Cover not available

Article published In: Spanish in Context
Vol. 20:3 (2023) ► pp.599–625

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

Social perceptions of /f/ fortition in Guatemalan Spanish

ORCiD logo with link | Middlebury College
Published online: 17 April 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.20011.bai
Abstract
Research on Guatemalan Spanish has increasingly shown the effects of contact with Mayan languages. However, whereas most studies have focused on the structural outcomes of Spanish-Mayan contact, fewer studies have analyzed how native Guatemalans socially perceive these features and, by extension, those who employ them. This study presents an analysis of one contact feature of Guatemalan Spanish: the fortition of the voiceless labiodental fricative, or /f/ > [p]. Results of a matched guise of 116 native listeners of Guatemalan Spanish reveal that [p] guises index speakers as Maya and elicit more negative overt and covert attitudes than [f] guises. Furthermore, participants who self-identified as Maya were more likely to rate [p] guises as less prestigious than participants who did not identify as Maya, indicating that the Maya participants may display outgroup favoritism in order to disassociate themselves with the discrimination and racism that often accompanies their racial identity in Guatemala.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The present study
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Matched guise preparation
    • 2.2Matched guise task: Listening survey
    • 2.3Participants
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Likert scale results
    • 3.2Open-ended questions results
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (71)
References
Aleza Izquierdo, Milargos. 2010. “Fonética y fonología”. In La Lengua Española en América: Normas y Usos Actuales, ed. by Milagros Aleza Izqueirdo and José María Enguita Utrillads, 51–94. Valencia: Universitat de València.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alvar, Manuel. 1980. “Encuestas fonéticas en el suroccidente de Guatemala.” Lingüística Española Actual 21: 245–287.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ashburn–Nardo, Leslie, Megan L. Knowles, and Margo J. Montieth. 2003. “Black Americans’ Implicit Racial Associations and their Implications for Intergroup Judgement.” Social Cognition 211: 61–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baird, Brandon. 2014. An acoustic analysis of contrastive focus marking in Spanish-K’ichee’ (Mayan) bilingual intonation. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Texas, Austin.
. 2015. “Pre-nuclear peak alignment in the Spanish of Spanish-K’ichee’ (Mayan) bilinguals.” In Selected Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology, ed. by Erik W. Willis, Pedro Martín Butragueño, and Esther Herrera Zendejas, 163–174. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Prosodic transfer among Spanish-K’ichee’ Bilinguals.” In Multidisciplinary approaches to bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world, ed. by Kate Bellamy, Michael W. Child, Paz González, Antje Muntendam, and M. Carmen Parafita Couto, 147–172. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Ciudadano maya 100%: Uso y actitudes de la lengua entre los bilingües k’iche’-español.” Hispania 102 (3): 319–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “The Vowel Spaces of Spanish-K’ichee’ Bilinguals.” In Spanish phonetics and phonology in contact: Studies from Africa, the Americas, and Spain, ed. by Rajiv G. Rao, 63–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021a. “Bilingual language dominance and contrastive focus marking: Gradient effects of K’ichee’ syntax on Spanish prosody.” International Journal of Bilingualism 25 (3): 500–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021b. ““Para mí, es indígena con traje típico”: Apocope as an indexical marker of indigeneity in Guatemalan Spanish.” In Topics in Spanish Linguistic Perceptions, ed. by Luis A. Ortiz and Eva-María Suárez Budenbender, 223–239. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baird, Brandon, Marcos Rohena-Madrazo, and Caroline Cating. 2018. “Perceptions of Lexically Specific Phonology Switches on Spanish-origin Loan Words in American English.” American Speech 93 (1): 79–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banks, Stephen F. 1987. “Achieving ‘Unmarkedness’ in Organisational Discourse: A Praxis Perspective on Ethnolinguistic Identity.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 6 (3–4): 171–189. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barrett, Rusty. 2016. “Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala.” Language and Communication 471: 144–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 1999–2020. “Praat: Doing phonetics by computer.” Retrieved from: [URL]
