The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish

Manuel Díaz-Campos, Manuel Díaz-Campos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429575846
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish provides an up-to-date overview of the latest research examining sociolinguistic approaches to analyzing variation in Spanish.

Divided into three sections, the book includes the most current research conducted in Spanish variationist sociolinguistics. This comprehensive volume covers phonological, morphosyntactic, social, and lexical variation in Spanish. Each section is further divided into subsections focusing on specific areas of language variation, highlighting the most salient and current developments in each subfield of Hispanic sociolinguistics. As such, this Handbook delves further into the details of topics relating to variation and change in Spanish than previous publications, with a focus on the symbolic sociolinguistic value of specific phenomena in the field.

Encouraging readers to think critically about language variation, this book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers seeking to explore lesser-known areas of Hispanic sociolinguistics. The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish will be a welcome addition to specialists and students in the fields of linguistics, Hispanic linguistics, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology.

Sociophonetics
Part I

Vowels

1
Vocalic variation

A sociolinguistic analysis of atonic vowel raising in rural Michoacán, Mexico

Jennifer Barajas

DOI: 10.4324/9780429200267-3

Abstract

Although the vocalic system in Spanish is typically described as stable, there is increasing evidence for dialectal vowel variation. Variable vowel raising occurs in rural Michoacán Spanish, involving the mid vowels, /e/ and /o/, in unstressed post-tonic positions and their variable realizations as [e, i] or [o, u], respectively. For example, the word grande (‘big’) may be pronounced either as [ɡɾan̪de] (non-raised) or [ɡɾan̪di] (raised). In this chapter, I discuss a sociophonetic study of vocalic variation using both acoustic information about the formant values of the relevant vowels and the influence of different linguistic and social factors on this phenomenon. By taking into account both the phonological behavior and the social factors that play a role in vowel raising, I offer a more complete description of this vocalic process in Michoacán. Furthermore, this research adds to and complements the growing field of the study of atonic vocalic variation.

Keywords: vowel raising, sociophonetics, social networks, variation, Michoacán

Aunque típicamente se describe el sistema vocálico del español como estable, hay evidencia de variación vocálica dialectal. El ascenso vocálico variable ocurre en el español de zonas rurales de Michoacán, con las vocales medias, /e/ y /o/, en posiciones átonas depués de la sílaba tónica y sus realizaciones variables como [e, i] o [o, u], respectivamente. Por ejemplo, la palabra grande se puede pronunciar como [ɡɾan̪de] (sin ascenso vocálico) o [ɡɾan̪di] (ascenso vocálico). Este capítulo revisa un estudio sociofonético de variación vocálica con información acústica sobre los valores de los formantes de las vocales relevantes y la influencia de diferentes factores lingüisticos y sociales en este fenómeno. Al tomar en cuenta tanto los factores fonológicos como los factores sociales que influyen en el ascenso vocálico, ofrezco una descripción más completa de este proceso vocálico en Michoacán. Además, esta investigación complementa al campo creciente del estudio de la variación vocálica átona.

Palabras clave: el ascenso vocálico, la sociofonética, las redes sociales, la variación, Michoacán

1 Introduction

The vocalic system in Spanish is typically described as stable, and this description certainly fits when compared to the numerous cases of consonantal variation. However, there is increasing evidence for dialectal vowel variation. This study focuses on variable vowel raising in rural Michoacán Spanish, involving the mid vowels, /e/ and /o/, in unstressed post-tonic positions and their variable realizations as [e, i] or [o, u], respectively. For example, the word grande (‘big’) may be pronounced either as [ɡɾan̪de] (non-raised) or [ɡɾan̪di] (raised). In this chapter, I discuss a sociophonetic study of vocalic variation using acoustic information about the formant values of the relevant vowels where I examine the influence of different linguistic and social factors, such as word location in the utterance, tonic vowel, and social network, on this phenomenon. Previous studies on unstressed vowel raising mainly focus on Puerto Rico (Holmquist 1998, 2005; Oliver Rajan 2007, 2008). Several additional studies mention that vowel raising occurs in Mexico (Moreno de Alba 1994 most recently), but thus far there has not been a thorough description of the particular process mentioned earlier. Here, I focus on the variation in mid-vowel realizations found in the Spanish spoken in Colongo, Michoacán, Mexico, providing the first systematic description of this type of vowel raising in the region.

To motivate this study, in Sections 2 and 3, I first present previous studies of similar cases of vowel raising in several regions and the factors that proved to be significant in these varieties. From there, I dedicate Section 4 to a thorough explanation of the use of formant values to determine raising, and I discuss the creation of social networks in a seemingly homogenous community to serve as a model for future papers on similar topics. Section 5 presents the results, Section 6 provides a discussion of the results, and concluding remarks are presented in Section 7. My results show less vowel raising in an open social network, where participants have more access to interactions outside of Colongo, and more vowel raising in a closed social network, where participants have less outside influence. Overall, the mid-vowels, when treated as two separate variables, exhibit differing behaviors. There are more independent variables that trigger the raising of /o/ than /e/, and there is much more raising of /e/ than has been shown in other dialects. Additionally, there is more /e/ raising than /o/ raising in this community, suggesting that vowel raising is not a monolithic process. By considering both the formant values of the individual vowels and creating a unique measure of social networks, I offer a multifaceted description of this vocalic process in Michoacán.

2 Background literature

While unstressed vowel raising has been attested to in various communities (see Espinosa 1930 for New Mexico; Luria 1930 for Judeo-Spanish; Post 1934 for Southern Arizona; Flórez 1951 for Colombia; Alvar 1959 for Canary Islands, Spain, among others), the most relevant to the current project are the studies in Puerto Rico and Mexico. Although the studies in Mexico are not quite as detailed, fortunately Holmquist (1998, 2005) and Oliver Rajan (2007, 2008) offer a more comprehensive sociolinguistic analysis of the phenomenon on the island.

Navarro Tomás (1948) offered some initial observations about the contexts where vowel raising occurs in Puerto Rico. Using an auditory analysis, he determined that raising is more likely after a high, tonic vowel (1), a diphthong (2), or a palatal consonant (3), especially in word-final position. Note, however, that vowel raising can also occur after a non-high vowel (4), which differentiates this process from vowel harmony.

(1)	dúlc[i]	dulce	‘sweet’
(2)	véint[i]	veinte	‘twenty’
(3)	léch[i]	leche	‘milk’
(4)	cáld[u]	caldo	‘broth’

Holmquist (1998, 2005) continued the exploration into vowel raising in Puerto Rico through 60 sociolinguistic interviews in the city of Castañer. He also questioned whether a previous high-tonic vowel or a palatal consonant has an influence on vowel raising and found that raising was favored in both contexts, thus supporting the findings of Navarro Tomás (1948). Additionally, Holmquist used several social factors, including length of time spent away from the city of Castañer, to divide the participants into “dense” and “open” social networks. While he also used more traditional social factors, such as education, the idea to use time spent away from the community was especially influential for the cur...