Chapter published in:
Spanish Phonetics and Phonology in Contact: Studies from Africa, the Americas, and Spain
Edited by Rajiv Rao
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 28] 2020
► pp. 36–62

The changing rhythm of Yucatan Spanish

| North Carolina State University
| North Carolina State University
This is a real time sociolinguistic analysis of the changing rhythm of Yucatan Spanish (YS), measured by four rhythm metrics: %V, ΔC, Vnpvi and Crpvi. We compare apparent time data, previously collected in 2005, with real time data collected 11 years later, in 2016, analyzing the prosodic rhythm of YS across three age groups (2005 older vs. younger; 2016 younger) and two language groups (Maya-Spanish bilinguals vs. Spanish monolinguals). Results indicate that younger speakers are moving away from the Maya-influenced rhythm of traditional YS, and are instead adopting a rhythm similar to Mexico City Spanish. These changes are explained as a process of new dialect formation/koineization, as the dialect stabilizes after a period of intense dialect and language contact.
Keywords: prosodic rhythm, Yucatan Spanish, language contact, real time sociolinguistics
Published online: 06 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.28.02mic
References

References

Abercrombie, D.
(1967) Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Archibald, J.
(1996) The acquisition of Yucatecan Maya prosody. In B. Bernhardt, J. Gilbert, & D. Ingram (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Phonological Acquisition (pp. 85–98). Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings ProjectGoogle Scholar
Arvaniti, A.
(2012) The usefulness of metrics in the quantification of speech rhythm. Journal of Phonetics, 40, 351–373. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) Rhythm, timing and the timing of rhythm. Phonetica, 66, 46–63. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, G.
(2002) Real and apparent time. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 312–332). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bailey, G., Wikle, T., Tillery, J., & Sand, L.
(1991) The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change, 3(3), 241–264. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barrera Vásquez, A.
(1945) El idioma español en Yucatán. In Enciclopedia Yucatanense. Mexico City: Gobierno de Yucatán.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D.
(2015) Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer program] (Version 5.4.22). Retrieved from http://​www​.praat​.org/ (18 February, 2020).Google Scholar
Burnett-Deas, A.
(2009) VOT of ejectives, implosives, and plain stops in Yukateko, Mopan, and Itzaj Maya (Unpublished MA thesis). Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL.
Carter, P. M.
(2005) Prosodic variation in SLA: Rhythm in an urban North Carolina Hispanic community. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 11, 4.Google Scholar
(2007) Phonetic variation and speaker agency: Mexicana identity in a North Carolina middle school. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 13, 1.Google Scholar
Carter, P. M., & Wolford, T.
(2016) Cross-generational prosodic convergence in South Texas Spanish. Spanish in Context, 13, 29–52. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cedergren, H.
(1987) The spread of language change: Verifying inferences of linguistic diffusion. In P. H. Lowenberg (Ed.), Language spread and language policy: Issues, implications and case studies (pp. 45–60). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K.
(2009) Sociolinguistic theory: Linguistic variation and its social significance. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Delforge, A. M.
(2008) Unstressed vowel reduction in Andean Spanish. In L. Colantoni & J. Steele (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology (pp. 107–124). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Díaz-Campos, M.
(2003) The pluralization of haber in Venezuelan Spanish: A sociolinguistic change in real time. IU Working Papers in Linguistics, 3(5), 1–13.Google Scholar
Face, T. L.
(2003) Intonation in Spanish declaratives: Differences between lab speech and spontaneous speech. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2, 115–131. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frazier, M.
(2009). The production and perception of pitch and glottalization in Yucatec Maya (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
(2011) Tonal dialects and consonant-pitch interaction in Yucatec Maya. New perspectives in Mayan linguistics, 59, 59–82.Google Scholar
Grabe, E., & Low, E. L.
(2002) Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis. In C. Gussenhoven, & N. Warner (Eds.), Papers in laboratory phonoapers in laboratory phonology 7 (pp. 515–546). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Henriksen, N., & Fafulas, S.
(2017) Prosodic timing and language contact: Spanish and Yagua in Amazonian Peru. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 10(2), 225–257.
Hualde, J. I.
(2005) The sounds of Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Instituto nacional de estadística, geografía e informática (INEGI)
(2010) Conteo de población y vivienda. Mexico: Aguascalientes.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. E.
(2009) Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3, 359–383. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kerswill, P.
(2002) Koineization and accomodation. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill, & N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 669–702). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Klee, C. A.
(2009) Migrations and globalization: Their effects on contact varieties of Latin American Spanish. In M. LaCorte & J. Leeman (Eds.), Español en Estados Unidos y otros contextos de contacto: Sociolingüística, ideología y pedagogía (pp. 39–66). Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1994) Principles of linguistic variation, Vol. I: Internal factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lipski, J. M.
(2004) El español de América. Madrid: Cátedra.Google Scholar
Lope Blanch, J. M.
(1987) Estudios sobre el español de Yucatán. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Low E. L., Grabe, E., & Nolan, F.
(2000) Quantitative characterizations of speech rhythm: Syllable-timing in Singapore English. Language and Speech, 43, 377–401. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Low, E. L., & Grabe, E.
(1995) Prosodic patterns in Singapore English. In ICPhS 95 (Vol. 3, pp. 636–639). Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
