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Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending

  • Rebeka Campos-Astorkiza
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Variation within and across Romance Languages
This chapter is in the book Variation within and across Romance Languages

Abstract

Voicing assimilation of /s/ before a voiced consonant is a widely reported feature of the Spanish sound system. This process is often described as stylistically determined, gradient and variable. However, there is a scarcity of non-impressionistic data supporting these claims. Following previous approaches to assimilation, we analyze voicing assimilation in Spanish as an instance of gestural blending. Taking this as a point of departure, this study presents an acoustic analysis of this assimilatory process in Peninsular Spanish, focusing on the main phonetic correlates in relation to the production of voicing, and tests the effect of different factors that have been shown to influence gestural organization. Our results show that the manner of articulation of the following consonant and the type of prosodic boundary intervening between /s/ and the triggering consonant affect the degree of voicing assimilation, while stress does not seem to play any role.

Abstract

Voicing assimilation of /s/ before a voiced consonant is a widely reported feature of the Spanish sound system. This process is often described as stylistically determined, gradient and variable. However, there is a scarcity of non-impressionistic data supporting these claims. Following previous approaches to assimilation, we analyze voicing assimilation in Spanish as an instance of gestural blending. Taking this as a point of departure, this study presents an acoustic analysis of this assimilatory process in Peninsular Spanish, focusing on the main phonetic correlates in relation to the production of voicing, and tests the effect of different factors that have been shown to influence gestural organization. Our results show that the manner of articulation of the following consonant and the type of prosodic boundary intervening between /s/ and the triggering consonant affect the degree of voicing assimilation, while stress does not seem to play any role.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.333.04cam

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Sound patterns
  6. Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
  7. Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
  8. Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
  9. Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
  10. Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
  11. Weight effects across verbal domains 119
  12. Part II. Syntax and semantics
  13. On truth persistence 135
  14. Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
  15. Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
  16. Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
  17. ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
  18. On subjunctives and islandhood 233
  19. When control can’t be a fact 255
  20. Part III. Historical aspects
  21. Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
  22. The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
  23. The French wh interrogative system 315
  24. On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
  25. Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
  26. Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
  27. English questions, Spanish structure 379
  28. French oral proficiency assessment 401
  29. Name index 417
  30. Subject index 423
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