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn. 2007. “Accent, (ING), and the Social Logic of Listener Perceptions.” American Speech 821: 32–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Sociolinguistics and Perception.” Language and Linguistic Compass 4/61: 377–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M. 1981. The Quiché Maya of Utatlán. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cerón, Alejandro, Ana Lorena Ruano, Silvia Sánchez, Aiken S. Chew, Alison Hernández, and Walter Flores. 2016. “Abuse and discrimination towards indigenous people in public health care facilities: experiences from rural Guatemala.” International Journal for Equity in Health 151: Article 77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, Whitney. 2016. “On the Social Perception of Intervocalic /s/ Voicing in Costa Rican Spanish.” Language Variation and Change 281: 357–378. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Las ideologías lingüísticas de los miskitus hacia la lengua indígena (el miskitu) y la lengua mayoritaria (el español).” Hispanic Studies Review 2 (2): 117–138.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Perceptions of Spanish(es) in the United States: Mexicans’ Sociophonetic Evaluations of [v] in the Speech of U.S.-based Mexican Immigrants, Heritage Speakers, and Language Learners.” In Spanish in the United States: Variation, Attitudes, and Policy, ed. by Scott Alvord and Greg Thompson, 31–55. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “‘En esta petsa, este anio’: The Spanish sound system in contact with Miskitu.” In Aspects of Latin American Spanish Dialectology: In honor of Terrel A. Morgan, ed. by Manuel Díaz-Campos and Sandro Sessarego, 181–203. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Choi, Jinsook. 2013. “Language Ideology as an Intervening Process in Language Shift: The Case of Bilingual Education in Guatemala.” Asian Journal of Latin American Studies: 261: 55–73.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coxon, Anthony P. M., and Charles L. Jones. 1978. The Images of Occupational Prestige. London: MacMillan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drager, Katie, Rachel Schutz, Ivan Chik, Kate Hardeman, and Victor Jih. 2012. When Hearing Is Believing: Perceptions of Speaker Style, Gender, Ethnicity, and Pitch. Paper presented at LSA Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, Jan. 5–8. Presentation available at [URL]
Eckert, Penelope. 2008. “Variation and the Indexical Field.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 121: 453–476. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
England, Nora C. 2003. “Mayan language revival and revitalization politics: Linguists and linguistic ideologies.” American Anthropologist 105 (4): 733–743. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
England, Nora C., and Brandon Baird. 2017. “Phonology and Phonetics.” In The Mayan Languages, ed. by Judith Aissen, Nora C. England, and Roberto Zavala, 175–200. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
French, Brigittine M. 2010. Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity: Violence, Cultural Rights, and Modernity in Highland Guatemala. Tuscon, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García Tesoro, Ana Isabel. 2002. “Lenguas en contacto: español y lenguas mayas en Guatemala.” Lingüística (ALFAL) 141: 59–106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. “Español en contacto con lenguas mayas en Guatemala.” In Variedades lingüísticas y lenguas en contacto en el mundo de habla hispana, ed. by Carmen Ferrero, Nilsa Lasso, and Von Lang, 25–34. Bloomington, IN: Author House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Guatemala.” In El español en América: contactos lingüísticos en Hispanoamérica, ed. by Azucena Palacios, 97–117. Barcelona: Ariel Letras.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Lenguas mayas e identidad en Guatemala.” Perspectivas Latinoamericanas 81: 122–134.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, Angie Williams, Diane M. Mackie, and Francine Rosselli. 1995. “Reactions to Anglo- and Hispanic-American-Accented Speakers: Affect, Identity, Persuasion, and the English only Controversy.” Language and Communication 151: 107–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gudykunst, William B. and Karen L. Schmidt. 1987. “Language and Ethnic Identity: An Overview and Prologue.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 6 (3): 157–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hawkins, John. 1984. Inverse images: The meaning of culture, ethnicity, and family in postcolonial Guatemala. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heath, Shirley B. 1972. Telling tongues: Language policy in Mexico colony to nation. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 2008. The Everyday Language of White Racism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, José I. 2005. The Sounds of Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Instituto de Estadística Nacional de Guatemala. 2014. Publicaciones. 〈[URL].〉 Accessed Aug 4, 2019.
Jackson, Linda A., Carole N. Hodge, Donna A. Gerard, et al. 1996. “Cognition, Affect, and Behavior in the Prediction of Group Attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 221: 306–316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirtley, M. Joelle. 2011. Speech in the U.S. Military: A Sociophonetic Perception Approach to Identity and Meaning. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa.
