Proseminar in Sociolinguistics: Shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish

7/31/2019 Proseminar in Sociolinguistics: Shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish

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The shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Study 1

The Shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Study

By Juan Soto Franco

Department of Linguistics

College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio University

Dr. David Bell

Director, Ling. 682

Spring 2006


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Abstract

The following research is a partial replication of Gonzlezs (1999) study and focuses on

the shift of the phoneme /l/ to /r/ in word and syllable final positions in the southwestern

dialect spoken in Barahona, Dominican Republic. This phonological phenomenon is quite

common in the southwestern part of the country and in other parts of the Caribbean. The

research also shows the tendency of this phonological change as well as the influence of

the dialect spoken in the capital city, Santo Domingo, where the speakers tend to do the

opposite. That is, there is a significant percentage of speakers from both areas (Santo

Domingo and Barahona) who are using two different dialects which do not match the

standard forms spoken by educated people or taught in the schools. The study takes into

consideration sociolinguistic variables such as age, gender, and educational level of the

speakers and concludes that younger speakers, and especially females, use the local

variety most.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who made this project a reality.

First of all, I want to thank God for giving me enough health and strength to accomplishthis goal.

Secondly, thank you to the Fulbright Program and my LASPAU program advisors,

Fulbright representatives in Dominican Republic, and Universidad Autonma de Santo

Domingo professors, and employees for trusting in me and believing that I had to

potential to fulfill the challenges that I encountered along these two years. Just to mentiona few names: Laura Abreu, Andreta Dauhajre, Roco Billni, Carlisle Gonzlez, Ramn

Espinosa Basora, Margaretha Geurts, Renee Hahn, and Carlos Solrzano. And of course,

thanks to the people of Barahona for their kind and decisive participation in this project.

Thirdly, I would like to thank my relatives and friends who emotionally supported me,encouraged me to go on and give my best during this research paper.

I want to conclude by thanking the Ohio University Linguistics Department, faculty

members and personnel. Thanks to Dr. Bell for his great patience and wonderfulteaching. Also thanks to Dr. Soemarmo, my academic advisor.

Especial thanks to Dr. Flanigan for giving me her friendly and lovely smile when I first

arrived in Gordy Hall and for her Sociolinguistics class which was the inspiration andstarting point for this proseminar paper. Also thanks for her unconditional support and

endless revisions as a second reader of this project.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

THANK YOU, ALL!


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INTRODUCTION

William Labov pioneered the study of language change in society when he carried

out his famous sociolinguistic study in three department stores in New York in 1966. He

observed the language variation used by different customers in these stores while trying

to pronounce /r/ in the answer fourth floor. He noticed how their speech was affected

depending on social class and how aware they were of their own speech. Labov

understands linguistic change primarily as soundchange (2004, p. 11). The study of

language variation has continued to this day. According to Shopen (1979), variation is

found in all speech communities of the world (p. 54). In other words, there is no

language in the world that does not have at least some dialectal variation. Therefore,

since speakers from the Dominican Republic (DR) are part of the world speech

community, then there must be dialectal variation in this country. This paper examines

dialectal change in a southwestern part of DR, more specifically, in the city of Barahona.

The topic I deal with is a mixed one. It involves two areas of linguistics:

sociolinguistics and phonology. On the sociolinguistic side, the focus is on the regional

dialect spoken in Barahona taking into account three variables: age, gender and

education. On the phonology side, the research centers on a phonological change that is

typical of the region, namely, the shift of the phoneme /l/ to /r/ in word and syllable final

positions.

One key term worth keeping in mind while following this research is regional

dialect. Romaine (1994) defines regional dialect as a variety [of language] associated

with a place (p. 2). In this case, Barahona is a place known for the typical change of

the phoneme /l/ to /r/, which is presently considered a non-standard variety of Dominican


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Spanish spoken in the southwestern part of the country and in other areas of the

Caribbean. Another important term is rhotacization, which occurs when vowels are

followed by [r] (Ladefoged, 2001, p. 78).

BACKGROUND

Toward the end of the fifteenth century, in 1492, colonizers from Spain arrived in

La Hispaniola (today DR and Haiti) bringing with them their typical manner of

speaking, which influenced [the southwestern part of] the country where they settled

down (Ramrez, 1983, p. 21). According to Henrquez Urea (1940) by the year 1505,

there were seventeen European style villages on the island among them, la Concepcin

de la Vega, Santiago de los Caballeros, el Bonao, el Cotu, Puerto Plata, San Juan de la

Maguana, Azua de Compostela, my translation (p. 31). The last two villages are

located in the southwestern part of the country. Dominican Spanish was greatly

influenced by the dialect spoken in Andalusia, Spain. Henrquez Urea (1940, p. 40)

claims that it has una fontica que se asemeja a la andaluza [a phonetics that

resembles Andalusias, my translation]. It is interesting to note that the phonological

change of /l/ to /r/ in Barahona was influenced by a similar phenomenon in Andalusian

Spanish traced back to before the 15th

century. Furthermore, Nuez Cedeo (1979)

established the same connection when he cited Boyd-Bowman (1964) who claims most

of the founding Spanish colonizers came from Andalusia; consequently, the inhabitants

of Santo Domingo share certain linguistic features with them (p. 14).

As a Dominican citizen (born and raised in Santo Domingo (SD), the capital city)

I have had a wide contact with southwestern speakers in my country, first of all because


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both of my parents are from a neighbor southwestern region (Ban) located two hours

away from Barahona. While I was a child, we used to visit my grandparents and other

relatives every summer. As a professor, I have traveled to the Autonomous University of

Santo Domingo campus in Barahona city to teach English as a foreign language every

weekend for the past five years. My interaction with speakers in this city and neighboring

communities triggered my curiosity about their particular phonological phenomenon.

