An Acoustic and Perceptual Analysis of Vowels Preceding Final /-s/ Deletion in the Speech of Granada, Spain and Cartagena, Colombia

• Published in: Boletín de filología Vol. 53; no. 1; p. 217
• Main Author: Rincón, Miguel A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades 01-06-2018
• Subjects: España; Colombia
• ISSN: 0067-9674
• DOI: 10.4067/S0718-93032018000100217

This study sets out to verify the claim that the tense-lax alternation undergone by vowels preceding deletion of post-nuclear /s/ in Eastern Andalusian Spanish may serve as a functional marker when distinguishing singular from plural in nouns rendered homophonous by the deletion of final /-s/, e.g. calle ['ka.je] 'street' vs. calles ['ka.j[epsilon]O] 'streets.' Samples from Granada Spanish speakers revealed a significant opening for the vowels with deleted final /-s/. In a subsequent speech perception test, speakers were prompted with stimuli and determine whether they heard the singular form calle ['ka.je] with the closed allophone or the plural form calles ['ka.j[epsilon]O] with the open allophone. Results reveal that, despite the significant vocalic alternation, participants were unable to consistently identify between singular and plural forms based solely on the open and closed allophonic contrast. With the purpose of establishing a cross dialectal comparison, both the vowel analysis and perception test were replicated with native speakers of Cartagena, Colombia, and similar results were obtained.