Anti-hiatus tendencies in Spanish: rate of occurrence and phonetic identification
Spanish normative grammar considers any two-vowel combination of /e/, /a/, and /o/ as a hiatus, accepting that they can be pronounced as a diphthong in lower basilects and/or informal registers. This article analyzes speeches of educated speakers, performing an acoustic analysis of 60 segmental and...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0228 |
| Summary: | Spanish normative grammar considers any two-vowel combination of /e/, /a/, and /o/ as a hiatus, accepting that they can be pronounced as a diphthong in lower basilects and/or informal registers. This article analyzes speeches of educated speakers, performing an acoustic analysis of 60 segmental and suprasegmental features in 493 vowel sequences. Linear mixed-effects models suggest that two-vowel sequences of /e/, /a/, and /o/ are pronounced as diphthongs in 77.27 % of cases; suprasegmental features (especially duration) are the most reliable cues to distinguish a hiatus from a diphthong in Spanish. These results call for a re-examination of diphthong classification in Spanish. |
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| ISSN: | 0024-3949 1613-396X |