Barahona is located in the southwestern part of the DR. It is 124.3 miles (200 km)

away from SD (see map, Appendix A). The total population of Barahona is 179,239

people, according to the VIII National Census of Population and Housing conducted by

the National Statistics Office (2002). The breakdown of the total population places

134,714 people in the urban area while 44,525 are in the suburban area. Suburban

inhabitants intensively interact with the residents in Barahona due to the citys

availability of job opportunities, commercial contacts and academic institutions.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This research aims to identify the different linguistic environments where this

phenomenon (/l/ /r/) occurs. It also focuses on sociolinguistic variables such as age,

socio-economic condition, education and gender associated with this phonological

change. This study is important because it may promote more social awareness and

acceptance of the way Barahonian people speak. Besides, this research may also benefit

areas such as business, diplomacy, and other language related areas in my country and

elsewhere by functioning as a dialect reference to the world of this phonological change,


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which is common not only in DR but also in much of the Caribbean region but still

considered non-standard by educated and professional people.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Several studies have been carried out in DR about Dominican Spanish. Some

started as early as the first quarter of the twentieth century by the Dominican government

and individual researchers. For example, between December 1921 and October 1922, the

Dominican government conducted 16 non-scientific dialect surveys covering practically

the complete geography of the country. The governments reports emphasis was laid on

lexicon. No single audio recording is available today. The breakdown of these studies is

as follows: ten were done in the northern part of the country or Cibao, two in the

southwest, two in the east, and two in the capital city, according to Gonzlez (1999, pp.9-

13).

From the very beginning of linguistic research in DR, most of the resources and

efforts were focused in the northern part of the country, and the southwest seems to have

been neglected. In 1940, Pedro Henrquez Urea, the first Dominican linguist, wrote a

book entitled El Espaol en Santo Domingo [Spanish Language in Santo Domingo]. In

his book, he made a remarkable job by describing the linguistic situation in DR from

different points of view (syntactical, morphological, semantically, phonological system,

even from a historical perspective). However, in the phonological part he did not use

audio recorded data, only text excerpts.

In 1956, Toms Navarro published the article Apuntes Sobre el Espaol

Dominicano [Notes about Dominican Spanish] in which he dealt with phonetic features


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of Dominican Spanish. In his study he included two southwestern provinces; however,

Barahona was not among the provinces he wrote about.

The list of authors dedicated to the study of the phonological changes in the

northern part of DR is long. For example, in 1982, Sobre la Semivocalizacin de las

Lquidas en el Espaol Cibaeo [About Semi-vocalization of Liquids in Cibaeo

Spanish] was written by the Chilean linguist Jorge Nelson Rojas. His paper concentrated

on vocalization of implosive /l/ and /r/ in word and syllable final position.

Similarly, Peralta, Morillo and Vargas (1988) wrote a monograph paper for their

BA degree at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo with the title Estudio del

Comportamiento de los Fonmas Lquidos /r/ y /l/ en Posicin Implosiva en el Dialecto

Hablado en San Francisco de Macors [Study of the phonemes /r/ and /l/ in Implosive

Position of the Dialect Spoken in San Francisco de Macors]. Again, the study was

carried out in the northern part of the country taking into account the socioeconomic

variable. Their results showed that 49.5% of the upper class vocalized /r/; the middle

class did it in 27.2% and the lower in 23.3%. In the case of the vocalization of the

phoneme /l/, the upper class vocalized 49.2 %; the middle class did it in 26.9.2% and the

lower in 23.9% (pp. 34-35).

It was in 1995 when Carlisle Gonzlez Tapia wrote the first sociolinguistic

research about Dominican Spanish that made a complete coverage of the north (Cibao),

the southwestern and the eastern parts of the country. In his article El Habla Campesina

Domincana: Mitos y Realidades. Aspecto Fontico, Gonzlez analyzed the particular

phenomenon of /l/ usage in Barahona. Gonzlez claimed that in Barahona there was more

retention of /l/ (73.1%) than shift of /l/ /r/ (14.8%). In his article, Gonzlez mentions


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that these changes occur in the lower socioeconomic level and he included young and

adult male and female participants; however, the article does not show which age group

or gender makes the change. Thus, my research is a partial replication of Gonzlezs

research with especial attention to the shift of /l/ /r/ in local Barahonians speech in

word and syllable final positions to learn whether this tendency has remained stable or is

undergoing either increase or decrease.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESES

The present study seeks to provide answers to the following research questions.

1. In what linguistic environments is the phonological change /l/ /r/ more likely to

occur? 2. How is this phonological change influenced by the variables of age, gender and

education? 3. How aware are participants of this feature of their own dialect?

These research questions lead to the following hypotheses: 1. This phonological

change will happen before all voiced and voiceless stops. It will also happen in stressed,

post-vocalic, non-intervocalic, syllables and word finally. 2. Older people will have a

higher usage of the local dialect; however, young female speakers also use the local

variety since they are neither regularly interacting with other speakers nor traveling to

other cities. There is also a direct relationship between the academic level and occupation

of the participants and the retention of /l/. 3. Participants will show a considerable

awareness of this feature of their own dialect.


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METHODOLOGY

Subjects/Sources

In order to test these hypotheses, I collected data from 20 participants (9 males

and 11 females) taking into account their age, academic background and place of

residence. The purpose of having a wide range of ages (between ages 12 and 60) is to

observe how this phenomenon may differ in older speakers and younger ones. Moreover,

by taking into account a group of ages like this, I hope to determine the effect of age-

grading, if any (Labov, 1994, p. 73). That is, will the younger users of /r/ revert to /l/

usage when they enter the adult working world? Sub-groups were defined as 12-20, 21-

45, and 50-60. Additionally, participants were high school or university students, and

professionals or semi-skilled workers. Another condition to consider was their residence.

They needed to be long-term Barahona residents and/or residents of neighboring

communities like Cabral or Cristobal that the data collected would be representative of

the area.

Material/Instruments

To obtain data for this research project, I used a reading passage, a word list, a

questionnaire, three topics for free discussion (see Appendix B), and a perception test

(see Appendix C). All these instruments were written in Spanish.

The purpose of the questionnaire was to collect demographic information. This

questionnaire was piloted in Ohio University at the Linguistics Department by some of

my colleagues, who gave me feedback, and changes were made to improve it. The

reading passage and the word list were designed to include linguistic environments that


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would potentially trigger the change of the phoneme /l/ to /r/ as participants read them

aloud. By asking participants to read the passage and the word list aloud, I sought to elicit

the production of the phonological phenomenon in the most self-conscious circumstances

where the speakers would most like control their use of /l/ (Labov, 1984, p. 56)

In relation to the discussion topics, participants were given the option to choose

one out of three topics intended to observe their casual speech. At this point, I interacted

with the participants within the framework of an informal interview in order to keep them

talking as much as possible about the topic they chose so that I could elicit their least

self-conscious change of /l/ to /r/ (Labov, 1984, p. 59)

Finally, a perception test was administered to participants. Participants listened to

11 words that included this particular phonological change. The first one was given as an

example, and then the remaining ten were part of the actual test. The rationale behind this

test was to know how aware Barahonian speakers are about their own particular dialect

(Labov & Ash, 1997).

