This study investigates the syntactic properties of wh-interrogatives in the Camuno dialect of Eastern Lombard, focusing specifically on the optionality of wh-phrase placement and the phenomenon of wh-doubling. Conducted by the authors through fieldwork and consultations with native speakers, the research reveals that Camuno exhibits multiple interrogative strategies, including clause-internal wh-phrases, fronted wh-phrases, and wh-doubling, with notable variation between its sub-varieties, Darfense and Monnese.

The authors employed various elicitation tasks to gather data, analyzing the syntactic structures and prosodic patterns of wh-interrogatives. They propose a unified syntactic account based on “Partial Copying” and formal feature expression at phase edges, which distinguishes their findings from previous studies. This work highlights the complex interplay of grammaticality judgments and syntactic structures, revealing that while Darfense favors clause-internal wh-phrases, Monnese allows for greater optionality, including wh-doubling.

The theoretical significance of this research lies in its contribution to understanding the syntactic variation within Northern Italian Dialects, particularly in terms of wh-structure. Practically, these findings have implications for language technology and translation studies, as they underscore the need for nuanced models that accommodate dialectal variation in interrogative constructions.

Source: glossa-journal.org