Cover not available

In:Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16: Selected papers from the 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Newark, Delaware
Edited by Irene Vogel
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16] 2020
► pp. 93–108

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

A sociophonetic investigation of Mexico City Spanish vowel reduction

 | University of Delaware, Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.16.07dab
Abstract
This study is the first to use acoustic data to investigate linguistic and social factors conditioning phonetic vowel reduction in Mexico City Spanish. The acoustic analysis reveals that two complementary strategies are used for reduction: voice weakening and shortening. Voice weakening affects all vowels at relatively similar rates, and is favored by preceding voiceless consonants, following voiceless consonants, and following pauses, and is most frequent in post-tonic position. Shortening affects high vowels and /o/, and is favored by preceding and following voiceless consonants, and is most frequent in pre-tonic position and unstressed monosyllabic words. These results support an articulatory gestural overlap analysis, in which characteristics of articulatory timing and movement account for the variation.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (24)
References
Bates, Douglas, Martin Maechler, and Ben Bolker. 2015. “Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4.” Journal of Statistical Software 67 (1): 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 2016. Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer [Computer program]. Version 6.0.14, retrieved 11 February 2016 from [URL].
Boyd-Bowman, Peter. 1952. “La pérdida de vocales átonas en la altiplanicie mexicana.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 6 (2): 138–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1960. El habla de Guanajuato. Santiago de Compostela: Imprenta universitaria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Browman, Catherine, and Louis Goldstein. 1989. “Articulatory gestures as phonological units.” Phonology 6 (2): 201–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Canellada de Zamora, María Josefa, and Alonso Zamora Vicente. 1960. “Vocales caducas en el español mexicano.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 14: 222–241.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cole, Jennifer, José Ignacio Hualde, and Khalil Iskarous. 1999. “Effects of Prosodic and Segmental Context on/g/-Lenition in Spanish.” International Linguistics and Phonetics Conference 2: 575–589.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dauer, Rebecca. 1980. “The Reduction of Unstressed High Vowels in Modern Greek.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 10: 17–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delforge, Ann Marie. 2008a. “Unstressed Vowel Reduction in Andean Spanish.” Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology, ed. by Laura Colantoni, and Jeffrey Steele, 107–124. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. “Gestural Alignment Constraints and Unstressed Vowel Devoicing in Andean Spanish.” West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. by Charles B. Chang, and Hannah J. Haynie, 147–155. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “‘Nobody Wants to Sound Like a Provinciano’: The Recession of Unstressed Vowel Devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco, Perú.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 16 (3): 311–335. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Miguel. 2016. “Sobre la duración vocálica y la entonación en el español amazónico peruano.” Lengua y Sociedad 14 (2): 5–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew. 1998. “The Phonetics and Phonology of Non-Modal Vowels: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective.” Berkeley Linguistics Society 24: 93–105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmquist, Jonathan C. 1998. “High-Lands High Vowels: A Sample Of Men’s Speech in Rural Puerto Rico.” Papers in Sociolinguistics: NWAVE-26 a l’Université Laval, ed. by Claude Paradis, Diane Vincent, Denise Deshaies, and Marty LaForest, 73–79. Quebec: Université Laval.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 1989. “Autosegmental and Metrical Spreading in the Vowel-Harmony Systems of Northwestern Spain.” Linguistics 27: 773–805. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lipski, John. 1990. “Aspects of Ecuadorian Vowel Reduction.” Hispanic Linguistics 4 (1): 1-19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lope Blanch, Juan M. 1963. “En torno a las vocales caedizas del español mexicano.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 17: 1–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979. “Sobre el tratamiento de –e, -o finales en el español de México.” Investigaciones sobre dialectología mexicana, ed. by Juan M. Lope Blanch, 35–40. México, D. F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matluck, Joseph. 1952. “La pronunciación del español en el valle de México.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 6 (2): 109–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrison, Geoffrey, and Paola Escudero. 2007. A Cross-Dialect Comparison of Peninsula-and Peruvian-Spanish Vowels.” 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1505–1508. Saarbrücken: University of Saarbrucken.
Oliver Rajan, Julia. 2007. “Mobility and its Effects on Vowel Raising in the Coffee Zone of Puerto Rico.” Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, ed. by Jonathan Holmquist, Augusto Lorenzino, and Lotfi Sayahi, 44–52. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perissinotto, Giorgio Sabino Antoni. 1975. Fonología del español hablado en la ciudad de México: Ensayo de un método sociolingüístico. México D.F.: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2016. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. URL: [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serrano, Julio. 2006. “En torno a las vocales caedizas del español mexicano: una aproximación sociolingüística.” Los líderes lingüísticos. Estudios de variación y cambio 3: 7–59.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Bolyanatz, Mariška
2024. Non-modal voice quality in Chilean Spanish. Spanish in Context 21:2 ► pp. 279 ff. DOI logo
Bolyanatz, Mariška
2025. An initial approximation of the indexical field of creaky voice in Chilean Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo
McKinnon, Sean
2023. Las vocales glotalizadas en el español guatemalteco: Un análisis sociofonético entre los hablantes bilingües (español-kaqchikel) y monolingües. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 16:1 ► pp. 171 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