Procedure

The data collection was gathered following a three-step procedure. First of all,

participants were asked to read aloud a passage. This passage has the format of a

newspaper report and contains specific linguistic environments where /l/ and /r/ are

present. Second, they were asked to read 20 words from a word list. Some distracters

were included in both tests so that the subjects would not notice the purpose of the study

so overtly. Third, the subjects were asked to pick one of three topics for free speech. If

participants did not feel at ease with any of the topics, they were free to talk about any


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other topic of their choice. The purpose of this section was to listen to their casual speech

and the potential production of the phoneme /l/ as /r/.For these three sections,

participants were informed that their voices would be recorded into an iPod, a digital

audio recorder. After the recordings, participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire,

anonymously.

Casual speech was part of the data collected in this project because it offers the

opportunity to evaluate the dialect in its vernacular stage. For the formal aspect of the

language I recorded a word list and the reading of a passage. According to Labov (1972,

p. 136) as formality increases, the frequency of occurrence of some non-standard

linguistic features decreases. However, this approach has been questioned by a number

of scholars. L. Milroy (1980) and Romaine (1980), for example, found that reading;

where attention is directly focused on speech, does not consistently result in the use of

fewer non-standard features. In this study I will test for these claims and discuss them in

the results section.

Finally, subjects performed the perception test (see appendix C). In order to create

this test, I made a selection of 11 words from the original recordings (reading passage,

casual conversation and word list) and re-recorded them as a new audio file by using

Audacity software. While administering this test, I played back the 11 words as spoken

by a mix of all 20 speakers so that the participants, using a set of headphones and a sheet

of paper with four columns, listened and tried to identify how frequently they use those

words by making a check mark () in the box on the appropriate column (columns 1 and

2). In addition, they wrote those words down in a separate column (column 3). By

having them write down these words, I hoped to verify how much awareness the


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participant had about specific phonological changes (Labov & Ash, 1997). The last action

on this test was to autocorrect the words they identified that were not pronounced

according to the Dominican standard by writing them down in the fourth column.

ANALYSIS

Qualitative data were obtained from the questionnaire, and the different tests were

quantified. For the analysis of the audio data, I first transferred the digital audio files to

Audacity (audio software), which allowed me to edit the files and make them more

usable for the perception test. Next, I transcribed those audio files in order to observe and

identify the linguistic environments of occurrences. In other words, I soughtto find the

linguistic conditions that condition this change and the social factors correlated with

these. By contrast, this analysis also allowed me to detect the environments where the

change did not happen. For the statistical part of this research project, I used Microsoft

Excel to enter the data collected and create tables.

The following section shows four examples of the audio excerpts as transcribed

from the different sections recorded (reading passage, word list and free speech). They

include the instances where the phonological change /l/ /r/ occurred and they are

identified in bold type letters using IPA. Subject numbers refer to the numbers in tables 5,

6, and 7 below. See Appendix A for the reading passage and word list.

Subject 1 (F, Secretary, age 20)

A. Reading Passage

MAO, VALVERDE. Este mircoles 14 de abril a las cinco de la tarde un instructor de la

escuela intermedia Alba Pichardo comenzaba a corregir unos exmenes de espaol

cuando de repente [argin] toc fuertemente a su puerta. El maestro, identificado como


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Rafael Almanzar se acerco para abrir, pero antes mir por el ojo mgico y qued

[totarmnt] sorprendido al ver all a un hombre [arto], rubio y de ojos verdes. Elseor vesta una camisa azul mangas largas, unos pantalones negros y un [dlantar]blanco. Para el profesor Almanzar, [akr] personaje luca extrao, as que*

* The reading passage ended at this point.

B. Word list

viernes [mantr] [barkon] avincarburador [burto] camisa celular

[porbo] sol favor parque

alternador [papr] [mar] carnepartir [sarto] pausa final

C. Free speech

Mi aspiracin en la vida es ser una gran profesional, aspiro ser una gran administradora

de empresa. Y mi gran sueo es tener una familia estable, tener nios, porque meencantan los nios. Y tener un esposo que sea bueno, que sea un gran hombre y ser una

gran esposa.

When asked how many children she would like to have, the subject replied:

tres, me gustaran ms... mi ideal seran cuatro, porque me gusta una familia larga, unafamilia grande, pero eso es muy difcil en la mujer los hombres son ms cosa tenerlos

con diferentes mujeres a que sea grande? Bueno, a que me gustan mucho los nios.

Entonces en mi familia somos muchas personas. Yo tengo 23 tos 23 somos muchos,entonces siempre somos unidos, a pesar de muchos. Yo vea la comprensin y lo bien que

se llevaban, muchos hermanos as a pesar de las peletas que siempre tienen, pero es

bien bonito yo [aktuarmnt] estudio ingeniera industrial, pero me quiero transferirpa administracin. Siempre desde chiquita, yo me fije en administracin. Lo que pasa es

que despus que uno va creciendo, se va como creando una inestabilidad en la carrera que

tu quieres elegir.

Entonces, me decan que qu empresa yo iba a administrar si mi pap no tiene. Me fu,

como que se me fue yendo como yo estudi en un politcnico, lcteo, procesamiento

de productos lcteos, entonces decid estudiar ingeniera industrial, que tiene que ver conla industria. Entonces, aunque me gusta la carrera, pero administracin me gusta ms

como yo tengo poco tiempo, nada ms he dado materias de Colegio, decid hacer

administracin. Me voy a transferir y quiero ser una gran profesional en administracinde empresas s porque ya yo he investigado y he visto que no necesariamente tienes

que tener una empresa para t destacarte y darte una gran profesional en tu rea porque

si por eso fuera, hubieran muchos profesionales que no y eso tiene mucho campo


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entonces, despus de una gran investigacin, yo decid que yo s iba a hacerme

profesional en administracin. Aunque despus ms adelante cuando yo ya tenga untrabajo estable, en una universidad privada, haga ingeniera industrial porque tambin me

gusta.

La ingeniera es mejor que la administracin, en un sentido tiene mucho ms campo detrabajo y aunque uno dice que uno entra a estudiar para tener un mejor futuro, es

buscando dinero entonces la ingeniera tiene mucho campo de trabajo y es bien buena,la industrial

Yo todava no he tenido esa visin, pero s he tenido sueo y visin de que me veo

trabajando en una empresa como administradora y particularmente, quiero hacer esas doscarreras porque me gustan ms y como uno puede todo, todo se puede.

