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In:Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis
Edited by Sandro Sessarego and Fernando Tejedo-Herrero
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 8] 2016
► pp. 219–240

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On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish

Language contact and dialect standardization

 | North Carolina State University
 | North Carolina State University
Published online: 25 May 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.8.09mic
This article examines the impact of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors on the production of glottalization (/ʔ/ and creaky voice) in Yucatan Spanish. The results of this study suggest that glottal insertion before vowel-initial words in Yucatan Spanish is the product of language contact mediated by internal development. It also indicates that glottal insertion, like other traditional features of Yucatan Spanish, is undergoing a process of standardization, whereby younger, more educated speakers employ a less traditional, more ‘standard’ variety of Spanish.
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