12. Phonological markedness, regional identity, and sex in Mayan: The fricativization of intervocalic /l/
-
Sergio Romero
Abstract
This paper is a quantitative study of the intervocalic fricativization of /l/, a marked allophonic process across languages, which has nevertheless become a linguistic stereotype of the dialect of K’iche’ Mayan spoken in the township of Santa Maria Chiquimula (MAR) in the highlands of Western Guatemala. Based on the quantitative analysis of 1856 tokens of intervocalic /l/ from sociolinguistic interviews and recordings of 85 speakers (34 women and 51 men), I will show that it is precisely its status as a regional stereotype that has led it to override its phonetic markedness to spread throughout the township and beyond as ethnolinguistic marker of MAR. A pattern of sociolinguistic variation has emerged in which women lead over men in frequency of the fricative variant. There is also variation related to frequency of contact with speakers of other dialects. Men are more sensitive to the stigmatization of fricativized /l/ due to their more frequent contact with speakers of other dialects of K’iche’, and therefore accommodate more than women, contradicting the well known sociolinguistic principle that women tend to avoid stigmatized forms more than men.
Abstract
This paper is a quantitative study of the intervocalic fricativization of /l/, a marked allophonic process across languages, which has nevertheless become a linguistic stereotype of the dialect of K’iche’ Mayan spoken in the township of Santa Maria Chiquimula (MAR) in the highlands of Western Guatemala. Based on the quantitative analysis of 1856 tokens of intervocalic /l/ from sociolinguistic interviews and recordings of 85 speakers (34 women and 51 men), I will show that it is precisely its status as a regional stereotype that has led it to override its phonetic markedness to spread throughout the township and beyond as ethnolinguistic marker of MAR. A pattern of sociolinguistic variation has emerged in which women lead over men in frequency of the fricative variant. There is also variation related to frequency of contact with speakers of other dialects. Men are more sensitive to the stigmatization of fricativized /l/ due to their more frequent contact with speakers of other dialects of K’iche’, and therefore accommodate more than women, contradicting the well known sociolinguistic principle that women tend to avoid stigmatized forms more than men.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The lure of a distant horizon: Variation in indigenous minority languages 1
-
Part I. Variation in phonetics and phonology
- 1. The phonetic and phonological effects of obsolescence in Northern Paiute 23
- 2. Diglossia and monosyllabization in Eastern Cham: A sociolinguistic study 47
- 3. Affricates in Lleidatà: A sociophonetic case study 77
- 4. Sociolinguistic stratification and new dialect formation in a Canadian aboriginal community: Not so different after all? 109
- 5. The changing sound of the Māori language 129
- 6. Toward a study of language variation and change in Jonaz Chichimeco 153
- 7. A sociolinguistic sketch of vowel shifts in Kaqchikel: ATR-RTR parameters and redundancy markedness of syllabic nuclei in an Eastern Mayan language 173
- 8. Phonological features of attrition: The shift from Catalan to Spanish in Alicante 211
- 9. Sociophonetic variation in urban Ewe 229
- 10. Phonological variation in a Peruvian Quechua speech community 245
- 11. A tale of two diphthongs in an indigenous minority language: Yami of Taiwan 259
- 12. Phonological markedness, regional identity, and sex in Mayan: The fricativization of intervocalic /l/ 281
- 13. The pronunciation of /r/ in Frisian: A comparative study with Dutch and Town Frisian 299
-
Part II. Variation in syntax, morphology, and morphophonology
- 14. Language shift among the Mansi 321
- 15. Fine-grained morphophonological variation in Scottish Gaelic: Evidence from the Linguistic Survey of Scotland 347
- 16. Animacy in Bislama? Using quantitative methods to evaluate transfer of a substrate feature 369
- 17. The challenges of less commonly studied languages: Writing a sociogrammar of Faetar 397
- 18. Language variation and change in a North Australian indigenous community 419
- 19. Ethnicity, bilingualism and variable clitic marking in Bishnupriya Manipuri 441
- 20. Clan as a sociolinguistic variable: Three approaches to Sui clans 463
- 21. Language loss in spatial semantics: Dene Sųłiné 485
- Index 517
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The lure of a distant horizon: Variation in indigenous minority languages 1
-
Part I. Variation in phonetics and phonology
- 1. The phonetic and phonological effects of obsolescence in Northern Paiute 23
- 2. Diglossia and monosyllabization in Eastern Cham: A sociolinguistic study 47
- 3. Affricates in Lleidatà: A sociophonetic case study 77
- 4. Sociolinguistic stratification and new dialect formation in a Canadian aboriginal community: Not so different after all? 109
- 5. The changing sound of the Māori language 129
- 6. Toward a study of language variation and change in Jonaz Chichimeco 153
- 7. A sociolinguistic sketch of vowel shifts in Kaqchikel: ATR-RTR parameters and redundancy markedness of syllabic nuclei in an Eastern Mayan language 173
- 8. Phonological features of attrition: The shift from Catalan to Spanish in Alicante 211
- 9. Sociophonetic variation in urban Ewe 229
- 10. Phonological variation in a Peruvian Quechua speech community 245
- 11. A tale of two diphthongs in an indigenous minority language: Yami of Taiwan 259
- 12. Phonological markedness, regional identity, and sex in Mayan: The fricativization of intervocalic /l/ 281
- 13. The pronunciation of /r/ in Frisian: A comparative study with Dutch and Town Frisian 299
-
Part II. Variation in syntax, morphology, and morphophonology
- 14. Language shift among the Mansi 321
- 15. Fine-grained morphophonological variation in Scottish Gaelic: Evidence from the Linguistic Survey of Scotland 347
- 16. Animacy in Bislama? Using quantitative methods to evaluate transfer of a substrate feature 369
- 17. The challenges of less commonly studied languages: Writing a sociogrammar of Faetar 397
- 18. Language variation and change in a North Australian indigenous community 419
- 19. Ethnicity, bilingualism and variable clitic marking in Bishnupriya Manipuri 441
- 20. Clan as a sociolinguistic variable: Three approaches to Sui clans 463
- 21. Language loss in spatial semantics: Dene Sųłiné 485
- Index 517
