Variation in the neuter morpho-syntax in Arbëresh dialects

This contribution addresses the so-called neuter inflection (Demiraj 1985) that Arbëresh dialects spoken in communities in Southern Italy preserve, an inflection no longer surviving in standard and other varieties of Albania, where masculine morphology has replaced it. The coincidence between the specialized –t neuter inflection in nominative and accusative and the plural inflection –t characterizing North-Calabrian Arbëresh led Manzini and Savoia (2017a,b, forthcoming) to connect this morphology with the interpretive properties associated to mass denotation. In this article we assume this proposal as the starting point; however, independently of their mass content, in North-Lucanian and North-Apulian Italo-Albanian systems these nouns, while maintaining the inflection –t, agree in feminine or in masculine. Our aim is to provide a first descriptive overview of the agreement phenomena shown by neuter in Italo-Albanian noun systems.