Copyright by Adriano Mario Trovato 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Adriano Mario Trovato Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A Sociophonetic Analysis of Contact Spanish in the United States: Labiodentalization and Labial Consonant Variation Committee: Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, Supervisor Barbara E. Bullock, Co-Supervisor Whitney Chappell Sandro Sessarego A Sociophonetic Analysis of Contact Spanish in the United States: Labiodentalization and Labial Consonant Variation by Adriano Mario Trovato Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2017 A Sociophonetic Analysis of Contact Spanish in the United States: Labiodentalization and Labial Consonant Variation Adriano Mario Trovato, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Almeida Jacqueline Toribio; Co-Supervisor: Barbara E. Bullock The term labiodentalization is used in this dissertation to describe the linguistic phenomenon consisting in the realization of /b/, which generally corresponds to the voiced bilabial segments [b] and [β] in Standard varieties of Spanish, as the labiodental fricative consonant [v]. The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze the effects of language contact on labiodentalization of the phoneme /b/ and labial consonant variation in Texas Spanish, with special emphasis on orthography and its influence on bilingual phonology. This project analyzes labial consonant variation in the Spanish of El Paso, Texas, from the perspectives of contact and variationist sociolinguistics. Specifically, it examines (i) if Spanish speakers from El Paso produce an auditorily perceptible distinction between [v] and [β] or [b] as discrete categories; (ii) if they make an acoustically measurable distinction between these categories; and (iii) which sociolinguistic factors condition the use of and the distribution of [v] in the speech community. In pursuing these questions, a hybrid experimental approach that includes auditory and acoustic analyses for a production study is employed. Results reveal that bilingual speakers from El Paso, Texas make an auditorily perceptible distinction between the voiced bilabial and labiodental segments. Moreover, this distinction is correlated with the linguistic variables of consonant orthography and within-word position, while the most relevant social factors in relation to labiodentalization are English writing proficiency level, Spanish writing competence, and gender. Lastly, the best acoustic predictors for labial variation in the dialect examined are relative intensity and duration. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ........................................................................................................ ix Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1 1.1 Labiodentalization in Spanish ...................................................................2 1.2 Present Study: Motivations and Contributions .........................................4 1.3 Dissertation Structure ..............................................................................10 Chapter 2: Phonology and Phonetics of Spanish Labial Consonants ....................13 2.1 Spanish Labial Phonological Repertoire .................................................13 2.2 Labial Consonants from Old Spanish to Modern Spanish ......................17 2.3 Labiodentalization in Modern Contact Varieties ....................................22 2.4 Phonetics of Voiced Labial Consonants .................................................26 2.4.1 Articulatory Phonetics of Voiced Labial Consonants .................26 2.4.2 Acoustic Phonetics of Voiced Labial Consonants ......................27 2.4.3 Acoustic Measures ......................................................................29 2.5 Research Questions .................................................................................32 Chapter 3: Language Contact in El Paso ...............................................................34 3.1 Language Contact ...................................................................................34 3.2 Phonetic and Phonological Outcomes of Language Contact ..................40 3.3 The History of Spanish and English in Texas .........................................45 3.4 Spanish and Language Contact in Contemporary Texas ........................48 3.5 El Paso: Past and Present ........................................................................51 Chapter 4: Sociolinguistic Variables and Hypotheses ...........................................57 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................57 4.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses ......................................................58 4.3 Linguistic Variables ................................................................................62 4.3.1 Orthography ................................................................................62 v 4.3.2 Cognate Status ............................................................................64 4.3.3 Stress ...........................................................................................65 4.3.4 Adjacent Phonemes .....................................................................66 4.3.5 Within-Word Consonant Position ...............................................67 4.3.6 Lexical Frequency .......................................................................68 4.4 Social Variables ......................................................................................69 4.4.1 Age ..............................................................................................70 4.4.2 Gender .........................................................................................71 4.4.3 Education Level and Language ...................................................72 4.4.4 Language Proficiency .................................................................73 Chapter 5: Production Study ..................................................................................76 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................76 5.2 Auditory Analysis ...................................................................................76 5.2.1.1 Auditory Analysis: Participants ......................................76 5.2.1.2 Auditory Analysis: Tasks ................................................77 5.2.1.3 Auditory Analysis: Materials and Procedures ................81 5.2.1.4 Auditory Analysis: Statistical Models ............................84 5.2.2 Auditory Analysis: Results .........................................................85 5.2.3 Auditory Analysis: Discussion ...................................................89 5.3 Acoustic Analysis ...................................................................................91 5.3.1 Acoustic Analysis: Methods .......................................................92 5.3.1.1 Acoustic Analysis: Materials and Procedures.................92 5.3.1.2 Acoustic Analysis: Statistical Models ............................94 5.3.2 Acoustic Analysis: Results .........................................................94 5.3.3 Acoustic Analysis: Discussion ..................................................101 5.4 Study Conclusions ................................................................................103 Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusions ...............................................................106 6.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................106 6.2 Goals of the Research Revisited ...........................................................106 6.3 Summary of Results and Discussion.....................................................107 vi Appendices ...........................................................................................................121 Appendix A .................................................................................................121 Appendix B .................................................................................................127 Appendix C .................................................................................................133 References ............................................................................................................134 vii List of Tables Table 1: Texas Hispanic population and national origin (2014)............................50 Table 2: El Paso County Hispanic population and national origin (2014). ...........54 Table 3: Speakers by age and gender…………………………………………….77 Table 4: All the variables used and their levels, organized by type. .....................83 Table 5: Contingency table of labiodentalization occurrences. .............................86 Table 6: Regression................................................................................................87 Table 7: Acoustic variables…. ...............................................................................93 Table 8: Contingency table of the mean values of the acoustic measures.. ...........95 Table 9: Regression................................................................................................96