Phonetic accommodation in a situation of Spanish dialect contact: Coda /s/ and /r̄/ in Chicago

Erin O Rourke ^[2] ; Kim Potowski ^[1]
1. [1] University of Illinois at Chicago
  
  University of Illinois at Chicago
  
  City of Chicago, Estados Unidos
2. [2] University of Alabama
Localización: Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics, ISSN-e 2199-3386, ISSN 1939-0238, Vol. 9, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 355-399
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- Work on Spanish in the U.S. has increasingly examined the results of dialect contact. This paper analyzes realizations of syllable-final /s/ and word and syllable-initial /r̄/ in naturalistic interviews among 88 individuals in Chicago belonging to three generations of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and two generations of “MexiRicans.” It explores: (1) whether realizations change depending on the dialect of the interviewer – that is, whether accommodation is taking place; (2) if there is change across generations; (3) in the case of MexiRicans, whether individuals’ realizations align with the mother’s ethnolinguistic group. Results show that Mexicans’ phonological behavior did not vary for /s/ or /r̄/ according to interlocutor, while Puerto Ricans used velarized /r̄/ more frequently with other Puerto Ricans at a rate approaching significance. Significant differences were also found between generations in several cases but not for mother’s ethnolinguistic group; the interaction of generation and interlocutor showed significance in some cases. We also observed a correspondence between the use of a weakened /s/ and velarized /r̄/, although there was considerable variation among individual speakers.