Even though this is not the focus of our study, it is worth mentioning that the

following data include no instances of /l/ /r/; however, the participant reversed this

phenomenon to include instances of /r/ /l/. This will be explained later. These changes

will be italicized.

Subject 2 (M, Accountant, age 50)

A. Reading Passage

MAO, VALVERDE. Este mircoles 14 de abril a las cinco de la tarde un instructor de la


cuando de repente alguientocfuertemente* a su puerta. El maestro, identificado comoRafael Almanzar se acerco para abrir, pero antes mir por el ojo mgico y qued

totalmente sorprendido al ver all a un hombre alto, rubio y de ojos verdes. El seor

vesta una camisa azul mangas largas, unos pantalones negros y un delantal blanco. Parael profesorAlmanzar, aquelpersonaje luca extrao, as que

B. Word list

viernes mantel balcn avincarburador bulto camisa celular

polvo sol favor parquealternador papel mal carne

partir salto pausa final


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C. Free speech

Bueno, mi sueo o aspiracin en la vida es ofrecerle la educacin al mayor nivel posible

a mis tres hijos. Fundamentalmente a la hembra, quiero que sea mdico. El varn mayor

ingeniero. Y como he empleado la mayor parte de mi vida laborando en esta institucin,

ya estoy casi para el perodo de jubilacin. Uno de mis sueos o aspiracin es lograrjubilarme y buscar otra actividad que hacer, remunerable, para poder garantizarles a mis

hijos la educacin. Porque ya de alguna manera, quien le habla y mi esposa tenemos yala educacin superior alcanzada. Entonces, nos resta ahora encaminar a nuestros hijos

para el bienestar de la familia el mayortiene 17, 12 tiene la del medio, que es la

hembra y siete el ms pequeo el varn que tiene 17, le gusta mucho incursionar en la

electrnica, en asuntos de electricidad y esas cosas. Es muy inquieto, es muy despierto,incluso resuelve algunos emergencias, resuelve algunos problemas que se presentan en la

casa

Bueno, dentro de las aspiraciones generales, me voy a adelantarprimera vez. Tengo en

proyecto abandonar el pas en busca de otras actividadesbueno, tengo dos opcionesposibles, muy slidas. Lo que pasa es que todava no me he decidido, esperando lajubilacin de la que le hable anteriormente. Probablemente me dirija a Espaa, donde

tengo unos contactos muy fuertes. Un compadre tiene su apartamento all y me ha

ofrecido todo el apoyo. Y tengo otro compadre tambin en New York, a pesar de que esthaciendo unos arreglos para irse a vivir a Miami, pero esas relaciones estn ah

esperando. Que siempre me llama de vez en cuando y me dice que en que yo estoy.

Porque a lo mejor el piensa que irse para all es como tomar un autobs aqu o y eso

no es as, hay que arreglarlas cosas primero, organizartodo

La intencin en definitiva, es que con los ingresos de la pensin de la universidad, puesdejarla aqu para que la familia se aguante un poco en lo que busco otros mediosesa es

la idea.

* The participant performed the opposite phenomenon (changed /r/ to /l/); that is,

furtmnt [fultmnt].

Subject 4 (F., High School student, age 14)

A. Reading Passage

MAO, VALVERDE. Este mircoles 14 de [abrir] a las cinco de la tarde un instructor

de escuela intermedia [arba] Pichardo comenzaba a corregir unos exmenes de

[spaor] cuando de repente [argin] toc fuertemente a su puerta. [r] maestro,identificado como [rafar][armansa] se acerc para abrir, pero antes mir por /r/ ojomgico y qued [r] sorprendido [ar] ver all a un hombre [arto], rubio y de ojos verdes.[r] seor vesta una camisa [asur] mangas largas, unos pantalones negros y un


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[dlantar] blanco. Para el profesor[armansar], [akr] personaje luca extrao, asque

B. Word list

viernes [mantr] [barkon] avincarburador [burto] camisa celularpolvo sol favor parque

[artrnador] papel [mar] carnepartir salto pausa [finar]

C. Free speech

Mi sueo es terminar mi carrera. Hacerme una buena doctora y triunfar en la vida. Ser

[argin] y valerme por mi misma... siete aos ms o menos me gusta medicina, peroen pediatra para tratar con los nios y sertil en mi vida cinco somos, dos de padre y

madre y tres de padre bueno, yo me veo en mi futuro aqu en [r] pas para ayudar alos dems tambin y voy a primer bachiller ahora naturales en el tema de lasenfermedades y que la producen. Porque ah [especiarmnt] se trata [argo] demedicina, que la previene, que no, que es malo y que es malo para la enfermedad me

gustara ms en la capital s, un to que ya es ingeniero s... como a Estados Unidos yMadrid gracias a usted.

Subject 5 (M., Law student, age 44)

A. Reading Passage (partial)

MAO, [barvrd]. Este mircoles 14 de [abrir] a las cinco de la tarde un instructor deescuela intermedia [arba] Pichardo comenzaba a corregir unos exmenes de [spaor]cuando de repente [argin] toc fuertemente a su puerta. El maestro, identificado comoRafaelAlmanzarse acerco para abrir, pero antes mir por el ojo mgico y qued

[totarmnt]sorprendido[ar] ver all a un hombre [arto], rubio y de ojos verdes. Elseor vesta una camisa [asur] mangas largas, unos pantalones negros y un [dlantar]blanco. Para el profesor Almanzar, [akr] personaje luca extrao, as que

B. Word list

viernes [mantr] [barkon] avincarburador [burto] camisa celular[porbo] [sor] favor parque

[artrnador] [papr] mal carnepartir [sarto] pausa [finar]


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C. Free speech

Mi sueo es serme [profsionar], tener una vida ms adecuada, ms cmoda en virtuddel provecho que yo haiga tenidocon referente a mi profesin, tener una actividad

familiar, tener lo ms adecuado o lo ms mnimo de a lo que concierne a una persona.

