Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish
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Miquel Simonet
Abstract
This paper offers a sociophonetic profile of the production of alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish, a dialect of Spanish spoken in the island of Majorca, where Catalan is also spoken. Traditionally, Catalan alveolar laterals have been described as being “dark”, i.e. velarized, while (Peninsular) Spanish laterals have been described a “clear”, i.e. non-velarized. Thus, it could be hypothesized that Catalan-dominant bilinguals speaking Spanish would tend to use velarized laterals. However, some recent literature has shown that velarization is a receding feature in Majorcan Spanish with young Catalan-dominant bilinguals leaning towards the use of clear variants. This paper discusses acoustic data gathered from several groups of Majorcan speakers, classified as a function of their dominant language, age and gender. The results indicate that all these three factors affect the degree of velarization of laterals, with Catalan-dominant bilinguals using more velarized variants, and younger subjects (especially females) using the least velarized variants.
Abstract
This paper offers a sociophonetic profile of the production of alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish, a dialect of Spanish spoken in the island of Majorca, where Catalan is also spoken. Traditionally, Catalan alveolar laterals have been described as being “dark”, i.e. velarized, while (Peninsular) Spanish laterals have been described a “clear”, i.e. non-velarized. Thus, it could be hypothesized that Catalan-dominant bilinguals speaking Spanish would tend to use velarized laterals. However, some recent literature has shown that velarization is a receding feature in Majorcan Spanish with young Catalan-dominant bilinguals leaning towards the use of clear variants. This paper discusses acoustic data gathered from several groups of Majorcan speakers, classified as a function of their dominant language, age and gender. The results indicate that all these three factors affect the degree of velarization of laterals, with Catalan-dominant bilinguals using more velarized variants, and younger subjects (especially females) using the least velarized variants.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
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Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
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Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
-
Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
-
Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
