The decline of asymmetric word order in Cimbrian subordination and the special case of umbrómm

Cimbrian declarative and relative clauses has been widely recognized to display a unique pattern among the German dialects w.r.t. subordination. In fact, a double system of complementizers prompts different positions of the finite verb. Nevertheless, the analysis of other typologies of subordinate clauses has not been undertaken yet. In our contribution we aim to provide a detailed description of the adverbial clauses (temporal, comparative, concessive and causal) and to propose an analysis that captures the diachronic evolution of the Cimbrian subordination system in terms of a general, maybe universal, tendency to extend the matrix word order to all contexts. Particularly revealing is the syntax of Cimbrian umbrómm which like Italian perché introduces both causal and interrogative clauses (both direct and indirect) and optionally admits the violation of the WH-criterion. Our assumption is that umbrómm can be directly inserted in the C domain by external merge activating per se, i.e. due to its lexical nature as contraction of the preposition um(e) + the adverb bromm, a [+WH] feature in the higher CP layer.