De entre lo que concierne a mi futuros, aspiro a teneruna vivienda propia, un salarioms confortable. Aunque hoy en da yo no lo devengo, pero tengo posibilidades ya a

travs de lo que concierne a mi profesin licenciatura en derecho entro al octavosemestre de la carrera la carrera dura diez semestres como la UniversidadAutnoma

de Santo Domingo le favorece a los estudiantes de que elijan su propio estatus de lo que

concierne a la investigacin me ha no meno es ms rpido por el monogrfico

tenemos tres o cuatro compaera que estamos discutiendo y en base a qu vamos aactuar si a un monogrfico o si es a una tesis; pero desde el punto de vista normal yo lo

veo que es ms cmodo, es menos costo - el monogrfico de la cual la Universidad

Autnoma de Santo Domingo adquiere no expone a que el estudiantado sea el que elijael tema de los monogrficos, sino ella lo elige, ella. O sea que de esa vertiente no

tenemos nosotros [er] tema esencial parauno actuar en lo que concierne a lainvestigacin. Ahora la investigacin si previene, despus que la universidad nos tiene anosotros el tema a seguir. Ahora vyase ms all, con lo que concierne a los asuntos de

tesis, uno abstiene a su propio conviccin al tema al que se va a basar, llmese, que si la

universidad lo aprueba.

Bueno, me gustara investigar en base a la emigracin, que es el rea que me hace ms

llegar a tener como una esencia, como que me solidarizo ms con la emigracin

[internasionar] en base a lo que concierne a nuestra emigracin que tenemoslateralmente Hait tenemos otros pases amigos que tenemos la emigracin de nosotros

masivamente, que con anterioridad eran ellos quien venan a nuestro pas, que era PuertoRico. Ahora no, ahora es viceversa, somos nosotros que nos estamos emigrando mediante

lo que concierne a las yolas y a veces nos vamos a emigrar mediante lo que son los

barcos. O sea, llamado los mojaitos o llamados los polizontes. De todas maneras, anosotros, por lo menos, nos gustara el tema en lo que concierne a la emigracin en base a

eso.

Bueno, particularmente, t sabes que en nuestro pas se ve en base a la politiquera. Y por

lo menos cuando estemos con regimenes que vengan de la politiquera, ya uno tiene que

basarse a lo que son los polticos tradicionales, llmese los partidos polticos que surjanen el sentido de lo que t tiene que seguirles a ellos. O engancharte a poltico con algn

partido X para ver si t puedes lograr tus objetivos. Pero vamonos al caso de lo que

concierne al estudio del derecho llmese que andamos por los 27 mil, 28 mil pero en

base a esa virtud, uno siempre se busca su forma de vida asuntos jurdicos, consultasjurdicas condicin de venta de muebles e inmuebles

Eso tiene que ver con la inmobiliaria porque prcticamente los notarios tener unapersona que te firme los documentos como notario el notario lo que hace es legitimarte

ms el expediente al elegir yo la profesin te dira que eso viene de una marca esencial,

eso me marc [argo] en mi vida que me condujo a estudiar el derecho. Eso ocurre


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cuando la FINJUS (Fundacion Institucionalidad y Justicia, Inc.) [Institution and Justice

Foundation, Inc.] vino aqu donde yo me encontraba de visita un amigopor lo menos lestaba en la segunda planta, yo estaba de visita para la mam la esposa de l estabaenferma tiene la nia abajo se alma un brollo de estos que siempre se alma en los barrios

y la nia fue ultrajada, moralmente golpeada y el bajo de la segunda planta cabo de la

marina de guerra, portaba siempre un pual y el tipo agredi a un polica y de una solaestocada mat al polica. Bueno, pero al encontrarme yo de visita, el seor le dice y se

entrega a la justiciaen las interrogaciones l le dice a la polica que yo no estaba, que lepreguntaran a fulano de [tar] que l no estaba en problema estabaBalaguerpor cierto

gobernandola polica instrumentaba los expedientes, leformalizaba los expedientes

yporlo tanto de yo no adquiriro darle al investigador quiz 500 pesos, me introdujo en

el expediente testigo de que en realidad l no estaba en problemasde que l le dijoque l no estaba en problemas yo no se si l agolpi a un militar o si no lo agolpi

alrededor de 10 o 15 [mir] pesos que los gasto la institucin donde yo trabajaba en

Barcel Industrial lo que me concierne es que me marc eso y v que el derecho parami era una cosa esencial para no ultrajar a otras personas.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

These are some of the findings I expected at the end of this research project.

1. Most phonological change of /l/ to /r/ should be found in word final and stressed

syllable final positions and before voiced and voiceless stops. The phonological change

will not happen when the phoneme /l/ is in word initial position. 2. Older speakers (males

and females) may show a higher usage of this dialectal variation under investigation than

younger speakers. However, young women may show a greater usage of the local variety

in comparison to young men. A direct correlation between academic level, occupation

and approximation to standard Spanish would be found. 3. Older speakers (males and

females) may show lower awareness of their dialectal variation in comparison with

younger people under investigation.

Based on the analysis of the transcripts (reading passage, word list and free

speech), I observed interesting patterns. Tables 1, 2 and 3 clearly show the different

linguistic environments where the change of /l/ to /r/ is more likely to occur. It typically


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occurs before voiced and voiceless labial, alveolar and velar stops (/m, b, p, t, k, g/) at the

end of a syllable (initial, medial or final). In most of the cases, it happens on the plosive

or stressed syllable. Table 4 shows the environments where the change does not occur.

Table 1: Examples of /l/ /r/ before stops and fricatives

LABIALS ALVEOLARS VELARS FRICATIVES

/totarmnt/ /arto/ /karkular/ /r/ seor

/akr/ personaje /burto/ /argin/

/arba/ /sarto/ /barkon/

/r/ maestro /konsurtas/

/armansar/ /artrnador/

/ar/ ver*

/asur/ mangas

/barbrd/

/porbo/

/aktuarmnt/

/tarb/

/kwar/ viva*

/dlantar/ blanco

* In Dominican Spanish, speakers do not distinguish between /b/ and /v/; therefore, viva and

ver sound like [biba] and [br] (labials).

As can be perceived from table 1, the majority of the occurrences of this

phonological change occurred before labials while the fewest number of occurrences

occurred before fricatives.

The phenomenon also occurs before central and back vowels /a/ and /o/ (see table

2). These specific examples were found in the reading passage section where I took into

account the vowel that followed the change.

Table 2: Examples of /l/ /r/ in word final position and before a vowel

Central vowel Back vowel

/abrir/ a/rafar/ almanzar

/r/ ojo


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Another environment where the phenomenon occurred was in syllable final

position and in monosyllables (see table 3). Once again, these environments were

identified in the formal sections of the data collection (reading passage and word list).

