A REAL TIME COMPARISON OF THE LENITION OF INTERVOCALIC /d/ IN SPANISH:Examining the changes in the sociolinguistic profile from 1987 to 2004-2010

Manuel Dıaz-Campos, Olga Scrivner, Gibran DelgadoIndiana University

There is hardly anything to hear, but we are hearing it nonetheless (Figueroa, 2014)

BACKGROUNDLenition of intervocalic /d/ is one of the most studied phenomenon inthe dialectological and sociolinguistic literature dedicated to Spanish.

Zamora-Vicente (1970)Intervocalic /d/ deletion can be documented as far as the 17th century.

Cedergren (1973)Provides the sociolinguistic profile of intervocalic /d/ in the Spanish ofPanama. Elision is favored in informal styles by women, olderspeakers, and lower socioeconomic participants from rural areas.

Navarro Tomas (1999:101)/d/ is produced as a fricative in -ado participial forms in formalsituations, while in spontaneous speech /d/ is weakened or deleted.

BACKGROUND: VENEZUELA

Studies analyzing intervocalic /d/ in Venezuelan Spanish includeD’Introno and Sosa (1986) and Dıaz-Campos and Gradoville (2011).

D’Introno and Sosa (1986)Three variants of the intervocalic /d/ variable are: a) retention, b)transition (a weakened or approximant production) and 3) deletion.

Retention - formal styles upper and middle class speakers

Deletion - the lower socioeconomic class and male speakers

GOALS OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION

1. Comparing corpora from two points in real time

2. Analyzing the dependent variable as continuous by performingadapted acoustic measurements based on Carrasco, Hualde andSimonet (2012) investigation

CORPUSThirty six speakers from Diachronic Study of the Speech of Caracas 1987and 2004-2010 were selected for the analysis. The speakers are evenlydivided according to sex, socioeconomic level and age.

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0.80

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high low mid

Inte

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Following Context for D1

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high low mid

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Preceding Context for D1

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1.00

adj adv noun part pro verb

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nsity

Rat

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Category for D1

Random Forest Analysis

Class

Sex

Period

Age

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0.00008 0.00012 0.00016

Variable Importance (Social Categories)

v2stress

Diphthongue1

v1stress

Diphthtongue2

PrecedingContext

FollowingContext

totalDuration

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0.00000 0.00005 0.00010 0.00015

Variable Importance (Phonetics)

itemLog

lexemaLog

Category

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8.0e−06 1.0e−05 1.2e−05 1.4e−05 1.6e−05

Variable Importance (Frequency/Category)

Conditional Tree Analysis

FollowingContextp < 0.001

1

{low, mid} high

Node 2 (n = 968)

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0.8

0.85

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0.95

1

v2stressp = 0.031

3

non−stressed stressed

Node 4 (n = 29)

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0.8

0.85

0.9

0.95

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Node 5 (n = 34)

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0.85

0.9

0.95

1

Agep = 0.004

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{20−34, 35−54} 55+

Sexp < 0.001

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m f

Periodp < 0.001

3

87 2004

Node 4 (n = 172)

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0.80.850.9

0.951

Agep = 0.013

5

20−34 35−54

Node 6 (n = 87)

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0.80.850.9

0.951

Node 7 (n = 80)

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!0.80.850.9

0.951

Node 8 (n = 347)

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!0.8

0.850.9

0.951

Node 9 (n = 345)

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0.80.850.9

0.951

lexemaLogp < 0.001

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≤ 1.94 > 1.94

Node 2 (n = 632)

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Node 3 (n = 399)

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Mixed Effects Models (Speakers and Tokens)

Variable 1987 Value p-valueAge: 20-34 0.014 0.0002Age: 35-54 0.017 0.0000Following Context: low 0.016 0.01Following Context: mid 0.013 0.045Frequency lexema 0.005 0.003

Variable 2004/10 Value p-valueAge: 35-54 -0.008 0.03Following Context: low 0.027 0.0001Following Context: mid 0.022 0.0009Sex: m 0.008 0.006Category participle 0.010 0.018

Dependent Variable: Intensity Ratio Independent Variables

the lowest intensity point of /d/

the highest intensity point of the preceding vowel

Proceeding and following phonetic context,stress, grammatical category, frequency, sex,socioeconomic level and age.

INTENSITY RATIO

0

5

10

15

0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00

Den

sity

Intensity Difference (CV)The intensity ratio equationprovides a value between 1, a more vowel likeproduction, and 0, a more stop like production.

Since intervocalic /d/ tends to be producedas an approximant in intervocalic position a 0value is not expected. The lowest ratio was 0.85.

DISCUSSION

1. The phonetic context maintains its effects in both periods suggestingthat coarticulatory factors keep playing a role in explaining lenitionof intervocalic /d/.

2. The findings reveal that frequency of the lemma was selected assignificant in the 1987 corpus. However, it was not selected for the2004-2010 corpus. These results suggest that the change has spreadextensively in all favoring contexts.

3. The 2004-2010 data show that past participles favor lenition ofintervocalic /d/ which maybe related to a type frequency effect.

4. Regarding social factors, age plays an interesting role possiblyindicating the profile of a change advancing in 1987 and a morestable profile in 2004/2010 corpus. The fact that men favor thisphenomenon in 2004-2010 maybe related to its social meaning asa part of the vernacular.

CONCLUSIONSWhile this phenomenon has been documented since the 17th centuryand it can be considered a vernacular variant in the speech community,in the most recent period, the sociolinguistic profile has changed.

Variation is widespread across all age groups and socioeconomic classes.However, it seems that lenited variants are associated with male speech.

ReferencesCarrasco, Patricio, Jose I. Hualde and Miquel Simonet. 2012. Dialectal differences in Spanish voiced obstruent allophony: Costa Rican versusIberian Spanish. Phonetica, 69, 149-179

Cerdergren, Henrietta. 1973. The interplay of social and linguistic factors in Panama. Doctoral dissertation. Cornell University

D’Introno, Francesco, and Juan Manuel Sosa. 1986. La elision de la /d/ en el espanol de Caracas: Aspectos sociolinguısticos e implicacionesteoricas. Estudios sobre la fonologıa del espanol del Caribe, ed. by Rafael Nunez Cedeno, Iraset Paez, and Jorge Guitart, 135-163. Caracas: LaCasa de Bello

Dıaz-Campos, Manuel, and Michael Gradoville. 2011. An Analysis of Frequency as a Factor Contributing to the Diffusion of Variable Phenomena:Evidence from Spanish Data. In Selected Proceedings of the 2009 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, ed. Ortiz-Lopez, Luis. Somerville, MA

Hualde, Jose I., Miquel Simonet and Mariana Nadeu. 2011. Consonant lenition and phonological recategorization. Lab. Phonology. 2: 301-329

The authors would like to thank Paola Bentivoglio and Kristel Guirado (Universidad Central de Venezuela) and Stephanie Dickinson (Indiana University) mdiazcam@indiana.edu, obscrivn@indiana.edu, gdelgado@imail.iu.edu