The last stronghold of word-final /s/ in Barranquillero Spanish: Prevocalic word-final /s/ in cohesive bigrams

Earl Kjar Brown, Richard J. File-Muriel, Michael S. Gradoville

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The variable articulation of word-final /s/ in Spanish is conditioned by social (e.g., age, gender, socioeconomic status), linguistic (e.g., surrounding phonological context, prosodic stress), and usage-based factors (e.g., frequency, cohesion between words). In an effort to elucidate the influence of these factors, 727 tokens of prevocalic word-final /s/ spoken by 15 speakers in Barranquilla, Colombia, are analyzed. The results reveal significant conditioning effects from age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, it is found that prevocalic word-final /s/ in higher-frequency and more cohesive bigrams is more prone to articulation as a sibilant or aspiration, instead of a null realization. This chapter lends empirical support to the idea that the contexts in which words are used affect their mental representation, and thus future production. In summary, it is proposed that the last stronghold for word-final /s/ in Barranquillero Spanish is in highly cohesive bigrams where /s/ is in prevocalic position.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages113-124
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9780429577956
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2021

Keywords

  • Bigrams
  • Colombia
  • Social factors
  • Spanish /s/
  • Usage-based phonology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The last stronghold of word-final /s/ in Barranquillero Spanish: Prevocalic word-final /s/ in cohesive bigrams'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this