Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish

Main author: Chang, C. B.
Format: Book Chapters           
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id eprints-19105
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic P Philology. Linguistics
PC Romanic languages
description This study of palatal production in Argentina confirms that there are three types of speakers (voicers, devoicers, and variable devoicers) in Buenos Aires. Furthermore, the results indicate that 30 years after Fontanella de Weinberg's (1978) study of palatals, variation between voiced and voiceless allophones of the palatal phoneme is still correlated with age, but no longer with gender. The fact that the youngest generation almost invariably uses voiceless variants now suggests that a sound change from voiced to voiceless is already complete. Though the innovation of voiceless variants may have started with older speakers, younger speakers appear to be responsible for its rapid spread and have generalized it to the point of being the dominant variant in Buenos Aires today.
author_additional Westmoreland, M.
author_additionalStr Westmoreland, M.
format Book Chapters
author Chang, C. B.
author_facet Chang, C. B.
authorStr Chang, C. B.
author_letter Chang, C. B.
title Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish
publisher Cascadilla Proceedings Project
publishDate 2008
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19105/