La relación entre la palatalización y las consonantes labiales en castellano

In spite of the many studies devoted to the palatal outcomes of the Latin clusters PL and FL in Old Spanish, some other clusters and sequences composed of labial consonants such as -PUL-, -BVL-, -BE,I-, -VE,I- and -MI- have received little attention. The aim of this paper is to analyze the phonetic aspects of the diachronic evolution of these clusters and sequences into their Old Spanish outcomes [ʎ], [ɟ] y [ɲtʃ]. To this end, experimental, dialectal and comparative data from Old Spanish as well as from other Romance languages will be used. This will lead to the conclusion that the sound changes in both [Clabial + l] and [Clabial + j] clusters were based on the same articulatory mechanisms: a strengthening of the segment following the labial consonant and the later deletion of the labial, if it was a stop, or its assimilation to the point of articulation of the palatal, if it was a nasal. The implications of these conclusions for the evolution of pl and fl clusters in Old Spanish, as well as for the methodology in historical phonetics, will be pointed out.A pesar de los numerosos estudios dedicados a los resultados palatales en castellano de los grupos latinos PLl y FL en inicio y en interior de palabra, otros grupos y secuencias integrados por consonantes labiales como -PUL-, -BVL-, -BE,I-, -VE,I- y -MI- han recibido muy poca atención. El propósito de este artículo es analizar los detalles fonéticos de la evolución diacrónica de estos grupos y secuencias hacia los resultados castellanos [ʎ], [ɟ] y [ɲtʃ]. Para este fin se utilizarán datos experimentales, dialectales y comparativos del castellano y de otras lenguas romances. Todo ello permitirá concluir que tanto en los grupos de [Clabial + l] como en los de [Clabial + j] el cambio estuvo basado en los mismos mecanismos articulatorios: un fortalecimiento del segmento que seguía a la consonante labial y la posterior elisión de la propia labial, si ésta era oclusiva, o su asimilación al punto de articulación de la palatal, si era nasal. Se concluirá señalando las implicaciones que esto puede tener para los grupos PL y FL en castellano, así como para la metodología en fonética histórica

Análisis contrastivo de las realizaciones del sonido fricativo mediopalatal del griego por parte de aprendices españoles

En los últimos años la fonética experimental ha conseguido clarificar gran parte de las incertidumbres sobre la naturaleza fonética de distintos alófonos del español. No obstante, la región medio y prepalatal todavía produce dudas al estudioso, siendo el estatus de los alófonos del fonema palatal sonoro todavía perceptiblemente oscura. En el presente trabajo hemos realizado un análisis acústico centrado en las realizaciones fonéticas del alófono fricativo palatal sonoro del griego por parte de estudiantes hispanohablantes o catalanohablantes con el objetivo de clarificar el estatus del alófono mediopalatal del español. La ausencia de realizaciones fricativas mediopalatales sonoras parece demostrar la marginalidad de los alófonos fricativos mediopalatales que son sustituidos principalmente por realizaciones aproximantes espirantes y semivocálicas

