Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-zv5th Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-12-03T07:11:49.081Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Diagnosing the completion of a sound change: Phonetic and phonological evidence for /ʃ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Marcos Rohena-Madrazo
Marcos Rohena-Madrazo*
Affiliation:
Middlebury College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper presents a sociolinguistic analysis of the variable devoicing of /ʒ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish, a phenomenon previously characterized as a change in progress. A novel method is implemented to determine the completion of the devoicing change by comparing the voicing levels of /ʒ/ to the inherent voicing variability of /s/, as well as by comparing the allophonic patterns of /ʒ/ to those of /s/. If the voicing levels of /ʒ/ are not significantly different from those of /s/ and the /ʒ/ no longer exhibits positional affrication, then the speaker's underlying postalveolar fricative is /ʃ/: they are a “devoicer.” The results suggest that, although older speakers, of both middle and upper classes, exhibit variation in the distribution of “voicers,” most younger speakers are devoicers, indicating that the /ʒ/ devoicing change is nearing conclusion. As a result, the underlying fricative for the majority of Buenos Aires Spanish speakers may very well be /ʃ/.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , October 2015 , pp. 287 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar, Lourdes. (1997). De la vocal a la consonante. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.Google Scholar
Becker, Kara, & Wong, Amy Wing-mei. (2010). The short-a system of New York City English: An update. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 15(2):11–20.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, & Weenink, David. (2010). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. Available at: http://www.praat.org/. Accessed July 17, 2015.Google Scholar
Borzone de Manrique, Ana María, & Massone, María Ignacia. (1981). Acoustic analysis and perception of Spanish fricative consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 69(4):1145–1153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, Travis G., & Delforge, Ann Marie. (2006). Systemic contrast and the diachrony of Spanish sibilant voicing. In Gess, R. & Arteaga, D. (eds.), Historical Romance linguistics: Retrospective and perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, Catherine, & Goldstein, Louis. (1992). Articulatory phonology: An overview. Phonetica 49:155–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, Charles. (2008). Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish. In Westmoreland, M. & Thomas, J. A. (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 54–63.Google Scholar
Chappell, Whitney. (2011). The intervocalic voicing of /s/ in Ecuadorian Spanish. In Michnowicz, J. & Dodsworth, R. (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 57–69.Google Scholar
Ciccolella, Pablo. (1999). Globalización y dualización en la Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires: Grandes inversiones y reestructuración socioterritorial en los años noventa. EURE (Santiago) 25(76):5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colantoni, Laura. (2008). Variación micro y macro fonética en español. Estudios de fonética experimental 17:65–104.Google Scholar
Fontanella de Weinberg, María B. (1973). El rehilamiento bonaerense a fines de siglo XVIII. Thesaurus 28(2):338–343.Google Scholar
Fontanella de Weinberg, María B. (1978). Un cambio lingüístico en marcha: Las palatales en el español bonaerense. Orbis 27:215–247.Google Scholar
Fontanella de Weinberg, María B. (1983). Variación y cambio lingüístico en el español bonaerense. Lingüística Española Actual 27:215–247.Google Scholar
Fontanella de Weinberg, María B. (1987). El español bonaerense: Cuatro siglos de evolución lingüística. Buenos Aires: Hachette.Google Scholar
Frisch, Stefan, & Wright, Richard. (2002). The phonetics of phonological speech errors: An acoustic analysis of slips of the tongue. Journal of Phonetics 30:139–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García, Alison. (2013). Allophonic variation in the Spanish sibilant fricative. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Google Scholar
García, Christina. (2012a). Implicit vs. explicit linguistic awareness and attitudes in Buenos Aires. Paper presented at the Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics 6, University of Arizona, Tucson, April 12–14.Google Scholar
García, Christina. (2012b). Style and gender effects in intervocalic /s/ voicing in Lojano Spanish. Poster presented at the Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics 6, University of Arizona, Tucson, April 12–14.Google Scholar
