Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:52:16.144Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reduction of Spanish Word-Final /s/ and /n/

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

John M. Lipski*
Affiliation:
University of Houston

Extract

The non-linear analysis of Spanish phonology as proposed by Harris (1984) and others promises to augment the explanatory power of currently available phonological descriptions, and may offer significant insights into the description of phonological differences among dialects. However, the interaction between previously held notions of phonological processes and the new theoretical analysis has not yet been fully explored, and the claim that the latter apparatus must necessarily completely supplant the former is perhaps over ambitious. The present note will deal with competing analyses of two frequent processes in Spanish, velarization of underlying /n/ and aspiration of underlying /s/, both of which have been used in support of the latest theoretical proposals. I will attempt to demonstrate that the data used to formulate these proposals have been excessively idealized. The full range of complexity and variation which surrounds these and similar phenomena necessitates a more ramified analysis, and even an idealization which does not distort the fundamental nature of the two processes casts doubt on the simple analysis suggested as a replacement for orthodox generative and traditional structuralist analyses.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alba, Orlando 1979 Análisis fonológico de /r/ y /l/ implosivas en un dialecto rural dominicano. Boletín de la Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española 7:2.118.Google Scholar
Alvar, Manuel 1959 El español hablado en Tenerife. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica.Google Scholar
Azevedo, Milton 1981 A Contrastive Phonology of Portuguese and English. Washington: Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Caravedo, Rocío 1983 Estudios sobre el español de Lima, 1: Variación contextual de la sibilante. Lima: Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú.Google Scholar
Cedergren, Henrietta 1973 Interplay of Social and Linguistic Factors in the Spanish of Panama. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Fontanella, Beatriz 1973 Comportamiento ante -s de hablantes femininos y masculinos del español bonaerense. Romance Philology 27:5058.Google Scholar
Gryner, Helen, and Macedo, Alzira Tavares de 1981 La prononciation du s postvocalique: deux processus de change ment linguistique en portugais. Pp. 135140 in Variation Omnibus. Sankoff, David and Cedergren, Henrietta, eds. Edmonton: Linguistic Research.Google Scholar
Guitart, Jorge 1982 En torno a la sílaba como entidad fonemàtica. Thesaurus 36:457463.Google Scholar
Harris, James 1984 Syllabic Structure and Stress in Spanish. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Hyman, Ruth 1956 [ŋ] as an Allophone Denoting Open Juncture in Several Spanish-American Dialects. Hispania 39:293299.Google Scholar
Lafford, Barbara 1982 Dynamic Synchrony in the Spanish of Cartagena, Colombia. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Lipski, John 1983a La norma culta y la norma radiofónica: /s/ y /n/ en español. Language Problems and Language Planning 7:239262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipski, John 1983b Reducción de /s/ en el español de Honduras. Nueva Revista de Filología Hispania 32:272288.Google Scholar
Lipski, John 1984 On the Weakening of /s/ in Latin American Spanish. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 51:3143.Google Scholar
Lipski, John 1985 /s/ in Central American Spanish. Hispânia 68:143149.Google Scholar
Lipski, John 1986 El Valle del Chota: Enclave lingüístico afroecuatoriano. Boletín de la Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española. (In press).Google Scholar
López Morales, Humberto 1980 Velarización de /n/ en el español de Puerto Rico. Lingüística Española Actual 2:203217.Google Scholar
Mondéjar, José 1970 El verbo andaluz. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica.Google Scholar
Robinson, Kimball 1979 On the Voicing of Intervocalic s in the Ecuadorian Highlands. Romance Philology 33:137143.Google Scholar
Sosa, Juan, and Francesco, d’Introno 1984 ¿Elisió de nasal y/o nasalizaciõ de vocal en caraqueño? Presented at the VIII Simposio de Dialectología del Caribe Hispánico, Florida Atlantic University.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy 1976 La variación fonética de /r/ y /rr/ en el español cubano. Revista de Filología Española 58:109132.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy 1977 Constraints on the Aspiration and Deletion of Final /s/ in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Bilingual Review 4:3551.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy 1978 Aspiración y elisión de /s/ en el español porteño. Anuario de Letras 16:4566.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy 1983 Sound Change: The Explanatory Value of the Heterogeneity of Variable Rule Application. Pp. 133148 in Spanish in the U.S. Setting: Beyond the Southwest. Lucía, Elias-Olivares, ed. Rosslyn, Va.: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.Google Scholar
Zamora, Juan Clemente, and Jorge, Guitart 1982 Dialectología hispanoamericana. Salamanca: Almar.Google Scholar