The Phonological and Sociophonetic Perception of Devoiced Vowels in Mexican Spanish by Learners and Speakers of Other Dialects
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0001-5675-3683
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Phonetics & Phonology; Second Language Acquisition
Location
MBSC Gallery Room 308
Start Date
17-10-2024 3:30 PM
End Date
17-10-2024 4:00 PM
Abstract
This study seeks to identify the phonological and sociophonetic status of devoiced vowels typical of phrase-final speech in multiple varieties of Spanish (e.g., Dabkowski, 2018; Delforge, 2008; Gordon, 1980; Lipski, 2021). Vowels are characterized by lip rounding and the position of the tongue, often called the vowel quality (Davenport & Hannahs, 2020), though much less frequently do they have a phonological contrast in terms of voicing (Gordon, 1998). Despite vowel devoicing being a relatively rare phenomenon in Spanish, even in the varieties that have it (Delforge, 2008, 2012), that vowel devoicing occurs raises the question of how speakers of Spanish perceive devoiced vowels. To test this, L2 speakers (n = 27) and native speakers (n = 3) of Spanish living in the Midwest completed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task that compared words with voiced and devoiced vowels phrase-finally and a matched guise task. Results show that native speakers easily recognize that devoiced vowels are allophones of the voiced phoneme. Moreover, learners are also able to perceive this categorization, but proficiency, study abroad experience, gender, knowing another language, preceding sound, and order of devoiced and voiced vowels in the audio played significant roles. In general, it was also found that devoicing is associated with positive social attributes like competence, attractiveness, and education, but not with trustworthiness. Devoiced vowels were also rated as more feminine and urban for most speakers. These findings highlight that while native speakers can correctly perceive devoiced allophones of voiced vowels, learners gain the ability to recover the quality of devoiced vowels over time. Moreover, this study contributes to the sociophonetic literature on devoiced vowels in Spanish (Bland, 2023; Dabkowski, 2020; Delforge, 2012), showing that learners of Spanish associate vowel devoicing in Mexican Spanish with mostly positive social attributes.
Keywords: Vowel Devoicing, Social Attributes, Mexican Spanish, L2 Spanish, Heritage Spanish, Perception
The Phonological and Sociophonetic Perception of Devoiced Vowels in Mexican Spanish by Learners and Speakers of Other Dialects
MBSC Gallery Room 308
This study seeks to identify the phonological and sociophonetic status of devoiced vowels typical of phrase-final speech in multiple varieties of Spanish (e.g., Dabkowski, 2018; Delforge, 2008; Gordon, 1980; Lipski, 2021). Vowels are characterized by lip rounding and the position of the tongue, often called the vowel quality (Davenport & Hannahs, 2020), though much less frequently do they have a phonological contrast in terms of voicing (Gordon, 1998). Despite vowel devoicing being a relatively rare phenomenon in Spanish, even in the varieties that have it (Delforge, 2008, 2012), that vowel devoicing occurs raises the question of how speakers of Spanish perceive devoiced vowels. To test this, L2 speakers (n = 27) and native speakers (n = 3) of Spanish living in the Midwest completed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task that compared words with voiced and devoiced vowels phrase-finally and a matched guise task. Results show that native speakers easily recognize that devoiced vowels are allophones of the voiced phoneme. Moreover, learners are also able to perceive this categorization, but proficiency, study abroad experience, gender, knowing another language, preceding sound, and order of devoiced and voiced vowels in the audio played significant roles. In general, it was also found that devoicing is associated with positive social attributes like competence, attractiveness, and education, but not with trustworthiness. Devoiced vowels were also rated as more feminine and urban for most speakers. These findings highlight that while native speakers can correctly perceive devoiced allophones of voiced vowels, learners gain the ability to recover the quality of devoiced vowels over time. Moreover, this study contributes to the sociophonetic literature on devoiced vowels in Spanish (Bland, 2023; Dabkowski, 2020; Delforge, 2012), showing that learners of Spanish associate vowel devoicing in Mexican Spanish with mostly positive social attributes.
Keywords: Vowel Devoicing, Social Attributes, Mexican Spanish, L2 Spanish, Heritage Spanish, Perception