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Variable Vowel Reduction in Mexico City Spanish

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Variable Vowel Reduction in Mexico City Spanish Variable Vowel Reduction in Mexico City Spanish Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Meghan Frances Dabkowski Graduate Program in Spanish & Portuguese The Ohio State University 2018 Dissertation Committee Dr. Rebeka Campos-Astorkiza, Advisor Dr. Terrell Morgan Dr. Fernando Martínez-Gil Copyrighted by Meghan Frances Dabkowski 2018 ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on variable vowel reduction in Mexico City Spanish, a salient feature of the pronunciation of this dialect in which a word like tomates “tomatoes” may be variably realized as something closer to [to.ma.ts] or [to.ma.te̥ s], with a shortened, voiceless, or weakened final vowel. My research builds on studies of vowel reduction in other languages and varieties, and places Mexican Spanish within the typology of languages and varieties that variably reduce vowels in this way. My investigation of the phenomenon is the first to examine acoustic data to (i) understand the acoustic properties of these reduced vowels, (ii) describe and categorize them, and (iii) analyze their patterning with regard to linguistic and social factors. To investigate this issue, I conducted fieldwork onsite in Mexico City in 2015 and 2016, and recorded speech samples with 73 native speakers, women and men from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, between the ages of 21 and 81. The recordings include a sociolinguistic interview designed to elicit spontaneous informal conversational speech. Approximately 160 vowel tokens were acoustically analyzed for each of 40 of those participants using Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2016). For all vowels not adjacent to another vowel or glide, I measured the segment duration as well as the duration of full modal voicing within the segment, for a total of 6,504 tokens. Along with the results ii from the acoustic analysis, each token was coded for target vowel, surrounding segmental context, stress, position relative to lexical stress, syllable type, word position, speaker age, gender, and socioeconomic status, in order to execute statistical models that test the relationships between linguistic and social factors and vowel reduction. My findings from the acoustic analysis indicate that various types of reduction in the articulation of vowels occur, including a range of voice weakening, including devoicing, and weakened/breathy voicing, as well as extreme shortening. The findings from the inferential statistical analyses indicate that stress, position relative to stress, preceding and following contexts, and target vowel all contribute to the likelihood of a vowel’s reduction, while the social factors examined here do not. Voice weakening affects all vowels at relatively similar rates, and is conditioned by preceding voiceless consonants, following voiceless consonants, and following pauses, and is most frequent in post-tonic position. Shortening affects all vowels except /a/ and is conditioned by preceding and following voiceless consonants, and following pauses, and is most frequent in pre-tonic position and unstressed monosyllabic words. I argue that these results for linguistic factors support an articulatory model of speech in which the relative timing of articulatory gestures results in their overlapping, and voice weakening or extreme shortening are the consequence. The findings regarding social factors suggest that the vowel reduction observed in this variety is a case of stable variation, rather than a change in progress. A major contribution of this research is the understanding of voice weakening and shortening as two complementary strategies that iii both contribute to vowel reduction in this variety by targeting different prosodic positions. iv DEDICATION For my mother, who always believed in me. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank everyone who supported me throughout my graduate studies, and especially through the research and writing of this dissertation. Above all others, I offer my unending gratitude to my advisor, Rebeka Campos-Astorkiza, who consistently goes above and beyond to help students. She is an exemplary scholar, teacher, and mentor, and I simply cannot imagine having completed this dissertation without her guidance, insightful feedback, and encouragement at every step along the way. My other committee members have also been influential in my development. Terrell Morgan’s enthusiasm for dialectal variation is contagious, and he has reminded me to always remain curious. I am grateful to Fernando Martínez-Gil for his helpful insights during the early development of this project, and also for his support throughout the academic job search process. Other faculty members have been influential in my development as well: Sarah Gallo, Mary Beckman, Anna Babel, Glenn Martinez, Frederick Aldama, Lauren Squires, Scott Schwenter, Scott Kiesling, and Helen Stickney each contributed in no small way to my experience as a graduate student, and to my development as an academic and active member of my various communities. The data collection would not have been possible without the help of Ariadna Martínez González and her entire family, as well as Miriham Miranda and family, all of vi whom helped to make my time in Mexico not only productive, but immensely enjoyable, and I will always appreciate that. Additionally, everyone who made time to participate in interviews and recordings cannot be thanked enough: they truly made this research possible, and I am extremely grateful to them all. My colleagues and friends made life as a graduate student downright tolerable at times. I would never have been able to figure out statistics or file my taxes properly without Hannah Washington’s guidance. Christy Garcia’s dissertation methodology was especially helpful, but I appreciate her friendship and encouragement even more. Mary Beaton selflessly offered motivation, brainstorming and editing support, as well as excellent yoga instruction. Becca Mason’s sense of humor, moral support, and generous dog-sitting offers were always appreciated, but became indispensable during the last big push of finishing this document. Miguel Valerio always let me know when it was time to take a break and go bowling. Many others have supported me in different ways throughout this process as well, especially Elena Costello, Nausica Marcos, Elena Foulis, Michael Brown, Jenny Barajas, Mary Johnson, and Olivia Cosentino. My family has always cheered me on, and their support has undoubtedly carried me to otherwise unreachable places. My parents, my brothers Colin and Brendan, my aunts Di and Maela, my uncles, and my in-laws Dave, Lucy, Pete, and Erin have always offered their support, encouragement, and understanding. However, none of this would have been possible without the unwavering love and support of my partner Robin, who not only tolerated my absence during data collection vii trips, but also quite generously made my coffee nearly every day over the last few years. Finally, I am grateful for the constant companionship of my best friend Loki, who slept in my lap for the nearly all of the work I’ve done in the last 6 years, and who never fails to remind me to take necessary breaks to get up and play. Thank you all. viii VITA 2002............................................B.A. Spanish and Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh 2012............................................M.A. Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh Publications Gallo, Sarah, and Meghan Dabkowski. 2018. The permanence of departure: Young Mexican immigrant students’ discursive negotiations of imagined childhoods allá. Linguistics and Education 45. 92-100. Fields of Study Major Field: Spanish & Portuguese ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .........................................................................................................................ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... vi Vita ................................................................................................................................ ix Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... x List of Tables ............................................................................................................... xv List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xviii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Description of the phenomenon ............................................................................. 1 1.2 Focus of study and rationale................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research questions .............................................................................................. 10 1.4 Organization of this dissertation ........................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Background Literature............................................................................. 12 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Vowel devoicing cross-linguistically ..................................................................
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