact that the remoteness morpheme in K ‘esab appears as -er- in the persons 0 because the prosodic context is different. to prevail in final-stressed closed syllab her than the 3s does not represent a problem, Indeed the outcome -je- from OA <é> seems es, whereas it does not occur in unstressed open syllables. Since these phonetic aspects can be ascribed to regular changes, it may be proposed that in K‘esab the imperfect indicative is the outcome of a deep structural change, in which the OA 3s has been synchronically interpreted as a zero-marked form and used as the new stem to form all the remaining persons (cf. Table 5):
La romaní in Italia tra rappresentazione e legittimazione
Language Problems & Language Planning, 44/3 , 2020
The article reflects on the dynamics connected with representation (including self-representation... more The article reflects on the dynamics connected with representation (including self-representation) and legitimation of Romani in Italy, taking into consideration the attitude of Romani speakers towards they ancestral language as well. Romani communities are settled in Italy since the early modern era and have solid roots in the Italian cultural space. Romani speakers of old settlement in Italy are all Italian citizens, but are divided in many groups. These communities differ considerably from one another. They have different self-representation and show different linguistic repertoires, in which the role and the endo-communitarian representation of Romani can vary very significantly. Among the many issues bound to these differences, it is worth highlighting the fact that some Roma and especially many Sinti are generally not favourable to share Romani outside their communities. This attitude, well documented among the Sinti in other countries as well, its current diffusion and its weight in the debate about the legitimation of Romani among the minority languages of Italy will be also discussed. In any case a fundamental fact remains evident: Romani is spoken in Italy by many thousands of Italian citizens belonging to Roma and Sinti groups of old settlement and the Law No. 482 / 1999 regarding minority languages does not include Romani among the minority languages to be protected and enhanced. This exclusion finds its roots primarily in an erroneous representation of the Romani communities, perceived as nomadic communities and therefore not bound to a territory; in fact they are no more nomadic at all. This distorted representation is surely very widespread in Italy and has been used in many instances, often as a pretext, to exclude Roma e Sinti from some rights. The situation of Romani language and of its speakers in Italy is therefore rather complex. Romani is spoken in Italy by many people, but not by all Roma and Sinti groups, who in some cases replaced it with a Italo-Romance dialect; it is highly differentiated in many Romani dialects, sometime not mutually intelligible, and this differentiation contributes to the self-perception of Roma and Sinti groups as unrelated the ones to the others. Moreover Romani is considered by many speakers as a code not to be shared outside the community. This intricate landscape in the dimension of self-representation together with the distorted representation of Romani speakers that is found among non-Romani Italian citizens makes complex any step in the path towards a national legitimation, which however remains an important civil right. A recent regional law enacted by the Regional Council of Calabria recognizes the Romani minority and its linguistic specificity. This fact suggests the possibility that local and not national laws can be a more suitable tool to legitimate and protect Romani in Italy.
Sull'imperfetto indicativo e gli altri tempi in -eɾ del dialetto armeno di Urmia: aspetti storici e tipologici di un'innovazione morfologica
Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, 2021
In the Armenian dialect of Urmia (Northern Iran) the indicative imperfect displays a very innovat... more In the Armenian dialect of Urmia (Northern Iran) the indicative imperfect displays a very innovating inflection, based on the addition of the morpheme -eɾ (properly the imperfect 3s of the verb ‘to beʼ) to the indicative present. This morpheme of ‘remotenessʼ creates opposition between other tenses as well, such as perfect and pluperfect, future and past future. The article deals with the reconstruction of the origin and diffusion of this innovating morpheme in the verbal system of the Armenian dialect of Urmia, focusing both on endogenous morphological dynamics and on the role of language contact with Turkic varieties as a trigger of this morphological change.
Ethnorema, 2020
The ethno-text presented in this contribution concerns some cultural practices connected with mou... more The ethno-text presented in this contribution concerns some cultural practices connected with mourning and marriage in use in the Lombard Sinti communities. In the landscape of Romani varieties spoken in Italy by Roma and Sinti of old settlement, the dialect of Lombard Sinti shows a good degree of intergenerational transmission and retention of inherited Indo-Aryan morphology. Of course, as all Romani varieties, the Romani dialect spoken by Lombard Sinti presents many innovations as well, especially in the lexicon. The text is a good example of the Lombard Sinti speech characterized by frequent instances of code-switching and code-mixing. Some peculiar features and innovations of this Romani dialect, emerging here and there in the text, are shortly discussed in the final part of the paper.

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