García, Christina. (2013). Speech rate in a gradient process: Intervocalic /s/ voicing in Lojano Spanish. Poster presented at the Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia 6, Lisbon, Portugal, June 24–25.Google Scholar
Gradoville, Michael Stephen. (2011). Validity in measurements of fricative voicing: Evidence from Argentine Spanish. In Alvord, S. M. (ed.), Selected proceedings of the 5th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology. Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 59–74.Google Scholar
Guitarte, Guillermo. (1955). El ensordecimiento del žeísmo porteño. Revista de filología española 39:261–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, Gregory. (1988). Language and social class. In Newmeyer, F. (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey.Vol. 4: Language: The sociocultural context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 37–63.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce, & Steriade, Donca. (2004). The phonetic bases of phonological markedness. In Hayes, B., Kirchner, R., & Steriade, D. (eds.), Phonetically-based phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. (2004). Quasi-phonemic contrasts in Spanish. In Schmeiser, B., Chand, V., Kelleher, A., & Rodriguez, A. (eds.), WCCFL Proceedings. Somerville: Cascadilla. 374–398.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. (2005). The sounds of Spanish, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio, Olarrea, Antxon, Escobar, Anna María, & Travis, Catherine E. (2010). Introducción a la lingüística hispánica. 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio, Simonet, Miquel, & Nadeu, Marianna. (2011). Consonant lenition and phonological recategorization. Laboratory Phonology 2(2):301–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, República Argentina. (2010). Censo 2010—Resultados provisionales: cuadros y gráficos. Available at: http://www.censo2010.indec.gov.ar/preliminares/cuadro_totalpais.asp. Accessed September 19, 2014.Google Scholar
King, Christina. (2009). Language attitudes toward devoicing among young adults in Buenos Aires. Paper presented at the 13th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 21–24.Google Scholar
Kirchner, Robert. (1998). An effort-based approach to consonant lenition. PhD dissertation, University of California—Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. 1st ed.Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, William .(1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William .(2001). Principles of linguistic change: Social factors. 2nd ed.Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (2007). Transmission and diffusion. Language 83(2):344–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon, & Boberg, Charles. (2006). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology, and sound change: A multimedia reference tool. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Anthony. (2001). Weakening of intervocalic /p, t, k/ in two Spanish dialects: Toward the quantification of lenition processes. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Lipski, John. (1989). /S/-voicing in Ecuadoran Spanish: Patterns and principles of consonantal modification. Lingua 79(1):49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machuca Ayuso, María Jesús. (1997). Las obstruyentes no continuas del español: Relación entre las categorías fonéticas y fonológicas en el habla espontánea. PhD dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Malmberg, Bertil. (1950). Études sur la phonétique de l'espagnol parlé en Argentine. Lund: Gleerups.Google Scholar
Mapa Interactivo de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. (n.d.). Mapa Interactivo de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Available at: http://mapa.buenosaires.gov.ar. Accessed July 1, 2011.Google Scholar
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio. (2008). Some chimeras of traditional Spanish phonetics. In Colantoni, L. & Steele, J. (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 32–46.Google Scholar
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio. (2009). Sonorización de las oclusivas sordas en una hablante Murciana: Problemas que presenta. Estudios de Fonética Experimental 18:253–271.Google Scholar
