Alec Gallo is a linguist and cognitive neuroscientist from Rivarolo Canavese, Italy. His research focuses on Canavesano Piedmontese, a local variety of Piedmontese, spoken in the north of Turin. Alec has contributed to documenting the acoustic features of its vowel system and is interested in language variation and change across generations of Canavesano speakers.

Alec grew up bilingual, speaking Italian and learning Canavesano Piedmontese from his grandmother, who often spoke to him in her native language. Even while pursuing his studies and PhD abroad, Canavesano remains central to his identity. He continues to speak it with his grandmother, preserving their connection and traditions, while also promoting its use among family and friends.

Alec’s project seeks to document and analyze the speech of younger native speakers (ages 18–40), comparing their usage with that of older speakers to better understand how the language is changing over time. Over the course of a year, Alec will conduct a language production experiment with 40 younger speakers. Participants will complete a picture-naming task with 100 images, following the same methodology used in previous studies of older speakers. Additionally, they will provide spontaneous speech samples by describing a scene, offering valuable insights into natural language use.

The project will result in six hours of recorded interviews with younger native speakers, contributing to an acoustic description of Canavesano Piedmontese. These recordings will help document pronunciation, vocabulary, and structural shifts across generations.After data collection, Alec will analyze the findings and prepare a manuscript for publication. The audio recordings and research data will be made publicly available and submitted to Wikitongues’ language archive, ensuring access for researchers, language activists, and the Canavesano Piedmontese-speaking community

• Speech Production Dataset for Canavesano Piedmontese