Papers by Christina Garcia
The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish, 2021
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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2017
In several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. ... more In several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. g., oso ‘bear’ as [ozo], and this difference may have a physiological basis. File-Muriel et al. (2015, Disentangling the physiological from the socially-learned in gradient, sociophonetic processes: Evidence from s-realization in Barranquilla, Colombia. Unpublished manuscript) found that vocal tract size conditions /s/ aspiration in Barranquilla, and Nadeu and Hualde (2013, Reinterpretation of biomechanics as gender-conditioned variation in the origin of diachronic intervocalic voicing. Available at http://washo.uchicago.edu/pub/workshop/nadeu.pdf) contend that speakers with larger vocal tracts may have greater difficulty controlling vocal fold cessation. The present work serves as a continuation of these studies, utilizing 18 sociolinguistic interviews to determine (i) what factors are most predictive of intervocalic [z] in Costa Rica and (ii) whether physiology can potentially explain ...
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Recently in sociolinguistics, the Implicit Association Task (IAT) has been used to test implicit ... more Recently in sociolinguistics, the Implicit Association Task (IAT) has been used to test implicit linguistic awareness and attitudes. With the advent of this methodology, studies have been acutely concerned with the relationship between implicit measures such as the IAT and other more explicit measures. While prior studies have found a relationship between implicit and explicit awareness of variants (Campbell-Kibler 2011), this has not been the case for attitudes. Lack of correspondence between implicit and explicit attitudes has been attested to by both Pantos (2010) and Campbell-Kibler (forthcoming), with respect to foreign accented speech and regional variation in American English, respectively. The present study adds to this implicit vs. explicit discussion by examining the awareness and attitudes of sibilant devoicing in Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS).
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CALICO Journal
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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2017
In several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. ... more In several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. g., oso ‘bear’ as [ozo], and this difference may have a physiological basis. File-Muriel et al. (2015, Disentangling the physiological from the socially-learned in gradient, sociophonetic processes: Evidence from s-realization in Barranquilla, Colombia. Unpublished manuscript) found that vocal tract size conditions /s/ aspiration in Barranquilla, and Nadeu and Hualde (2013, Reinterpretation of biomechanics as gender-conditioned variation in the origin of diachronic intervocalic voicing. Available at http://washo.uchicago.edu/pub/workshop/nadeu.pdf) contend that speakers with larger vocal tracts may have greater difficulty controlling vocal fold cessation. The present work serves as a continuation of these studies, utilizing 18 sociolinguistic interviews to determine (i) what factors are most predictive of intervocalic [z] in Costa Rica and (ii) whether physiology can potentially explain its origin. The results of a statistical analysis using 1,647 tokens of /s/ show that both gender and physiological factors significantly condition voicing (p < 0.001), with more voicing in men’s speech, as F2 decreases, and as f0 decreases. However, one would expect more gradient voicing in men’s speech if physiological factors caused the gender-based voicing difference, but women voice more gradiently while men produce higher rates of 0 % and 100 % voicing. We conclude that while physiological factors may have been its original source, non-physiological factors currently condition /s/-voicing in Costa Rica, with male speakers aiming for categorical targets for social motivations.
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Recent research has suggested that the contribution of individual sociolinguistic variables to th... more Recent research has suggested that the contribution of individual sociolinguistic variables to the social perception of a speaker is influenced by other available information about the speaker (Campbell-Kibler, 2007; Pharao, Maegaard, Spindler Møller, & Kristiansen, 2014). Here we investigate the impact of listener awareness of regional sociolinguistic variation on sociolinguistic perception. Specifically, we compare how the social meanings attributed to word-internal,
preconsonantal /s/ differ based on whether the listeners and speakers use predominantly /s/-weakening Puerto Rican Spanish or predominantly non–/s/-weakening Mexican Spanish. We find that for measures of status, Puerto Rican and Mexican listeners both show a smaller effect of /s/ when rating Puerto Rican as opposed to Mexican speakers. However, we see no effect of speaker nationality on
heteronormativity, and Puerto Rican listeners and male Mexican listeners rate strong /s/ as less heteronormative across the board. Mexican female listeners, however, rate strong /s/ as more heteronormative. These results suggest that listeners integrate their own local ideologies with their understanding of regional differences when socially evaluating language variation.
