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Article published In: Spanish in Context
Vol. 13:2 (2016) ► pp.195–211

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A phonetic analysis of intervocalic /r/ in Highland Bolivian Spanish

Published online: 15 September 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.13.2.02mor
This paper provides a phonetic analysis of intervocalic /r/ in lower-class Highland Bolivian Spanish. Results show that in this dialect rhotic assibilation has progressed beyond the fricative [ř] already reported by several scholars (cf. Navarro Tomás 1980; Canfield 1981; Lipski 1994; Sessarego 2011), to a voiced apical sibilant [z̺]. This article, in fact, offers the first spectrographic analysis of this segment. Findings are analyzed in light of a number of studies dealing with rhotic variability in Spanish. In particular, results are compared with those by Sessarego (2011), who provided an acoustic analysis of /r/ realizations for upper-middle-class Highland Bolivian Spanish speakers, without finding any instance of [z̺].
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