Table 3: Examples of /l/ /r/ in syllable final position

Syllable final position Monosyllables

/mantr//finar/

/papr//rafar/

/mar/

/sor/

After identifying the different linguistic environments where this phonological

change takes place, I also found the linguistic environments where the change does not

occur (see table 4).

Table 4: Environments where the phonological change /l/ /r/ does not occur*WORD INITIAL INITIAL CONSONANT

CLUSTERS*

INTERVOCALIC

POSITION

/la/ /blanko/ /skula/

* However, according to Gonzlez (1999), in some folk texts, the neutralization of /r/ and

/l/ can be found in words such as clinejita instead of criznejita or crisnejita (wovenhair style as in palm fronds) and clin instead of crin (horsehair) (p. 307).

The following analysis shows the percentage of occurrence of /l/ --> /r/by

participants in the three different sources of data collection (reading passage, word list

and free speech) (see tables 5, 6 and 7).


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Table 5: Reading Passage (Percentage of occurrence of /l/ /r/

Participant Age Gender Occupation Education Potential Occurrence Percentage

1 20 F Secretary Post-HS 17 6 35%

2 50 M Accountant Post-HS 17 0 0%

3 25 M Comp. Prog. Post-HS 17 0 0%

4 14 F Student Pre-HS 17 16 94%

5 44 M Law Student Post-HS 17 10 59%

6 58 M Pediatrician Post-HS 17 0 0%

7 16 M Student Pre-HS 17 2 12%

8 20 M Student Post-HS 17 1 6%

9 25 F Student Post-HS 17 4 24%

10 51 F Nurse Post-HS 17 1 6%

11 45 F Hotel Recept Post-HS 17 0 0%


13 52 M Salesperson Post-HS 17 1 6%



16 25 F Sales Rep. Post-HS 17 0 0%17 15 F Student Pre-HS 17 0 0%



20 60 M Hotel Recept Post-HS 17 0 0%

TOTAL 340 43 13%

Table 6: Word List (Percentage of occurrence of /l/ /r/




3 25 M Comp. Prog. Post-HS 10 0 0%4 14 F Student Pre-HS 10 6 60%










14 18 M Student Post-HS 10 4 40%15 21 F Student Post-HS 10 0 0%

16 25 F Sales Rep. Post-HS 10 0 0%





TOTAL 200 25 13%


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Table 7: Free Speech (Percentage of occurrence of /l/ /r/




3 25 M Comp. Prog. Post-HS 13 0 0%












15 21 F Student Post-HS 7 0 0%16 25 F Sales Rep. Post-HS 2 0 0%





TOTAL 251 28 11%

By observing the three tables, I was surprised to see that the higher percentage of

occurrences happened in the formal stages of the data collection (reading passage and

word list) with 13% total for each section. Conversely, the total percentage of

occurrences in the free speech section (11%) was lower. However, a consistent pattern

can be seen in the case of one female student with pre-high school preparation (number

4). This student probably has not had enough contact with other dialects to be aware of

alternative pronunciations. Overall, however, these results look very similar to those

given by Gonzlez (1999) where he showed that in Barahona there was a higher

percentage of /l/ retention than /r/, with only a 14.8% shift rate overall. This contrasts

with my initial predictions.


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The reason for such unexpected results may have the following facts as

explanation. First, in the case of the Hotel Receptionists, these employees interact with

professors, merchandisers, and salespeople who travel every week from the capital city.

Second, the interviewer was a former teacher of some of the students participating in this

study, so my presence may have influenced their retention of the school-based standard

/l/. Third, most of the students interviewed here have interacted with relatives or friends

who live in the capital city (Santo Domingo) and may have been influenced by their way

of speaking. In Santo Domingo, the phonological phenomenon is opposite to the one in

the southwestern part of Dominican Republic; that is, inhabitants in Santo Domingo tend

to pronounce /r/ as [l]. For example, they would say cancel instead of cancer. Thus,

the more interaction Barahonians have with speakers of the capital city, they are more

likely to use /l/ instead of /r/ even in words where the underlying form is /r/, as in the case

of the male Accountant cited on page 14.

Now, let us have a look at the behavior of this phonological change taking into

account the different sociolinguistic variables that were involved in this research project.

Only the reading passage and word list totals will be reported, since the free speech

potential shifts vary for each individual. The first breakdown was done by age.

Table 8-a: Shift of /l/ /r/ by age in the Reading Passage

Age 12-20 Age 21-45 Age 50-60

Participants Occurrences Participants Occurrences Participants Occurrences

8 27 6 14 6 2

Ave. 3.38 Ave. 2.33 Ave. 0.03


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Table 8-b: Shift of /l/ /r/ by age in the Word List

Age 12-20 Age 21-45 Age 50-60

Participants Occurrences Participants Occurrences Participants Occurrences

8 17 6 8 6 0

Ave. 2.13 Ave. 1.33 Ave. 0.00

It is observable that the younger the participants are the more likely they are to

shift from /l/ to /r/. That is presumably because they have not yet entered into contact

with other dialects or acquired a higher educational level. Contrary to my hypothesis,

among older participants, the number of occurrences diminishes. We can say that the

number of occurrences of /l/ to /r/ compared with age in this study was inversely

proportional. This is probably due to the fact that the older people become the more they

interact with urban and professional individuals. Whether young people will retain their

/r/ usage in years to come cannot be predicted with certainty, but these results suggest

that age-grading is occurring; that is, they will adopt the standard /l/ pronunciation as

they get older.

Table 9-a: Shift of /l/ /r/ by gender in the Reading Passage

Female Male

Participants Occurrences Participants Occurrences

11 28 9 15

Ave. 2.55 Ave. 1.67


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Table 9-b: Shift of /l/ /r/ by gender in the Word List

Female Male


11 13 9 12

Ave. 1.18 Ave. 1.33

In terms of comparing the number of occurrences by gender, females almost

doubled the usage of /r/. Such results suggest that, overall, women lead in the change of

/l/ to /r/ in Barahona.

Table 10-a: Instances of /l/ /r/ in Reading Passage combined by age groups

AGE GROUPS

GENDER 12-20 21-45 50-60

Female Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr.

5 23 4 4 2 1

Ave. 4.60 Ave. 1.00 Ave. 0.50

Male Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr.

