Abstract
Spanish is described as having an /s/ regressive voicing assimilation process by which the sibilant is voiced when followed by a voiced consonant. However, experimental studies documenting the nature of the process – including variation in its realization across speech varieties – are limited. The current study presents an acoustic analysis of the phonetic nature of the process, including an analysis of the linguistic and social factors which influence voicing of the /s/. Using an identical controlled phrase elicitation task, rates and location of voicing within the /s/ segment were compared across three varieties of Spanish: Mexican Spanish (Mexico City) and two Peninsular varieties (León and Vitoria). Different voicing rates and different linguistic voicing predictors were found across dialects. The data suggest that /s/ voicing before a voiced consonant is far from a categorical process in Spanish, with variable rates of application between 43% and 63%. We propose that, based on the data, /s/ voicing in Spanish is, in fact, better understood as a progressive voicing process (i. e. continuation of voicing from the previous vowel), and that the linguistic factors that condition voicing can be explained in part through articulatory and aerodynamic mechanisms. We also discuss the phonetics and phonology of the process.
Appendix A. List of tokens
Items marked with an M are tokens in the original instrument by Schmidt and Willis (2011) in Mexico City, which were substituted by different tokens (marked with an S) for the speakers in Spain
| Tokens | Before voiced consonants | Before voiceless consonants |
|---|---|---|
| Word-final | tres bananas (M) dos rosas tres vestidos dos máscaras tres limones tres hielos seis gatos unas gafas dos botas dos globos dos lápices tres libros tres discos dos mesas seis nueces dos hierbas tres huevos tres moscas dos bisnietos dos duraznos (M) seis dientes seis narices tres ranas dos ratones tres huesos dos huellas seis vasos Carlos vende (x2) Mercedes vende (x2) Andrés vende (x2) Luis vende (x2) Inés vende (x2) Nicolás vende (x2) Tomás vende (x2) Dolores vende (x2) Marcos vende (x2) Milagros vende (x2) dos bolsos (S) dos muslos (S) | dos pescados dos tamales (M) tres postres dos coches tres cuadernos tres casas dos payasos tres patos dos tijeras seis tigres tres tiburones dos tomates (S) unos prismáticos (S) |
| Word-internal | rosbif esmalte béisbol isla bisnietos chisme (M) duraznos (M) asnos Cisne fantasma Israel (x2) Esmeralda (x2) Ismael (x2) Osvaldo (x2) muslos (S) prismáticos (S) | pescados postres espejos vestidos revistas máscaras discos Cristina (x2) Ernesto (x2) Óscar (x2) Francisco (x2) |
Appendix B. Voicing rates and distribution of tokens for the significant factors
| MEXICO CITY | LEÓN | VITORIA | ALL DIALECTS COMBINED | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [s] | [z] | [s] | [z] | [s] | [z] | [s] | [z] | |||||||||||
| FACTOR | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | Total n | |
| Manner of articulation | Approximant | 46.2 | 18 | 54.8 | 21 | 38.7 | 12 | 61.3 | 19 | 52.8 | 19 | 47.2 | 17 | 46.2 | 49 | 53.8 | 57 | 106 |
| Lateral | 55.8 | 29 | 44.2 | 23 | 60.9 | 28 | 39.1 | 18 | 75 | 39 | 25 | 13 | 64 | 96 | 36 | 54 | 150 | |
| Nasal | 49.4 | 87 | 50.6 | 89 | 58 | 83 | 52 | 60 | 79.5 | 116 | 20.5 | 30 | 61.5 | 286 | 38.5 | 179 | 465 | |
| Stop | 28.1 | 109 | 71.9 | 279 | 26.5 | 91 | 73.5 | 253 | 44.9 | 150 | 55.1 | 184 | 32.8 | 350 | 67.2 | 716 | 1,066 | |
| Previous vowel | /a/ | 36.4 | 32 | 63.8 | 56 | 46.5 | 33 | 53.5 | 38 | 64.5 | 40 | 35.5 | 22 | 47.5 | 105 | 52.5 | 116 | 221 |
| /e/ | 39.2 | 87 | 60.8 | 135 | 346 | 64 | 65.4 | 121 | 59.3 | 108 | 40.7 | 74 | 44 | 259 | 56 | 330 | 589 | |
| /i/ | 39.6 | 59 | 60.4 | 90 | 48.8 | 63 | 51.2 | 66 | 65 | 78 | 35 | 42 | 50.3 | 200 | 49.7 | 198 | 398 | |
| /o/ | 33.2 | 65 | 66.8 | 131 | 29.2 | 50 | 70.8 | 121 | 47.7 | 92 | 52.3 | 101 | 37 | 207 | 63 | 353 | 560 | |
| /u/ | – | 0 | – | 0 | 50 | 4 | 50 | 4 | 54.5 | 6 | 45.5 | 5 | 52.6 | 10 | 47.4 | 9 | 19 | |
| Stress | Atonic | 24.1 | 54 | 75.9 | 170 | 31 | 67 | 69 | 149 | 47.7 | 102 | 52.3 | 112 | 34.1 | 223 | 65.9 | 431 | 654 |
| Tonic | 43.9 | 189 | 56.1 | 242 | 42.2 | 147 | 57.8 | 201 | 62.7 | 222 | 37.3 | 132 | 49.2 | 558 | 50.8 | 575 | 1,133 | |
| Sentence position | Sentence initial | 25.9 | 79 | 74.1 | 226 | 24.9 | 64 | 75.1 | 193 | 44.1 | 108 | 52.3 | 112 | 31.1 | 251 | 68.9 | 556 | 807 |
| Sentence final | 46.9 | 164 | 53.1 | 186 | 48.9 | 150 | 51.1 | 157 | 66.9 | 216 | 33.1 | 107 | 54.1 | 530 | 45.9 | 450 | 980 | |
| Word position | Word internal | 37.3 | 62 | 62.7 | 104 | 54.4 | 80 | 45.6 | 67 | 68.9 | 100 | 31.5 | 46 | 52.7 | 242 | 47.3 | 217 | 459 |
| Word final | 37 | 181 | 63 | 308 | 32.1 | 134 | 67.9 | 283 | 53.1 | 224 | 46.9 | 198 | 40.6 | 539 | 59.4 | 789 | 1,328 | |
| TOTAL | 37.1 | 243 | 62.9 | 412 | 37.9 | 214 | 62.1 | 350 | 57 | 324 | 43 | 244 | 43.7 | 781 | 56.3 | 1006 | 1,787 | |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Article
- The intonation of broad focus declaratives in Afro-Peruvian Spanish: Findings from two elicitation tasks
- Research Article
- Cerca mío/a or cerca de mí ? A variationist analysis of Spanish locative + possessive on Twitter
- Articles
- Acquiring variable commands at home and abroad: Examining optatives and imperatives in L1 and L2 Spanish
- The não interpolation in Classical and early Modern European Portuguese and the mapping between syntactic and phonological structures: An empirical study
- Rethinking the phonological process of /s/ voicing assimilation in Spanish: An acoustic comparison of three regional varieties
- The role of information structure in the instantiation of objects: Evidence from Amazonian Spanish
- Book Review
- Alejandro Cuza (ed.). Cuban Spanish Dialectology: Variation, Contact, and Change