TY - JOUR
T1 - The social meaning of a merger
T2 - The evaluation of an Andalusian Spanish consonant merger (ceceo)
AU - Regan, Brendan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2022/6/15
Y1 - 2022/6/15
N2 - This study analyzes the social evaluations of the Andalusian Spanish ceceo merger and its split, distinción. A matched-guise experiment was created by digitally manipulating spontaneous speech from twelve Western Andalusian speakers, varying only in syllable-initial [s̪] and [θ] for and , creating ceceo and distinción guises. Based on 221 listeners from Huelva and Lepe, Spain, mixed effects linear regression models found that speakers with distinción guises were evaluated as being of higher social status, more urban, and more formal than speakers with ceceo guises. Additionally, listeners' comments referred not only to the sounds and graphemes, but also to the merger itself and its social connotations. The implications are two-fold: (i) consonant mergers may be subject to more overt social evaluation than vocalic mergers; and (ii) a merger can acquire social meaning, and this meaning in turn, may promote its split.
AB - This study analyzes the social evaluations of the Andalusian Spanish ceceo merger and its split, distinción. A matched-guise experiment was created by digitally manipulating spontaneous speech from twelve Western Andalusian speakers, varying only in syllable-initial [s̪] and [θ] for and , creating ceceo and distinción guises. Based on 221 listeners from Huelva and Lepe, Spain, mixed effects linear regression models found that speakers with distinción guises were evaluated as being of higher social status, more urban, and more formal than speakers with ceceo guises. Additionally, listeners' comments referred not only to the sounds and graphemes, but also to the merger itself and its social connotations. The implications are two-fold: (i) consonant mergers may be subject to more overt social evaluation than vocalic mergers; and (ii) a merger can acquire social meaning, and this meaning in turn, may promote its split.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112374143&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0047404521000543
DO - 10.1017/S0047404521000543
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112374143
VL - 51
SP - 481
EP - 510
JO - Language in Society
JF - Language in Society
SN - 0047-4045
IS - 3
ER -