Martínez Celdrán, Eugenio, & Fernández Planas, Ana María. (2007). Manual de fonética española: Articulaciones y sonidos del español, Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Maspero, Gaston. (1875). Sur quelques singularitées phonétiques de l'espagnol parlé dans la campagne de Buenos Ayres et de Montevideo. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 2:51–65.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Morgan, Terrell A. (2010). Sonidos en contexto: una introducción a la fonética del español con especial referencia a la vida real. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ohala, John. (1983). The origin of sound patterns in vocal tract constraints. In MacNeilage, P. F. (ed.), The production of speech. New York: Springer-Verlag. 189–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohala, John. (1997). Aerodynamics of phonology. Proceedings of the 4th Seoul International Conference on Linguistics [SICOL]. Seoul: The Linguistics Society of Korea. 92–97.Google Scholar
Parrell, Benjamin. (2010). How /b d g/ differ from /p t k/ in Spanish: A dynamic account. Paper presented at LabPhon 12, Albuquerque, July 8–10.Google Scholar
Parrell, Benjamin. (2011). Dynamical account of how /b, d, g/ differ from /p, t, k/ in Spanish: Evidence from labials. Laboratory Phonology 2(2):423–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penny, Ralph. (2000). Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Kimball L. (1979). On the voicing of intervocalic s in the Ecuadorian Highlands. Romance Philology 33(1):137–143.Google Scholar
Rohena-Madrazo, Marcos. (2008). Buenos Aires Spanish in real time: The advancement of palatal fricative devoicing. Paper presented at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation 37, Rice University, Houston, November 6–9.Google Scholar
Rohena-Madrazo, Marcos. (2011). Sociophonetic variation in the production and perception of obstruent voicing in Buenos Aires Spanish. PhD dissertation, New York University.Google Scholar
Rohena-Madrazo, Marcos. (2013). Variación y cambio de sonoridad de la fricativa postalveolar del español de Buenos Aires. In Colantoni, L. & Rodríguez Louro, C. (eds.), Perspectivas teóricas y experimentales sobre el español de la Argentina. Lingüística iberoamericana. Madrid: Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. 37–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, Gillian, & Blondeau, Hélène. (2007). Language change across the lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French. Language 83(3):560–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SchmidtLauren, B. Lauren, B., & Willis, Erik W. (2011). Systematic investigation of voicing assimilation of Spanish /s/ in Mexico City. In Alvord, S. M. (ed.), Selected proceedings of the 5th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology. Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 1–20.Google Scholar
Smith, Caroline L. (1997). The devoicing of /z/ in American English: Effects of local and prosodic context. Journal of Phonetics 25:471–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Kenneth N., Blumstein, Sheila E., Glicksman, Laura, Burton, Martha, & Kurowski, Kathleen. (1992). Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of voicing in fricatives and fricative clusters. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 91:2979–3000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torreira, Francisco, & Ernestus, Mirjam. (2010). The Nijmegen Corpus of Casual Spanish. In Chair, N. C. C., Choukri, K., Maegaard, B., Mariani, J., Odijk, J., Piperidis, S., Rosner, M., & Tapias, D. (eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on International Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'10). Valletta, Malta: European Language Resources Association (ELRA). 2981–2985.Google Scholar
Torreira, Francisco, & Ernestus, Mirjam. (2011). Realization of voiceless stops and vowels in conversational French and Spanish. Laboratory Phonology 2(2):331–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torreira, Francisco, & Ernestus, Mirjam. (2012). Weakening of intervocalic /s/ in the Nijmegen Corpus of Casual Spanish. Phonetica 69(3):124–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torres, Horacio A. (2001). Cambios socioterritoriales en Buenos Aires durante la década de 1990. EURE (Santiago) 27(80):33–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westbury, John, & Keating, Patricia. (1986). On the naturalness of stop consonant voicing. Journal of Linguistics 22:145–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wikimedia Commons. (2006). Great Buenos Aires. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_buenos_aires.png. Accessed September 19, 2014.Google Scholar
Wolf, Clara. (1984). Tiempo real y tiempo aparente en el estudio de una variación lingüística: Ensordecimiento y sonorización del yeísmo porteño. In Schwartz, L. & Lerner, I. (eds.), Homenaje a Ana María Barrenechea. Madrid: Castalia. 175–196.Google Scholar
Wolf, Clara, & Jiménez, Elena. (1979). El ensordecimiento del yeísmo porteño: Un cambio fonológico en marcha. In Barrenechea, A. María (ed.), Estudios lingüísticos y dialectológicos: Temas Hispánicos. Buenos Aires: Hachette. 115–145.Google Scholar
Zamora Vicente, Alonso. (1949). Rehilamiento porteño. Filología 1:5–22.Google Scholar