Cover not available

In:Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 12: Selected papers from the 45th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Campinas, Brazil
Edited by Ruth E.V. Lopes, Juanito Ornelas de Avelar and Sonia M. L. Cyrino
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 12] 2017
► pp. 63–78

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 5
Revising the canon

Social and stylistic variation of coda (-ɾ) in Buenos Aires Spanish

 | New York University
 | Middlebury College
Published online: 19 October 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.12.05gil
Abstract
This study explores phonetic and social variation in coda (-ɾ) production in Buenos Aires Spanish. Although the traditionally described canonical realization of coda /-ɾ/ is occlusion + vocalic element, our results reveal that the “lenited” approximant + vocalic element is the most frequent variant, and that deletion, approximant, trill, and fricative realizations also exist. We found higher rates of lenited forms in informal speech and among younger, male, and working-class speakers. Higher percentages of canonical forms in careful speech and among older, female, and middle-class speakers indicate possible hypercorrection. Finally, we question the “canonical” status of coda (-ɾ) as occlusion + vocalic element, calling for the consideration of variant frequency and context in establishing a baseline description of coda /-ɾ/.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The current study
    • 2.1Speakers
    • 2.2Tasks and recording procedures
    • 2.3Acoustic analysis
    • 2.4Statistical analysis
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Global results
    • 3.2Age
    • 3.3Sex
    • 3.4Socioeconomic class
    • 3.5Speech style
  • 4.Conclusions
  • References
References (28)
References
Alba, O. 1990. Variación fonética y diversidad social en el español dominicano de Santiago. Santiago, Dominical Republic: Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alonso, A. 1945. “Una ley fonológica del español.” Hispanic Review 13 (2): 91–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blecua, B. 2001. “Las vibrantes del español: manifestaciones acústicas y procesos fonéticos.” Doctoral Dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. 2013. Praat: doing phonetics by computer, version 5.3.56. [Computer program]. Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, C. 2008. “Variation in Palatal Production in Buenos Aires Spanish.” In Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, Edited by Maurice Westmoreland and Juan A. Thomas, 54–63. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ciccolella, P. 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colantoni, L., & Gurlekian, J. 2004. “Convergence and Intonation: Historical Evidence from Buenos Aires Spanish.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7 (02): 107–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colantoni, L., & Steele, J. 2005. “Phonetically-Driven Epenthesis Asymmetries in French and Spanish Obstruent-Liquid Clusters.” In Theoretical and Experimental Approaches to Romance Linguistics: Selected Papers from the 34th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages 272: 77–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. 1987. El español bonaerense: cuatro siglos de evolución lingüística. Buenos Aires: Hachette.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gabriel, C., Pešková, A., Labastía, L., & Blázquez, B. A. 2013. “La entonación en el español de Buenos Aires.” In Perspectivas teóricas y experimentales sobre el español de la Argentina, Edited by Laura Colantoni and Celeste Rodríguez Louro, 99–115. Madrid: Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gili Gaya, S. 1921. “La ‘R’ simple en la pronunciación española.” In Revista de Filología Española (8): 271–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I. 2005. The Sounds of Spanish. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I., A. Olarrea, A. M. Escobar, & C. E. Travis. 2010. Introducción a la lingüística hispánica. (2nd ed.) New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, W. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1990. “The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change.” In Language Variation and Change 2: 205–254. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2001. Principles of Linguistic change. Volume II: Social Factors. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lipski, J. M. 1994. Latin American Spanish. London/New York: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
López Morales, H. 1992. El español del Caribe. Madrid: Mapfre.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martínez Celdrán, E., & A. M. Fernández Planas. 2007. Manual de fonética española: articulaciones y sonidos del español. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moreno de Alba, J. G. 1994. La Pronunciación Del Español En México. Serie Estudios de Dialectología Mexicana 5. México, D.F: Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Navarro Tomás, T. 1953. Manual de pronunciación española. New York: Hafner Publishing Company, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team (2014, version 0.98.501). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL [URL].
Rohena-Madrazo, M. 2013. “Variación y cambio de sonoridad de la fricativa postalveolar del español de Buenos Aires.” In Perspectivas teóricas y experimentales sobre el español de la Argentina, Edited by Laura Colantoni and Celeste Rodríguez Louro, 37–57. Madrid/Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015. “Diagnosing the Completion of a Sound Change: Phonetic and Phonological Evidence for /ʃ/ in Buenos Aires Spanish.” In Language Variation and Change 27 (03): 287–317. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. 2001. Sociolingüística y pragmática del español. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torres, H. A. 2001. “Cambios socioterritoriales en Buenos Aires durante la década de 1990.” EURE (Santiago) 27 (80): 33–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quilis, A. 1993. Tratado de fonología y fonética españolas. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Kim, Ji Young & Gemma Repiso-Puigdelliura
2020. Deconstructing Heritage Language Dominance: Effects of Proficiency, Use, and Input on Heritage Speakers’ Production of the Spanish Alveolar Tap. Phonetica 77:1 ► pp. 55 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue