Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper deals with the etymology of Romanesco ciufolà(re) ‘to whistle; to malign; to blab’ (Old Romanesco cifolàre), also occurring elsewhere in the dialects of Italia mediana, and its Tuscan and Italian counterpart zufolare. In fact, while both variants of this word undoubtedly derive from dialectal variants of Latin SIBILARE (such as *SUFOLARE), some details still need further clarification, first and foremost the change S- > [ʦ]-, whose origin is debated, with two contrasting views, the former having it that the change is to be traced back to (spoken) Latin, possibly due to substrate influence, the latter that the change only arose in Romance. Conversely, the change S- > [ʧ]-, documented in Romanesco and the area mediana, has received little attention in research. I will propose that this change took place due to the influence of ideophones containing an affricate such as ciù and ci.