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Chapter 5. The simultaneous lenition of Spanish /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ as a chain shift in progress

Abstract

This study examines dialect differences in the simultaneous lenition of intervocalic /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ in Peruvian Spanish in Lima and Cuzco. Results from a read speech task show both sets of plosives are lenited significantly less in Cuzco than in Lima. Random forests demonstrate that differences in voicing best explain the distinction between /ptk/ and /bdɡ/, that differences in relative intensity best explain the distinction in Lima, and that in order to best distinguish Cuzco /bdɡ/ from Lima /ptk/, relative intensity must be given more importance than voicing. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that these lenitions constitute a chain shift in progress and offer insight into how these shifts may occur.

Abstract

This study examines dialect differences in the simultaneous lenition of intervocalic /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ in Peruvian Spanish in Lima and Cuzco. Results from a read speech task show both sets of plosives are lenited significantly less in Cuzco than in Lima. Random forests demonstrate that differences in voicing best explain the distinction between /ptk/ and /bdɡ/, that differences in relative intensity best explain the distinction in Lima, and that in order to best distinguish Cuzco /bdɡ/ from Lima /ptk/, relative intensity must be given more importance than voicing. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that these lenitions constitute a chain shift in progress and offer insight into how these shifts may occur.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Language structure and use
  6. Chapter 1. se -marked directed motion constructions 11
  7. Chapter 2. Subcategorization and change 31
  8. Chapter 3. Variable clitic placement in US Spanish 49
  9. Chapter 4. Variable negative concord in Brazilian Portuguese 71
  10. Chapter 5. The simultaneous lenition of Spanish /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ as a chain shift in progress 95
  11. Chapter 6. Are Argentines a- blind? 121
  12. Chapter 7. The importance of motivated comparisons in variationist studies 143
  13. Chapter 8. The past persists into the present 169
  14. Chapter 9. “El vos nuestro es, ¡Ey vos , chigüín!” 191
  15. Part 2. Interacting grammars
  16. Chapter 10. Acquisition of articulatory control or language-specific coarticulatory patterns? 213
  17. Chapter 11. Voice onset time and the child foreign language learner of Spanish 237
  18. Chapter 12. “Extraña uno lo que es la tortillas” 259
  19. Chapter 13. Mothers’ use of F0 after the first year of life in American English and Peninsular Spanish 281
  20. Chapter 14. Extra-syntactic factors in the that- trace effect 309
  21. Chapter 15. An initial examination of imperfect subjunctive variation in Catalonian Spanish 333
  22. Chapter 16. Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish 355
  23. Index 373
Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.15.06eag

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Language structure and use
  6. Chapter 1. se -marked directed motion constructions 11
  7. Chapter 2. Subcategorization and change 31
  8. Chapter 3. Variable clitic placement in US Spanish 49
  9. Chapter 4. Variable negative concord in Brazilian Portuguese 71
  10. Chapter 5. The simultaneous lenition of Spanish /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ as a chain shift in progress 95
  11. Chapter 6. Are Argentines a- blind? 121
  12. Chapter 7. The importance of motivated comparisons in variationist studies 143
  13. Chapter 8. The past persists into the present 169
  14. Chapter 9. “El vos nuestro es, ¡Ey vos , chigüín!” 191
  15. Part 2. Interacting grammars
  16. Chapter 10. Acquisition of articulatory control or language-specific coarticulatory patterns? 213
  17. Chapter 11. Voice onset time and the child foreign language learner of Spanish 237
  18. Chapter 12. “Extraña uno lo que es la tortillas” 259
  19. Chapter 13. Mothers’ use of F0 after the first year of life in American English and Peninsular Spanish 281
  20. Chapter 14. Extra-syntactic factors in the that- trace effect 309
  21. Chapter 15. An initial examination of imperfect subjunctive variation in Catalonian Spanish 333
  22. Chapter 16. Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish 355
  23. Index 373
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