3 4 2 10* 4 1

Ave. 1.33 Ave. 5.00 Ave. 0.25

* These 10 occurrences were produced by only one male participant whose educationalbackground should reflect the different pattern, compared to the results of the rest of

participants of his age and education. He is the outlier that breaks our prediction that the

local change in this Dominican Spanish dialect is led by young females. Thisparticipants major is BA in law (his second career). According to one of his professors,

while this participant studied his first career (BA in K-12), he used to defend studentsrights. His future plans include becoming a good lawyer, buying a house, and investing in

real state. His parents own big lands, and he worked for a large tomato factory calledBarcel & Co. for several years.


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Table 10-b: Instances of /l/ /r/ in Word List combined by age groups

AGE GROUPS

GENDER 12-20 21-45 50-60

Female Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr.

5 13 4 0 2 0

Ave. 2.60 Ave. 0.00 Ave. 0.00

Male Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr. Part. Occurr.

3 4 2 8* 4 0

Ave. 1.33 Ave. 4.00 Ave. 0.00

* These eight occurrences belong to the same participant noted in table 10-a.

Table 11-a: Shift of /l/ /r/ by educational level in the Reading Passage

Pre - High School Post - High School


5 19 15 24

Ave. 3.80 Ave. 1.60

Table 11-b: Shift of /l/ /r/ by educational level in the Word List

Pre - High School Post - High School


5 6 15 19

Ave. 1.20 Ave. 1.27


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The number of occurrences of /l/ to /r/ in table 11was higher in participants who

had reached a pre-high school education, as predicted.

Table 12-a: Shift of /l/ /r/ by occupation in the Reading Passage

Students Professionals


10 35 10 8

Ave. 3.50 Ave. 0.80

Table 12-b: Shift of /l/ /r/ by occupation in the Word List

Students Professionals


10 18 10 7

Ave. 1.80 Ave. 0.70

Those participants who have a profession tend to minimize the number of

occurrences of /l/ to /r/. The reason may be because they have interacted with other

dialects due to the nature of their expanded contacts with others in their work life.

Finally, a perception test was administered to determine how aware of this

phonological feature of their dialect participants are (See Appendix C). Participants also

had the opportunity to make corrections of the words they heard that were

mispronounced on the recording. The results in table 13 show that there is a correlation

between the educational level or occupation and the level of awareness of the change of

/l/ to /r/. In other words, those participants who already have a profession or a high

educational level could recognize when the words were mispronounced on the recording


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and were also able to provide the correction for those words based on their standard or

underlying forms.

Table 13: Results of the Perception Test with correction percentages

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This project had a small group of subjects. It would be important to replicate the

same study using a larger group of participants. Another limitation in this research is the

socio-economic factor, which was not rigorously controlled for. I think it would be

noteworthy to compare how this variable affects the phonological phenomenon under

investigation, as in Peralta, Morillo and Vargas (1988). Only professional adults were

PerceptionTest

Wordsmispro-

nounced

on tape

I saythis

most

of

Wordsmispro-

nounced

on tape

I'veheard

it,

but

Noticed Correc-ted

Part AgeGen OccupationEducationPot. Occ. Perc. Pot. Occ. Perc. Pot. Occ. Perc.

1 20 F Secretary Post-HS 8 2 25% 8 8 100% 8 2 25%

2 50 M Accountant Post-HS 8 5 63% 8 5 63% 8 8 100%

3 25 M Comp. Prog. Post-HS 8 7 88% 8 3 38% 8 4 50%

4 14 F Student Pre-HS 8 3 38% 8 7 88% 8 3 38%

5 44 M Law Student Post-HS 8 6 75% 8 4 50% 8 6 75%

6 58 M Pediatrician Post-HS 8 4 50% 8 6 75% 8 8 100%

7 16 M Student Pre-HS 8 6 75% 8 4 50% 8 2 25%8 20 M Student Post-HS 8 4 50% 8 6 75% 8 8 100%

9 25 F Student Post-HS 8 4 50% 8 6 75% 8 7 88%

10 51 F Nurse Post-HS 8 3 38% 8 7 88% 8 0 0%

11 45 F Hotel Recep Post-HS 8 8 100% 8 0 0% 8 2 25%

12 51 F Hotel Recep Post-HS 8 5 63% 8 5 63% 8 4 50%

13 52 M Salesperson Post-HS 8 2 25% 8 8 100% 8 5 63%

14 18 M Student Post-HS 8 6 75% 8 4 50% 8 4 50%

15 21 F Student Post-HS 8 1 13% 8 9 113% 8 4 50%

16 25 F Sales Rep. Post-HS 8 6 75% 8 4 50% 8 5 63%

17 15 F Student Pre-HS 8 2 25% 8 8 100% 8 5 63%

18 14 F Student Pre-HS 8 5 63% 8 5 63% 8 2 25%

19 12 F Student Pre-HS 8 1 13% 8 9 113% 8 7 88%

20 60 M Hotel Recep Post-HS 8 8 100% 8 0 0% 8 6 75%

TOTAL 160 88 55% 160 108 68% 160 92 58%


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interviewed. No working class people were used. A third problem is the factor that the

semi-formal nature of speech data may have led to less production of /r/ than might have

occurred in a more natural conversation (Wolfram & Fasold, 1997, p. 101).

CONCLUSION

This research is a study of one aspect of the dialect spoken in the southwestern

part of Dominican Republic, specifically in many speakers from Barahona city and its

neighboring communities. In this region, speakers tend to change the phoneme /l/ to /r/.

The project has determined the linguistic environments where this phonological change

occurs,and the influence of several sociolinguistic variables on its occurrence.

I was able to confirm what the tendency of this Dominican Spanish dialect is. That is, as

Gonzlez showed, /l/ is being frequently realized as [r] in Barahona. But this change has

been very stable for a long time and still is. However, the change back to /l/ appears to be

stable also.

Santo Domingo has experienced a great rise of urbanization in the past decade

that has affected linguistic variation in the whole country. New highways that connect

provinces like Barahona, tunnels, new commercial places, and new job opportunities

motivate people who live in the countryside to migrate to the capital city. Romaine

(1994) claims the rise of urbanization is connected with an increase in social

stratification which is reflected in linguistic variation (p. 65). Urban economic

development has always attracted migrants who leave their rural areas and mingle with

the city people, promoting linguistic interaction. Romaine (1994) stated that groups

recognize the overt greater prestige of standard speech and shift towards it in more formal


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References:

Gonzlez T., C. (1999).El Habla Campesina Dominicana. Aspecto Fontico. Santo

Domingo, .D.N.: Editora Universitaria UASD.

