ACQUISITION OF ITALIAN L2 AFFRICATES: THE CASE OF A BRAZILIAN LEARNER

The acquisition of Italian affricative phonemes is proven to be particularly complex for Brazilian speakers, as they do not have these phonemes in the repertoire of their own mother tongue. This study examines the acquisition of alveopalatal and dental affricates by a beginning Brazilian learner who learned Italian L2 in a guided environment, for a period of eight months. The acquisition process of affricates by the Brazilian learner shows how marked phonemes have a slow assimilation in learner’s language. It also shows how—during the stage of approaching target phonemes—he attributes length to dental fricatives at the expense of substituting the affricates. The adoption of this characteristic, which is typical of dental affricates carried out by native speakers, can be seen as out of ordinary, due to the considerable difficulties that learner shows in the acquisition of Italian geminate consonants.