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Coronal place contrasts in Argentine and Cuban Spanish: An electropalatographic study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2011

Alexei Kochetov  and
Laura Colantoni
Alexei Kochetov
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Canada al.kochetov@utoronto.ca, laura.colantoni@utoronto.ca
Laura Colantoni
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Canada al.kochetov@utoronto.ca, laura.colantoni@utoronto.ca
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Abstract

Theoretical and descriptive work on Spanish phonetics and phonology has been largely based on Peninsular varieties. This study uses electropalatography (EPG) to investigate articulatory characteristics of coronal consonant contrasts in Argentine and Cuban Spanish. Simultaneous EPG and acoustic data were collected from five speakers from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and three speakers from Havana (Cuba) reading sentences with various syllable-initial coronal consonants corresponding to the orthographic 〈t, ch, n, ñ, s, z, ll, y, l, r〉. As a control, the same data were collected from a single speaker of Peninsular Spanish from Madrid. As expected, the main distinction in both varieties was made between anterior and posterior coronal consonants ((denti-)alveolars vs. (alveolo-)palatals) and reflected the historical merger of the sounds represented by 〈s–z〉 and 〈ll–y〉. At the same time, the results revealed some consistent differences between the two varieties in the location of the constriction and the amount of linguopalatal contact for most coronal consonants. First, the coronal consonants produced by the Argentine speakers were overall considerably more fronted and more constricted than the corresponding consonants produced by the Cuban speakers. Second, 〈ll, y〉 were produced as a fronted alveolo-palatal fricative by the Argentine speakers, and as an approximant by the Cuban speakers. Inter-speaker variation was observed within the varieties in the articulation of some consonants, namely in the Argentine alveolo-palatal fricative and nasal (〈ll, y〉 and 〈ñ〉), and the Cuban alveolo-palatal affricate 〈ch〉.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , December 2011 , pp. 313 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2011

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