In the Puerto Rican Spanish : a Phonological Study of the Latency of the /S/ in Coda Position
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Griselle M. Calderón Morales The laryngealized /s/ in the Puerto Rican Spanish : a phonological study of the latency of the /s/ in coda position ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALDERÓN MORALES Griselle M. The laryngealized /s/ in the Puerto Rican Spanish : a phonological study of the latency of the /s/ in coda position, sous la direction de Michela Russo. - Lyon : Université Jean Moulin (Lyon 3), 2017. Mémoire soutenu le 04/07/2017. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Document diffusé sous le contrat Creative Commons « Paternité – pas d’utilisation commerciale - pas de modification » : vous êtes libre de le reproduire, de le distribuer et de le communiquer au public à condition d’en mentionner le nom de l’auteur et de ne pas le modifier, le transformer, l’adapter ni l’utiliser à des fins commerciales. JEAN MOULIN UNIVERSITY – LYON 3 Linguistics Department Master of Arts in Linguistic and Dialectology THE LARYNGEALIZED /S/ IN THE PUERTO RICAN SPANISH: A PHONOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE LATENCY OF THE /S/ IN CODA POSITION By Griselle M. CALDERÓN MORALES Advisor Michela RUSSO Professor of Linguistics at the Jean Moulin University – Lyon 3, Structure Formelles du Langage (UMR 7023 CNRS – Paris 8) 2016-2017 THE LARYNGEALIZED /S/ IN THE PUERTO RICAN SPANISH: A PHONOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE LATENCY OF THE /S/ IN CODA POSITION Master’s degree thesis Romance Linguistic and Dialectology Jean Moulin University Year 2016-2017 By Griselle M. CALDERÓN MORALES Advisor Michela RUSSO Professor of Linguistics at the Jean Moulin University – Lyon 3 Thesis Committee: Maria-Rosa LLORET, Professor of Linguistics at the Universitat de Barcelona & Violeta MARTÍNEZ-PARICIO, Principal Investigator at the Universitat de València & Shanti ULFSBJORNINN, Researcher, University College London i Abstract The /s/ in a coda position has always been one of the most studied aspects of Hispanic linguistics. In this work, we will present once again this aspect but in the Puerto Rican Spanish variation, which is considered one of the most innovative variations within the Caribbean and coastal dialects. In Puerto Rico, the /s/ in a coda position is debuccalized or deleted depending on the environment of it: /s/ + voiceless consonant, voiced consonant, nasal stop or liquids in a word-medial and cross-boundaries context, and /s/ + vowel across boundaries. After the examination of spectrograms from the spontaneous speech recordings made on the Island, we found that, in fact, the /s/ is not pronounced the majority of the time. The outcomes when the /s/ in a coda position gets debuccalized or deleted in spontaneous speech in word-medial or across boundary context are final devoicing of the preceding vowel plus gemination of the following consonant, complete gemination of the following consonant, and deletion before a pause or utterance-final position. In a cross-boundary context, when the /s/ in a coda position was followed by a vowel we have a glottal constriction that preserves the syllable structure after the resyllabification process. To explain the phonological processes which undergo the /s/ we used an autosegmental approach followed by an Optimality theory analysis. ii Resumen La /s/ en posición de coda silábica siempre ha sido uno de los aspectos más estudiados en la Lingüística Hispánica. En este trabajo, presentaremos una vez más este aspecto, empero dentro del español de Puerto Rico, considerado uno de los dialectos hispánicos más innovadores del Caribe y la zona costera de América Central. En Puerto Rico, la /s/ en posición de coda pasa por el proceso de lenición o se elimina dependiendo de los segmentos que estén a su alrededor: /s/ seguida de consonante sorda, consonante sonora, nasal o líquida a mitad o frontera de palabra, y /s/ seguida de vocal en frontera de palabra. Luego de examinar los espectrogramas de las grabaciones de habla espontánea hechas en la Isla, encontramos que, en efecto, la /s/ en coda silábica no es pronunciada la mayor parte de las veces. Los resultados de los procesos de lenición o la eliminación de la /s/ a mitad o frontera de palabra son: ensordecimiento de la parte final de la vocal precedente más la geminación de la consonante siguiente, geminación completa de la consonante siguiente, y eliminación ante pausa o final de frase. Sin embargo, cuando la /s/ en coda se elide frente a vocal en frontera de palabra, obtenemos una constricción glotal que ayuda a mantener la estructura silábica luego de la resilabificación. Los procesos fonológicos por los cuales transcurre la /s/ en coda silábica se explicarán desde la perspectiva de la fonología autosegmental y luego con un análisis dentro de la teoría de la Optimidad. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my professor Michela Russo for the guidance and support during the accomplishment of this degree and thesis work. Also, to Shanti Ulfsbjorninn (post-doc and researcher) and Professor Ioana Chirotan for the extra comments and guidance during the research process. To God, to my family and friends back in Puerto Rico, to my friends in France and in the US, thank you. Agradecimientos Quisiera agradecer a mi profesora Michela Russo por guiarme y brindarme su apoyo en este proceso de investigación y a lo largo de la maestría. Además, quisiera extender este agradecimiento a Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, investigador y post-doc, y a la profesora Ioana Chitoran por sus consejos y sus comentarios durante el proceso de investigación. Por último, pero no menos importante, a Dios, mi familia y mis amigos dentro y fuera de Puerto Rico, simplemente gracias por todo el apoyo brindado. Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................ i Resumen .......................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ iii Agradecimientos............................................................................................. iii Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1. Spanish and its variations.......................................................................... 3 1.1. Spanish varieties in the world ............................................................... 4 1.2. The Puerto Rican Spanish ..................................................................... 6 2. The Porto Rican /s/ and its phonetic representation.................................. 8 2.1. Weakening and allophones of the /s/..................................................... 9 3. Methodology, corpus, and data set ......................................................... 13 4. Corpus description and formalization ..................................................... 15 5. The spectrographic analysis .................................................................... 26 5.1. Aspirated sounds or laryngealized sounds? ........................................ 26 5.2. The comeback of the geminates? ........................................................ 31 6. Overview of previous phonological studies of the coronal fricative /s/ in the Puerto Rican Spanish .................................................................................. 39 7. Codas and phonological processes.......................................................... 42 7.1. Lenition ............................................................................................... 42 7.2. Deletion ............................................................................................... 43 7.3. Phonological representations in Spanish ............................................. 44 8. Templatic (multi-linear) representation .................................................. 45 8.1. Compensatory lengthening .................................................................. 46 9. Our analysis ............................................................................................ 49 ii 9.1. Optimality analysis .............................................................................. 53 9.1.1. The syllable in OT ........................................................................ 54 9.1.2. OT in Puerto Rican Spanish .......................................................... 55 9.1.3. Definition of the constraints.......................................................... 56 9.1.4. Tableaux ........................................................................................ 57 10. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 61 10.1. Recommendations: .......................................................................... 62 11. Appendix: Corpus ................................................................................... 64 Table of Figures ................................................................................................ 78 List of Tableaux ................................................................................................ 79 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 80 Spanish .........................................................................................................