Interdental /S/ in Salvadoran Spanish: Finding Linguistic Patterns and Social
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Interdental /s/ in Salvadoran Spanish: Finding Linguistic Patterns and Social Meaning A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Ana Cecilia Iraheta IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Carol A. Klee Adviser January 2017 © Ana Cecilia Iraheta 2017 Acknowledgements La culminación de este trabajo ha sido posible gracias al invaluable aporte de mi directora de tesis, la Dra. Carol Klee, quien de forma responsable y detallada invirtió parte de su valioso tiempo en revisar, corregir y proveer comentarios y sugerencias que contribuyeron significativamente a mejorar la calidad de esta disertación. Además de su apoyo académico, también quiero expresarle mi profundo agradecimiento por el apoyo moral que me ha brindado desde que me conoció. También agradezco a los otros miembros de mi comité, el Dr. Tim Face, el Dr. Francisco Ocampo y el Dr. William Beeman, su pronta ayuda y sus valiosos comentarios. A lo largo de esta carrera siempre tuve el apoyo de mi familia: mi mamá Pepi, mi papá Julio, mi hermana Ligia, mi abuelo Carlos, mi abuela Juana María, mi esposo Pedro y mi hijo Benjamín. Ell@s han sido mi refugio y mi fuente de energía en los momentos más difíciles y por eso les estoy infinitamente agradecida. También quiero agradecer a mi gran amiga la Dra. Luz María Hernández y a su esposo Craig por su incondicional apoyo y sincera amistad. Finalmente, quiero agradecer a l@s tecapanec@s que desinteresadamente participaron en este proyecto. Su amabilidad, su sinceridad y su valiosa forma de hablar hicieron posible esta disertación. i Dedication To my son Benjamin ii Abstract This dissertation provides a description of the internal and external factors that affect the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental [Ɵ] in Salvadoran Spanish as well as its social meaning. Using a variationist and an ethnographic approach, data was collected from 32 participants in a community located in the eastern region of El Salvador. The data was collected and analyzed in order to answer the following research questions: 1- What are the internal linguistic factors that condition the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental? 2- What are the external factors, both social and stylistic, that condition the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental? 3- What social meanings, if any, do speakers associate with the interdental variant of /s/? The first and second questions were answered performing mixed effects models and pairwise comparisons. Results indicate that word/syllable position, following segment, word function and morphological status are linguistic factors that affect the pronunciation of /s/ as [Ɵ]. Specifically, there are more probabilities of observing the interdental in syllable onset position both word medially and word initially. The use of the interdental is also more common when followed by non-high vowels. The interdental rarely occurs in coda position and when it does, the following segment is typically a pause. It is also more likely to occur in content words than in function words almost exclusively with non-morphemic value. The social factors affecting the interdental are occupation and age group. Specifically, [Ɵ] is more likely to be observed in preteenagers iii and in adults over the age of 55 and less likely to be observed in the speech of professionals and civil servants. It was also found that the interdental is more commonly observed in casual style than in more formal styles. Overall, the interdental appears to be a stable sociolinguistic variable in this community. A qualitative analysis was performed to answer the third research question. It was determined that the interdental is perceived as a stigmatized variant, yet at the same time speakers embrace it as a marker of local identity. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1 : Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Overview: We do not speak like that around here ................................................... 1 1.2. Statement of the problem ......................................................................................... 2 1.3. Significance ............................................................................................................. 8 1.4. Organization of this study ........................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2 : Previous studies .............................................................................................. 10 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 10 2.2. /s/ variation in the Spanish language: a brief overview ......................................... 11 2.3. State of /s/ in El Salvador ...................................................................................... 12 2.4. State of [Ɵ] in El Salvador. .................................................................................... 18 2.5. Language internal factors shown to affect /s/ ........................................................ 21 2.6. Language external factors shown to affect /s/ ....................................................... 26 2.7. New approaches to /s/ variation ............................................................................. 32 2.8. Linguistic attitudes toward /s/ ................................................................................ 33 Chapter 3 : Data collection methods and instruments ...................................................... 37 v 3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 37 3.2. The Community - General characteristics ............................................................. 37 3.3. Participants ............................................................................................................. 39 3.4. Variationist methodologies .................................................................................... 41 3.5. Variables ................................................................................................................ 43 3.5.1. Independent linguistic variables ..................................................................... 43 3.5.2. Independent social variables ........................................................................... 46 3.5.3. Dependent variable ......................................................................................... 54 3.6. Instruments ............................................................................................................. 58 3.6.1. Instruments for determining patterns of /s/ variation ...................................... 59 3.6.2. Instruments for determining language attitudes .............................................. 63 3.7. Ethnographic methodologies ................................................................................. 66 3.7.1. Participant-Observer ....................................................................................... 67 3.7.2. Fieldnotes ........................................................................................................ 68 Chapter 4 . Results ............................................................................................................ 70 4.1. Distribution of linguistic factors ............................................................................ 70 4.1.1. Distribution of /s/ in the present study ............................................................ 70 4.1.2. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to word position .............................................. 71 4.1.3. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to syllable position (SP) .................................. 72 4.1.4. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to preceding and following segments ............. 73 4.1.5. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to stress ............................................................ 81 4.1.6. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to word type .................................................... 83 vi 4.1.7. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to number of syllables ..................................... 84 4.1.8. Distribution of [Ɵ] according to morphological role ...................................... 85 4.2. Linguistic factors that significantly affect /s/ as [Ɵ] .............................................. 87 4.2.1. Word position .................................................................................................. 89 4.2.2. Syllable position .............................................................................................. 91 4.2.3. Following segment .......................................................................................... 92 4.2.4. Word type .......................................................................................................