Mairano, P., & Romano, A.
(2010) Un confronto tra diverse metriche ritmiche usando Correlatore. In S. Schmid, M. Schwarzenbach, & D. Studer (Eds.), La dimensione temporale del parlato, (Proc. of the V National AISV Congress, University of Zurich, Collegiengebaude, 4–6 February 2009) (pp. 79–100). Torriana (RN): EDK. Retrieved from http://​phonetictools​.altervista​.org​/correlatore/ (18 February, 2020).Google Scholar
Martín Butragueño, P., Mendoza, E., & Orozco, L
(2015, October). Aproximación a la prosodia del español de Mérida: datos del COEM (Corpus oral del español de México, 2010–2015). Presented at AMLA, XIII Congreso Nacional de Lingüística, Tuxtla Gutiérrez.Google Scholar
(2016, April). Nueva visita al prealineamiento del español yucateco de Mérida. Presented at the 8th International Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, San Juan, PR.Google Scholar
Mediz Bolio, A.
(1951) Interinfluencia del maya con el español de Yucatán. Mérida, Mexico: Editorial Zamná.Google Scholar
Michnowicz, J.
(2006) Linguistic and social variables in Yucatan Spanish (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
(2009) Intervocalic voiced stops in Yucatan Spanish: A case of contact induced language change? In M. LaCorte & J. Leeman (Eds.), Español en Estados Unidos y en otros contextos de contacto (pp. 67–84). Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011) Dialect standardization in Merida, Yucatan: The case of (b d ɡ). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18, 191–212.Google Scholar
(2012) The standardization of Yucatan Spanish: Family case studies in Izamal and Mérida. In K. Geeslin & M. Díaz-Campos (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2010 (pp. 102–115). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
(2015) Maya-Spanish contact in Yucatan, Mexico: Context & sociolinguistic implications. In S. Sessarego & M. González Rivera (Eds.), New perspectives on Hispanic contact linguistics in the Americas (pp. 21–42). Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert/ Iberoamericana. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Michnowicz, J., & Barnes, H.
(2013) Pre-nuclear peak alignment in Yucatan Spanish. In C. Howe, S. E. Blackwell, & M. Lubbers Quesada (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2011 (pp. 221–235). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Michnowicz, J., & Carpenter, L.
(2013) Voiceless stop aspiration in Yucatan Spanish: A sociolinguistic analysis. Spanish in Context, 10, 410–437. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Michnowicz, J., & Kagan, L.
(2016) On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish. In S. Sessarego & F. Tejedo-Herrero (Eds.), Spanish language and sociolinguistic analysis (pp. 219–239). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Rourke, E.
(2008a) Correlating speech rhythm in Spanish: Evidence from two Peruvian dialects. In Selected proceedings of the 10th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 276–287). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
(2008b) Speech rhythm variation in dialects of Spanish: Applying the pairwise variability index and variation coefficients to Peruvian Spanish. Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Speech Prosody . Campinas, Brazil.
Pfeiler, B.
(1995) Zur prosodie des Spanischen in Yucatán, Mexiko. In K. Zimmerman (Ed.), Lenguas en contacto en Hispanoamérica: nuevos enfoques (pp. 119–34). Frankfurt: Vervuert Verlagsgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Pike, K. L.
(1945) The intonation of American English. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
R Core Team
(2016) R: A language and environment for statistical computing (Version 3.3.1). Retrieved from http://​www​.R​-project​.org/ (18 February, 2020).Google Scholar
Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J.
(1999) Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition, 73, 265–292. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Robles-Puente, S.
(2014) Prosody in contact: Spanish in Los Angeles (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Sankoff, G., & Blondeau, H.
(2007) Language change across the lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French. Language, 83(3), 560–588. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schilling, N.
(2013) Sociolinguistic fieldwork. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shousterman, C.
(2014) Speaking English in Spanish Harlem: The role of rhythm. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 20, 18.Google Scholar
Suárez, V. M.
(1979) El español que se habla en Yucatán: apuntamientos filológicos. Mérida, Mexico: La Universidad de Yucatán.Google Scholar
Toledo, G. A.
(2009) Métricas rítmicas en tres dialectos Amper-Hispanoamérica. Ianua. Revista Philologica Romanica, 9, 1–21.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P.
(1988) Norwich revisited: Recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect. English World-Wide, 9(1), 33–49. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1998) The chaos before the order: New Zealand English and the second stage of new-dialect formation. In E. H. Jahr (Ed.), Advances in historical sociolinguistics (pp. 1–11). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Uth, M.
(2016) Prosodic realization of contrastive focus in Yucatecan Spanish. Romanistisches Jahrbuch, 67, 255–283. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
White, L., & Mattys, S. L.
(2007) Calibrating rhythm: First language and second language studies. Journal of Phonetics, 35, 501–522. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wilbanks, E.
(2015, October). The development of FASE (Forced Alignment System for Español) and implications for sociolinguistic research. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 44. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Wolf, C.
(1984) Tiempo real y tiempo aparente en el estudio de una variación lingüística: ensordecimiento y sonorización del yeísmo porteño. In L. Schwarz & I. Lerner (Eds.), Homenaje a Ana María Barrenechea (pp. 175–196). Madrid: Castalia.Google Scholar
Wolf. C., & Jiménez, E.
(1979) El ensordecimiento del žeísmo porteño: Un cambio fonológico en marcha. In A. M. Barrenechea (Ed.), Estudios lingüísticos y dialectológicos. Temas hispánicos. (pp. 115–144). Buenos Aires: Hachette.Google Scholar
Yakel, A.
(2018) Rhythm variation in speakers of Spanish as a heritage language (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Houston, Houston, TX.