ThePennsylvaniaState University TheGraduateSchool DepartmentofSpanish,Italian,andPortuguese LINGUISTICANDSOCIALVARIABLES INYUCATANSPANISH AThesisin Spanish by JamesCasimirMichnowicz 2006JamesCasimir Michnowicz SubmittedinPartialFulfillment oftheRequirements fortheDegreeof DoctorofPhilosophy August2006 ii ThethesisofJamesCasimirMichnowiczwasreviewedand approved*by thefollowing: JohnM.Lipski ProfessorofSpanishand Linguistics ThesisAdvisor ChairofCommittee AlmeidaJacquelineToribio Professorof Linguistics andSpanish Linguistics ChipGerfen AssociateProfessorofSpanishand Linguistics Barbara E.Bullock Professorof Frenchand Linguistics William R.Blue ProfessorofSpanish InterimHeadoftheDepartmentofSpanish,Italian,andPortuguese *Signatures areon fileintheGraduateSchool iii ABSTRACT The dialect of Spanish spoken in Yucatan,Mexico is of interest to sociolinguists and linguistics in general for numerous reasons. First, Yucatan Spanish has been in contact with an indigenous language,Yucatec Mayan, for 500 years. Second, Yucatan has been historically isolated from the linguistic trends of the rest of Mexico. At present, this isolation is rapidly diminishing with the influx of immigrants from central Mexico; this environment has fostered a strong sense of local identity within the Yucatan. Importantly, Yucatan Spanish is currently at a crossroads, as an important demographicshiftisaccompaniedby equallyrapidlinguisticchanges. Previous studies of the dialect have identified several phonetic variables as representative of the dialect. These include: final labialized nasals [m]; lack of the Spanish stop-fricative alternation in favor of stops [b d g]; the aspiration of voiceless stops (data from [kh] is examined here); and the maintenance of hiatus across word boundaries via the insertion of glottal stops [Б].Data was collected in the Yucatan with thegoalofexaminingthecorrelationoftheselinguisticvariablesandsocialfactors. Using sociolinguistic interview techniques, the researcher interviewed 40 speakersofYucatanSpanishbalanced for gender,age,andsocialclass.Knowledgeofthe Mayanlanguagewas alsoexamined. Data analysis demonstrated two competing trends in Yucatan Spanish. All variables except one are decreasing in frequency as the dialect adopts pan-Hispanic norms. The remaining variable, [m], shows increased use among middle-aged and younger speakers, as the regional variant [m] is adopted and extended as a marker of iv local identity in the face of increased immigration, especially for women who are obtaining more education and entering the workforce. Both gender and age are consistently important factors in the use of Yucatan variants.Likewise,all of the typical Yucatan variants correlated with knowledge of Mayan,lending weight to the argument that these variants are due to prolonged contact and linguistic convergence.Class did not showaconsistenteffect acrossvariables.Further dataandconclusionsare discussed. v TABLEOFCONTENTS LISTOF FIGURES .....................................................................................................viii LISTOFTABLES.......................................................................................................xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................xiv Chapter1 Introduction ................................................................................................1 1.0Overview .................................................................................................1 1.1Thelinguisticimportanceof Yucatan .....................................................3 1.2SociolinguisticprofileofYucatan...........................................................8 1.3Goalsandhypothesesofthestudy ..........................................................19 Chapter2PreviousstudiesonYucatanSpanish.........................................................22 2.0Research onYucatanSpanishandthevariationistparadigm..................22 2.1.1EarlydialecticalstudiesonYucatanSpanish.......................................22 2.1.2TowardsaquantitativeanalysisofYucatanSpanish ...........................26 Chapter3Variationistsociolinguistics .......................................................................41 3.0Thevariationistparadigm........................................................................41 3.1Ascience of parole..................................................................................43 3.2Thelinguisticvariable .............................................................................44 3.3Quantitativeanalysis ...............................................................................45 3.4Cross-culturalapplicationsofvariationistmethodology.........................47 3.5Socialvariables........................................................................................48 3.5.1Ageasasocialvariable ........................................................................49 3.5.2Gender asasocialvariable ...................................................................53 3.5.3Socialclassasavariable ......................................................................58 3.6Conclusions .............................................................................................62 Chapter4Methodology ..............................................................................................63 4.0 Introductiontothemethodology .............................................................63 4.1Thesociolinguisticinterview ..................................................................63 4.2Selectionofparticipants ..........................................................................66 4.3Materials ..................................................................................................70 4.4Dataanalysis............................................................................................71 Chapter5Resultsanddiscussion................................................................................74 vi 5.0 Introductiontoresults..............................................................................74 5.1Thevariable(-n) ......................................................................................74 5.1.1[m]:linguisticfactors ...........................................................................82 5.1.2[m]:socialfactors .................................................................................85 5.1.2.1FirstVARBRUL analysis:[m]..........................................................86 5.1.2.2SecondVARBRUL analysis:[m] .....................................................87 5.1.2.3Crosstabulationsfor(-n)...................................................................89 5.1.2.4[m]aschangein progress? ................................................................94 5.2Thevariables(bd g)................................................................................99 5.2.1Thevariable(b) ....................................................................................99 5.2.2[b]:linguisticfactors.............................................................................102 5.2.3[b]:socialfactors ..................................................................................104 5.2.3.1VARBRULanalyses:[b]...................................................................105 5.2.3.2Frequenciesby cellfor[b].................................................................107 5.2.3.3Cross-tabulationsfor(b)....................................................................108 5.2.4(b)aslanguagechangeinprogress?.....................................................110 5.3.1Thevariable(d) ....................................................................................116 5.3.2[d]:linguisticfactors.............................................................................118 5.3.3[d]:socialfactors ..................................................................................120 5.3.3.1Frequenciesof[d]bysocial group ....................................................120 5.3.3.2VARBRULanalyses:[d]...................................................................122 5.3.3.3Cross-tabulationsfor(d)....................................................................127 5.3.3.4(d)aslanguagechangeinprogress?..................................................130 5.4.1Thevariable(g) ....................................................................................135 5.4.2[g]:linguisticfactors.............................................................................138 5.4.3[g]:socialfactors ..................................................................................140 5.4.4Frequenciesof[g]bysocial group .......................................................140 5.4.5VARBRULanalyses:[g]......................................................................142 5.4.6Cross-tabulationsfor(g).......................................................................145 5.4.7(g)aslanguagechangeinprogress?.....................................................149 5.5Voicelessstop(k)pilotdata ....................................................................154 5.6Glottalstop(Б)pilot data.........................................................................161 5.7Summaryofdataanalysis........................................................................167 Chapter6Synthesisand conclusions..........................................................................168 6.0 Introduction .............................................................................................168