In:Spanish Sociolinguistics in the 21st Century: Current trends and methodologies
Edited by Cecilia Montes-Alcalá and Miguel García
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 42] 2025
► pp. 111–130
Chapter 5Variation in the use of the interdental fricative in
Melilla
Published online: 15 May 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.42.05say
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.42.05say
Abstract
Several studies have shown the existence of
different degrees of variation in the use of the voiceless
interdental fricative phoneme in southern Spain. This includes
seseo, distinción, and, less frequently,
ceceo. However, in several communities the use
of seseo or distinción is not
categorical as the same speaker can make use of both pronunciations,
even within the same sentence.
The present study offers an analysis of the use
of [θ] in the autonomous city of Melilla where two ethnolinguistic
communities coexist: speakers of Peninsular origin and speakers of
Amazigh (Berber) origin. The objective is to determine the
distribution of [θ] according to ethnic origin and gender, on the
one hand, and, on the other hand, to determine the role of word
class, position in the word, grapheme, and word frequency in the
appearance of [θ] or [s]. Data consist of sociolinguistic
interviews with 10 speakers of Amazigh origin and 10 speakers of
Peninsular Spanish origin. Altogether 3,660 occurrences were
analyzed with a distribution of 78% of [θ] use and 17.1% of [s] use.
The results show that the two most significant factors are
extralinguistic: ethnicity and gender. Men of Amazigh origin used
[θ] in 60.6% of cases while men of Peninsular origin produced [θ] in
80% of the cases. In turn, women of Peninsular origin used [θ]
almost categorically (97.1%), similar to Amazigh women who also
showed very high level of use of [θ] (92%). Linguistic factors did
not show a considerable effect in this case, leading us to conclude
that the alternation between the use of both variants is a socially
conditioned phenomenon present in the speech of males in both ethnic
groups.
Keywords: Melilla, interdental fricative, seseo, distinción, Amazigh
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.A sociolinguistic profile of Melilla
- 3.Methods
- 4.Results
- 5.Conclusion
Note References
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