Gonzlez T., C. (1995).El Habla Campesina Dominicana: Mitos y Realidades. AspectoFontico. Santo Domingo, D. N.: Investigacin para el desarrollo: revista

semestral de la Universidad Autnoma de Santo Domingo. Vol. 2, I, pp. 195-206.

Henrquez U., P. (1940).El Espaolen Santo Domingo. Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Biblioteca de Dialectologa Hispanoamericana.

Labov, W. (2001). Principles of Linguistic Change. Volume Two: Social Factors.

Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Labov, W. (1984). Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In

J. Baugh and J. Sherzer (eds.),Language in Use (pp. 28-53). Englewood Cliffs,H.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of

Pennsylvania Press.

Labov, W. & Ash, S. (1997). Understanding Birmingham. In C. Bernstein, T. Nunnally,

& R. Sabino (eds.),Language Variety in the South Revisited. Tuscaloosa:

University of Alabama Press, pp. 508-573.

Ladefoged, P. (2001).A Course in Phonetics, 4th

edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt CollegePublishers.

Milroy, J. (1980). Lexical alternation and the history of English. In E. Traugott et al.(eds.) Papers from the Fourth International Congress in Historical Linguistics.

Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Nez Cedeo, R. (1980).La Fonologa Moderna y el espaol en Santo Domingo. Santo

Domingo, Repblica Dominicana: Editora Taller.

Peralta B., M., Morillo, R. A. & Vargas H., L. A. (1998).Estudio del Comportamiento de

los Fonemas Lquidos /r/ - /l/ en Posicin Implosiva en el Dialecto Hablado en

San Francisco de Macors (Bachelor thesis, Universidad Autnoma de Santo

Domingo, Centro Universitario Regional del Nordeste (CURNE) (1998). SanFrancisco de Macors, Repblica Dominicana.

Ramrez S., M. (1983) Fundacin de Barahona. Santo Domingo, D.N.: Editora Taller,C. por A.


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Romaine, S. (1994).Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford,

NY: Oxford University Press.

Romaine, S. (1980). Stylistic variation and evaluative reactions to speech: Problems in

the investigation of linguistic attitudes in Scotland.Language and Speech, 23 (3),

213-32.

Shopen, T. (1979).Languages and Their Speakers. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press.

Wolfram W., & Fasold, R. W. (1997). Field methods in the study of social dialects. In

N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (eds.), Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook.

New York: St. Martin Press, pp. 89-115.

Websites:

Lonely Planet - Dominican Republic Map: Electronic references. (2006). RetrievedNovember 15, 2005 fromhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapimag

es/caribbean/dominican_republic/dominican_republic.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.

lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/caribbean/dominican_republic/dominican_republic.htm&h=355&w=495&sz=36&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=8WIsdHDyHY-

zaM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bof%2Bdominican

%2Brepublic%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGGL,GG

GL:2006-23,GGGL:en%26sa%3DN

Oficina Nacional de Estadsticas, Repblica Dominicana: Electronic references. (2002).

Retrieved November 7, 2005 from http://www.one.gov.do


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APPENDIX A

Map of the Dominican Republic


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APPENDIX B

Demographic information, passage,

Word list and free topics,English and Spanish versions


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I hope you can devote some minutes to contribute to my research on different

dialectal variation in my country. By answering these questions your data will

remain anonymous and you will not be exposed to any mental or physical harm.

Your cooperation will be highly appreciated.

Age: __________ Sex: __________

Where do you live now? ___________________________________________________

Where else have you lived? ______________________ When? ___________________

What is your present occupation? ____________________________________________

Education: Pre-High School Completion Post-High School Completion

Please read these items aloud.

A. Reading Passage.

Spanish version

MAO, VALVERDE. Este mircoles 14 de abril a las cinco de la tarde, un instructor de la


cuando de repente alguien toc fuertemente a su puerta. El maestro, identificado como

Rafael Almanzar se acerc para abrir, pero antes mir por el ojo mgico y quedtotalmente sorprendido al ver all a un hombre alto, rubio y de ojos verdes. El seor vesta

una camisa azul mangas largas, unos pantalones negros y un delantal blanco. Para elprofesor Almanzar, aquel personaje luca extrao, as que

English version

MAO, VALVERDE. Last Wednesday, April 14th

, at five oclock p.m., a high school

teacher, from Alba Pichardo School, began to correct some Spanish tests when suddenlysomeone knocked on his door. The teacher, identified as Rafael Almanzar, walked to the

door to open it, but before doing so, he watched through the peep-hole. He was petrified

to see a tall, blond man with green eyes. This man was dressed with a short-sleeve blueshirt, black pants and a white apron. For the high school teacher that person looked weird,

so

B. Word list*

Viernes mantel balcn avin

Carburador bulto camisa celularPolvo sol favor parque

Alternador papel mal carne

Partir salto pausa final


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* The Word List is not translated into English here, since translations are not relevant to

the analysis.

C. Free speech

Please choose one of the following topics and talk freely about it.a) Your dream or aspiration in life.b)Some nice event of your past.c) Your favorite activity.


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APPENDIX C

Perception Test of Dialect Awareness

And list of words on audio file


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INSTRUCTIONS

You will listen to a list of 11 words. Each word will be only repeated twice. Please

listen carefully and make a check mark () in the appropriate box, according toyour own criteria. The first word is given as an example.

Perception Test of Dialect Awareness (English version)

Thank you for your participation!

No. I SAY THIS

MOST OF

THE TIME

I HAVE

HEARD THIS

BUT RARELY

SAY IT

SPELL THE

WORD YOU

HEARD

CORRECTION,

IF ANY

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15


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List of words contained on the audio file of the Perception test

Num. Intended Word Pronounced as

1 Mal* Mal

2 Totalmente Totarmente

3 Delantal Delantar

4 Professional Profesionar

5 Parque* Parque

6 Alba Arba

7 Alguien Arguien

8 Balcn Barcn

9 Alto* Alto

10 Bulto Burto

11 Sol Sor

* These words were used as distracters.

Proseminar in Sociolinguistics: Shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish

Documents

Transcript of Proseminar in Sociolinguistics: Shift of /l/ to /r/ in Dominican Spanish