The Continuity of Linguistic Change

This paper provides an overview of ongoing processes of convergence in the Italian language. It focuses on regional varieties of Italian, which essentially are the result of the so-called dialectalisation of the standard language and are nowadays affected by extensive processes of vertical and horizontal convergence. It considers the “downward” convergence of the standard usage towards sub-standard varieties, the “upward” convergence of sub-standard varieties towards the standard usage, and the