Contrast preservation and constraints on individual phonetic variation

Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the founders of modern Linguistics, described language as a system where everything holds together. Regarding the sounds of language, this has led to the current view that the phonology of a language consists of a complex system of relations between contrastive phonemes. In this dissertation, I test whether there are constraints on individual phonetic variation from a multivariate perspective due to this system of relations, and how these constraints interact with contrast preservation. Two main views of contrast preservation are considered. The first view is that contrast preservation is merely an outcome of other regular phonetic processes that affect multiple consonants simultaneously. The second view is that contrast preservation acts as a constraint on the phonetic realization of phonemes. To this end, two phonetic experiments are performed. In both experiments, multiple acoustic measures of intervocalic consonant strength are taken, and PCA is used for dimensionality reduction, resulting in measures of overall consonant strength. These measures are then analyzed with Bayesian linear mixed effects regression (using weakly informative priors and maximal random effects structures) in order to obtain distributional information about both populations and individual speakers. In the first experiment, word-medial intervocalic /s/ and /f/ are compared for Valladolid Spanish and Barcelona Catalan. Both Catalan and Spanish have the fricatives /s/ and /f/, neither has /v/ contrasting with /f/, and only Catalan has /z/ contrasting with /s/. The results show that Catalan /s/ is stronger than Spanish /s/, but there is no evidence for a difference between the two language’s /f/ strengths, with strong evidence that the magnitude of the difference between Catalan and Spanish /s/ is larger than the magnitude of the difference between Catalan and Spanish /f/. I argue that these results are consistent with a role for contrast preservation as a constraint, with Catalan having stronger /s/ than Spanish because lenition of Catalan /s/ causes phonetic overlap with a contrasting phoneme, while lenition of Spanish /s/ does not. In the second experiment, the simultaneous lenition of Spanish intervocalic /ptk/ and /bdg/ in three dialects (Cuzco, Peru; Lima, Peru; and Valladolid, Spain) is examined. Cuzco is found to have the strongest productions for both /ptk/ and /bdg/, Lima the weakest for both, and Valladolid in between for both. That is, the same hierarchy of strength applies in both cases, though the evidence for the difference between Valladolid and Lima /ptk/ is considerably weaker than the evidence for the other differences. I argue that the results are consistent with constraints on multivariate variation at the dialectal level, but that further research is required to see how constraints at the individual level relate to population differences. Examining individual variation in both experiments, I find that the degree to which an individual speaker lenites /f/ is correlated with the degree to which they lenite /s/, and that the degree to which they lenite /ptk/ is correlated with both the degree to which they lenite /bdg/ and the degree to which they lenite /sf/. These correlations represent a significant constraint on individual phonetic variation from a multivariate perspective. While a connection between individuals’ /ptk/ and /bdg/ lenitions can be explained by both the constraint and outcome views of contrast preservation, the correlation between /sf/ and /ptk/ and the correlation between /s/ and /f/ lend support to the outcome view, and Catalan having stronger /s/ than Spanish but not stronger /f/ lends support to the constraint view. I argue for a framework in which acoustic lenition in a variety of intervocalic consonants may share a common articulatory source of lenition, giving rise to constraints on individual phonetic variation that may lead to contrast preservation as an outcome, but where there may additionally be a role for contrast preservation as a constraint. I conclude by discussing the importance of further acoustic studies that use the methodologies employed here, and studies that explore the articulatory and perceptual implications of the results. In the first experiment, word-medial intervocalic /s/ and /f/ are compared for Valladolid Spanish and Barcelona Catalan. Both Catalan and Spanish have the fricatives /s/ and /f/, neither has /v/ contrasting with /f/, and only Catalan has /z/ contrasting with /s/. The results show that Catalan /s/ is stronger than Spanish /s/, but there is no evidence for a difference between the two language’s /f/ strengths, with strong evidence that the magnitude of the difference between Catalan and Spanish /s/ is larger than the magnitude of the difference between Catalan and Spanish /f/. I argue that these results are consistent with a role for contrast preservation as a constraint, with Catalan having stronger /s/ than Spanish because lenition of Catalan /s/ causes phonetic overlap with a contrasting phoneme, while lenition of Spanish /s/ does not. In the second experiment, the simultaneous lenition of Spanish intervocalic /ptk/ and /bdg/ in three dialects (Cuzco, Peru; Lima, Peru; and Valladolid, Spain) is examined. Cuzco is found to have the strongest productions for both /ptk/ and /bdg/, Lima the weakest for both, and Valladolid in between for both. That is, the same hierarchy of strength applies in both cases, though the evidence for the difference between Valladolid and Lima /ptk/ is considerably weaker than the evidence for the other differences. I argue that the results are consistent with constraints on multivariate variation at the dialectal level, but that further research is required to see how constraints at the individual level relate to population differences. Examining individual variation in both experiments, I find that the degree to which an individual speaker lenites /f/ is correlated with the degree to which they lenite /s/, and that the degree to which they lenite /ptk/ is correlated with both the degree to which they lenite /bdg/ and the degree to which they lenite /sf/. These correlations represent a significant constraint on individual phonetic variation from a multivariate perspective. While a connection between individuals’ /ptk/ and /bdg/ lenitions can be explained by both the constraint and outcome views of contrast preservation, the correlation between /sf/ and /ptk/ and the correlation between /s/ and /f/ lend support to the outcome view, and Catalan having stronger /s/ than Spanish but not stronger /f/ lends support to the constraint view. I argue for a framework in which acoustic lenition in a variety of intervocalic consonants may share a common articulatory source of lenition, giving rise to constraints on individual phonetic variation which may lead to contrast preservation as an outcome, but where there may additionally be a role for contrast preservation as a constraint. I conclude by discussing the importance of further acoustic studies which use the methodologies employed here, and studies which explore the articulatory and perceptual implications of the results