Chapter 8. The sociophonetic perception of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States
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Whitney Chappell
Abstract
This study uses a prominent phonetic variable in U.S. Spanish (orthographic <v> as bilabial or labiodental) to investigate heritage Spanish speakers’ social perceptions. Based on the results of a matched-guise test in which 75 U.S.-born heritage speakers evaluated voices with a labiodental and bilabial guise, heritage speakers perceive [v] positively in the voices of women as a marker of status, confident Hispanic identities, and older age, but negatively in the voices of men. The results show that heritage speakers use phonetic variants to discern social information about others, and their judgments largely align with monolingual Mexican Spanish speakers. I conclude that heritage speakers’ sociophonetic perception in their home language attests to a rich inner world often overlooked by prescriptive forces.
Abstract
This study uses a prominent phonetic variable in U.S. Spanish (orthographic <v> as bilabial or labiodental) to investigate heritage Spanish speakers’ social perceptions. Based on the results of a matched-guise test in which 75 U.S.-born heritage speakers evaluated voices with a labiodental and bilabial guise, heritage speakers perceive [v] positively in the voices of women as a marker of status, confident Hispanic identities, and older age, but negatively in the voices of men. The results show that heritage speakers use phonetic variants to discern social information about others, and their judgments largely align with monolingual Mexican Spanish speakers. I conclude that heritage speakers’ sociophonetic perception in their home language attests to a rich inner world often overlooked by prescriptive forces.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Spain
- Chapter 1. The role of social cues in the perception of final vowel contrasts in Asturian Spanish 15
- Chapter 2. Covert and overt attitudes towards Catalonian Spanish laterals and intervocalic fricatives 39
- Chapter 3. Dialectology meets sociophonetics 85
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South America
- Chapter 4. Regional identity in Highland Ecuador 125
- Chapter 5. Spanish and Palenquero 153
- Chapter 6. The role of social networks in cross-dialectal variation in the perception of the Rioplatense assibilated pre-palatal [ʃ] 187
- Chapter 7. The social perception of intervocalic /k/ voicing in Chilean Spanish 211
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North America
- Chapter 8. The sociophonetic perception of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States 239
- Chapter 9. Spoken word recognition and shesheo in Northwestern Mexico 265
- Chapter 10. The perception-production connection 287
-
Future Directions
- Chapter 11. Of intersectionality, replicability, and holistic perspectives 315
- Chapter 12. Future directions for sociophonetic research in Spanish 327
- Index 341
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Spain
- Chapter 1. The role of social cues in the perception of final vowel contrasts in Asturian Spanish 15
- Chapter 2. Covert and overt attitudes towards Catalonian Spanish laterals and intervocalic fricatives 39
- Chapter 3. Dialectology meets sociophonetics 85
-
South America
- Chapter 4. Regional identity in Highland Ecuador 125
- Chapter 5. Spanish and Palenquero 153
- Chapter 6. The role of social networks in cross-dialectal variation in the perception of the Rioplatense assibilated pre-palatal [ʃ] 187
- Chapter 7. The social perception of intervocalic /k/ voicing in Chilean Spanish 211
-
North America
- Chapter 8. The sociophonetic perception of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States 239
- Chapter 9. Spoken word recognition and shesheo in Northwestern Mexico 265
- Chapter 10. The perception-production connection 287
-
Future Directions
- Chapter 11. Of intersectionality, replicability, and holistic perspectives 315
- Chapter 12. Future directions for sociophonetic research in Spanish 327
- Index 341