Lambert, Wallace E., Richard C. Hodgson, Robert C. Gardener, and Samuel Fillenbaum. 1960. “Evaluational Reactions to Spoken Languages.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 601: 44–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lang-Rigal, Jennifer. 2015. “La percepción del habla de Córdoba, Argentina: Una prueba que combina las actitudes con la identificación de dialecto.” Signo y Seña 281: 111–138.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lentzner, Karl. 1893. “Observations on the Spanish language in Guatemala.” Modern Language Notes 8 (2): 41–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lew, Jamie. 2006. “Burden of Acting Neither White nor Black: Asian American Identities and Achievement in Urban Schools.” The Urban Review 38 (5): 335–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lipski, John. 1987. “Breves notas sobre el español filipino.” Anuario de Letras 251: 209–219.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marín, Gerardo. 1984. “Stereotyping Hispanics: The Differential Effect of Research Method, Label, and Degree of Contact.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 81: 17–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Laura. 1978. “Mayan influence in Guatemalan Spanish: A research outline and test case.” In Papers in Mayan linguistics, ed. by Nora C. England, 106–126. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985. “Una mi tacita de café: The indefinite article in Guatemala Spanish.” Hispania 68 (2): 383–387. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montejo, Victor. 2005. Maya intellectual renaissance: Identity, representation, and leadership. Austin: University of Texas Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina. 2013. El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nance, Claire. 2013. Phonetic Variation, Sound Change, and Identity in Scottish Gaelic. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Glasgow.
Pato, Enrique. 2002. “La estructura posesiva una mi amiga en el español de Guatemala.” In El indigenismo americano III, ed. by Azucena Palacios and Ana Isabela García Tesoro, 121–154. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia Colección Cuadernos de Filología, vol. XLVIII1.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Podesva, Robert J., Jermay Reynolds, Patrick Callier, and Jessica Baptiste. 2015. “Constraints on the Social Meaning of Released /t/: A Production and Perception Study of U.S. Politicians.” Language Variation and Change 271: 59–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quilis, Antonio. 1996. “La lengua española en Filipinas.” In Manual de dialectología hispánica: El español de América, ed. by Manuel Alvar, 233–243. Barcelona: Ariel Letras.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richards, Michael. 2003. Atlas lingüístico de Guatemala. Guatemala City: Serviprensa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richeson, Jennifer A., Sophie Trawalter, and J. Nicole Shelton. 2005. “African Americans’ Implicit Racial Attitudes and the Depletion of Executive Function after Interracial Interactions.” Social Cognition 23 (4): 336–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez Cadena, Yolanda. 2008. “Colombia.” In El español en América: contactos lingüísticos en Hispanoamérica, ed. by Azucena Palacios, 135–160. Barcelona: Ariel Letras.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romero, Sergio. 2015. Language and ethnicity among the K’ichee’ Maya. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosales, Javi, Ángel Julajuj, Óscar Figueroa, and Édgar Domínguez. 2016. “La justicia no habla su idioma: Falta pertinencia cultural en los juicios.” Prensa Libre. Web. 26 nov. 2016.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rudman, Laurie A., Joshua Feinberg, and Kimberly Fairchild. 2002. “Minority members’ implicit attitudes: Automatic ingroup bias as a function of group status.” Social Cognition 201: 294–320. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skinner-Klee, Jorge. 1954. Legislación indigenista en Guatemala. Mexico City: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stets, Jan E. and Peter J. Burke. 2000. “Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly 63 (3): 224–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri. 1978. Differentiation between Social Groups. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline. 2009. “Language Attitudes and Linguistic Outcomes in Reading, Pennsylvania.” In Language Allegiances and Bilingualism in the US, ed. by M. Rafael Salaberry, 24–41. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Utgård, Katrine. 2010. “El español de Guatemala.” In El español hablado en América Central: Nivel fonético, ed. by Miguel Ángel Quesada Pacheco, 49–82. Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von den Berghe, Pierre L. 1968. “Ethnic membership and cultural change in Guatemala.” Social Forces 46 (4): 514–522. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walker, Abby, Christina García, Yomi Cortés, and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler. 2014. “Comparing Social Meanings across Listener and Speaker Groups: The Indexical Field of Spanish /s/.” Language Variation and Change 261: 169–189. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. 2005. “Language and Identity Choice in Catalonia: The Interplay of Contrasting Ideologies of Linguistic Authority.” UCSD Linguistic Anthropology Working Papers Series. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Baird, Brandon & Brendan Regan
2025. The status of /f/ in Mayan-accented Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 18:1 ► pp. 1 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
2025. La variación fonológica del español guatemalteco. In Enciclopedia concisa de los dialectos del español en el mundo, ► pp. 306 ff. DOI logo
Baird, Brandon & Stanislav Mulík
2024. The Phonetics and Phonology of Indigenous Language Bilinguals. In The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Phonetics and Phonology, ► pp. 584 ff. DOI logo
Baird, Brandon
2023. Clothing, Gender, and Sociophonetic Perceptions of Mayan-Accented Spanish in Guatemala. Languages 8:3 ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 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