On the perception of the masculine-neuter contrast in Maceratese

Abstract Maceratese, a Central Italo-Romance variety, has a non-binary gender system that includes a neuter class. This class only hosts mass nouns and selects target forms ending in - o , while the masculine class shows no semantic restrictions and selects target forms in - u . The literature showed that (i) the neuter tends to merge into the masculine in Central-Southern varieties featuring complex gender systems, and (ii) the phonological distinction between final - o and - u is weakening in Central Italy. This study investigates whether the gender system of Maceratese is also undergoing simplification by focusing on the perception of the masculine vs neuter contrast. We administered an acceptability judgment task to 111 speakers using a 5-point Likert scale. Phrase stimuli ( n = 100) were presented in both agreement conditions (e.g., lu ‘ def . m.sg’ + masculine noun; lo ‘ def.n.sg’ + neuter noun) and violation conditions ( lu + neuter noun; lo + masculine noun). The results showed that, unlike masculine countable nouns, neuter (always mass) and masculine mass nouns were not perceived as ungrammatical in the violation conditions by most participants and were entirely accepted by younger speakers. Our findings indicate that in this portion of the lexicon, namely mass nouns, the two article forms ( lo and lu ) freely alternate. We argue that in Maceratese the weakening of the final - o and - u distinction—crucial for preserving the neuter vs masculine opposition—is influenced by semantic factors and that the feature [- count] promotes an incipient merging of the two gender classes observable in apparent time.