This interdisciplinary volume explores the unique role of the sociohistorical factors of isolation and contact in motivating change in the varieties of Spanish worldwide. Recognizing the inherent intersectionality of social and historical factors, the book’s eight chapters investigate phenomena… read more
This book provides a cutting-edge exploration of the social meaning of phonetic variation in the Spanish-speaking world. Its 11 chapters elucidate the ways in which listeners process, perceive, and propagate phonetically motivated social meaning across monolingual and contact varieties, including… read more
The historical evolution of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua has given rise to a multilingual and multicultural region that has been, until relatively recently, sheltered from the Spanish language spoken in Western Nicaragua. As contact has increased between the country’s East and West, Miskitu… read more
The Spanish spoken along Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast has been described as a dialect divergent from Western Nicaraguan Spanish, and one commonly cited difference is the realization of intervocalic /b, d, ɡ/. The present study uses intervocalic /d/ as a litmus test to determine whether young… read more
This study uses a prominent phonetic variable in U.S. Spanish (orthographic <v> as bilabial or labiodental) to investigate heritage Spanish speakers’ social perceptions. Based on the results of a matched-guise test in which 75 U.S.-born heritage speakers evaluated voices with a labiodental and… read more
Reduced vowels between obstruents and rhotics are durationally variable and phonologically invisible in Spanish, e.g. p ə rado ‘field’ as /pɾ/. The present study compares L1-Spanish speakers, English monolinguals, and L2-Spanish learners’ perceptual boundaries for reduced vowels in Spanish. A… read more
As the state of the field advances empirically, sociolinguists are increasingly expected to utilize statistics in their data analysis. Some researchers have limited formal statistical training, and even for the more experienced researcher, the focus of model construction is often on the independent… read more
Spanish has become increasingly prevalent in Bilwi, a Nicaraguan town on the northern Atlantic Coast, where many L1-Miskitu locals are now Spanish-dominant. As the community shifts towards Spanish, I investigate whether these L2-Spanish speakers are producing advanced rates of coda /s/ reduction… read more
Nicaraguan Spanish is characterized by the reduction of coda /s/ to glottal frication, elision, and glottal constriction, but the latter variant has never been explored in depth. The present study fills this void by analyzing the word-final, intervocalic /s/ environment in sociolinguistic… read more
