Broad-focus declaratives in Argentine Spanish contact and non-contact varieties
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Laura Colantoni
Abstract
This paper revisits the hypothesis that Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS) early peak-alignment and downstep are the result of contact with Italian. In order to support the hypothesis, I compared BAS to other contact (Spanish-Guarani) and non-contact varieties. Overall results confirmed previous findings and crucially showed that BAS differs from other Argentine non-contact varieties in the shape of prenuclear and nuclear accents and in the relative duration of the stressed syllable. Additionally, BAS, as opposed to the Spanish-Guarani contact variety studied here, shows early peak alignment in prenuclear accents and a nuclear fall. As such, the patterns observed in BAS are specific to this variety and, for the time being, is reasonable to attribute them to contact with Italian.
Abstract
This paper revisits the hypothesis that Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS) early peak-alignment and downstep are the result of contact with Italian. In order to support the hypothesis, I compared BAS to other contact (Spanish-Guarani) and non-contact varieties. Overall results confirmed previous findings and crucially showed that BAS differs from other Argentine non-contact varieties in the shape of prenuclear and nuclear accents and in the relative duration of the stressed syllable. Additionally, BAS, as opposed to the Spanish-Guarani contact variety studied here, shows early peak alignment in prenuclear accents and a nuclear fall. As such, the patterns observed in BAS are specific to this variety and, for the time being, is reasonable to attribute them to contact with Italian.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword 1
-
Part I. Phrasing across languages
- Correlates of phrasing in French and German from an experiment with semi-spontaneous speech 11
- The multi-facetted relation between phrasing and intonation contours in French 43
- Phrasing, register level downstep and partial topic constructions in Neapolitan Italian 75
-
Part II. Phrasing of languages in contact
- Phrase boundary distribution in Catalan 97
- Prosodic phrasing in the spontaneous speech of an Occitan/French bilingual 127
- Prosodic phrasing in Porteño Spanish 153
- Broad-focus declaratives in Argentine Spanish contact and non-contact varieties 183
- Comparing cues of phrasing in German and Spanish child monolingual and bilingual acquisition 213
- Index 235
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword 1
-
Part I. Phrasing across languages
- Correlates of phrasing in French and German from an experiment with semi-spontaneous speech 11
- The multi-facetted relation between phrasing and intonation contours in French 43
- Phrasing, register level downstep and partial topic constructions in Neapolitan Italian 75
-
Part II. Phrasing of languages in contact
- Phrase boundary distribution in Catalan 97
- Prosodic phrasing in the spontaneous speech of an Occitan/French bilingual 127
- Prosodic phrasing in Porteño Spanish 153
- Broad-focus declaratives in Argentine Spanish contact and non-contact varieties 183
- Comparing cues of phrasing in German and Spanish child monolingual and bilingual acquisition 213
- Index 235