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Conference Presentations by Christina Garcia
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Modern Argentine Spanish is well known for its salient prepalatal grooved fricative corresponding... more Modern Argentine Spanish is well known for its salient prepalatal grooved fricative corresponding to orthographic <y> and <ll>. Following the /ʎ/-/ʝ/ merger, /ʝ/ was strengthened to a voiced prepalatal fricative in Argentine Spanish as early as the mid-18th century (Fontanella de Weinberg, 1973, p. 342). Subsequently, the devoicing of this strengthened fricative spread throughout the capital city and neighboring areas in the 20th century, with young women leading the change in progress (Wolf & Jiménez, 1979). More recent studies find that [ʃ] has largely been generalized among younger speakers (Chang, 2008), but younger and older upper-class speakers as well as older middle-class speakers continue to produce high rates of [ʒ] (Rohena-Madrazo, 2011). Rohena-Madrazo (2011) concludes that the change from below is in its final stages.
Only Wolf (1984) has explored real-time data, finding that upper-class young men who had previously produced variable voicing exhibited nearly a categorical use of [ʒ] five years later, perhaps revoicing to highlight their social status. This age-grading may indicate stable variation rather than a change in progress. However, it is difficult to conclude whether Porteños’ variant use is due to a language-internal change or if it is motivated by social factors. Building on King (2009), who shows most Porteños perceptually distinguish [ʃ] and [ʒ], we conducted a matched-guise test to quantitatively explore what social meaning is indexed by [ʃ] or [ʒ] in Buenos Aires. The stimuli came from five native speakers from Argentina (three men and two women), who were recorded reading a news report two times, once with [ʃ] and once with [ʒ]. From each speaker’s recordings, one utterance was extracted as a baseline audio file, and it was manipulated to yield two recordings differing only in [ʃ] or [ʒ]. The ten target audio files were presented in a pseudorandom order to 74 listeners from Buenos Aires, who rated the speakers on a matrix of social qualities, such as how upper-class, cheto ‘snobby’, old, nice, and porteño they sounded. Evaluations of whether the participants were from the wealthier north side of Buenos Aires, the south of Buenos Aires, or another area were also measured.
Using the 7,400 total listener evaluations, separate mixed effects linear regression models were fitted to each scalar property, and a multinomial regression model was fitted to perceived speaker origin. The results show that the same voices are perceived as significantly higher class, more stuck up, and older when heard with the voiced [ʒ] (p < 0.001). Interestingly, contrary to what is typically found for prestige variants, [ʒ] is not heard as more intelligent or professional. Thus, [ʒ] seems to be associated with fixed social types rather than permanent qualities or stances. On the other hand, speakers were evaluated as significantly more porteño and more likely to be from the south of Buenos Aires when heard with [ʃ] (p < 0.01). While studies from half a century ago found majority [ʒ] production (see Guitarte, 1955), in present-day Buenos Aires the voiceless variant appears to be considered the standard. These results show that [ʃ] and [ʒ] are indeed imbued with social meaning, as they are employed to index specific social types, which suggests that sheísmo and zheísmo may now be in stable variation in Buenos Aires.
References
Chang, C. (2008). Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish. In M. Westmoreland & J. A. Thomas (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 4th workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 54-63). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1973). El rehilamiento bonaerense a fines de siglo XVIII. Thesaurus, 28, 338-343.
Guitarte, G. (1955). El ensordecimiento del žeísmo porteño. Revista de Filología Española, 39, 261-283.
King, C. (2009). Language attitudes toward devoicing among young adults in Buenos Aires. Senior Honors Thesis, The Ohio State University.
Rohena-Madrazo, M. (2011). Sociophonetic variation in the production and perception of obstruent voicing in Buenos Aires Spanish. Doctoral dissertation, New York University.
Wolf, C. (1984). Tiempo real y tiempo aparente en el estudio de una variación lingüística: Ensordecimiento y sonorización del yeísmo porteño. In L. Schwartz & I. Lerner (Eds.), Homenaje a Ana María Barrenechea (pp. 175-196). Madrid: Castalia.
Wolf, C., & Jiménez, E. (1979). El ensordecimiento del yeísmo porteño: un cambio fonológico en marcha. In A. M Barrenechea (Ed.), Estudios lingüísticos y dialectológicos: Temas Hispánicos (pp. 115-145). Buenos Aires: Hachette.
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Papers by Christina Garcia
preconsonantal /s/ differ based on whether the listeners and speakers use predominantly /s/-weakening Puerto Rican Spanish or predominantly non–/s/-weakening Mexican Spanish. We find that for measures of status, Puerto Rican and Mexican listeners both show a smaller effect of /s/ when rating Puerto Rican as opposed to Mexican speakers. However, we see no effect of speaker nationality on
heteronormativity, and Puerto Rican listeners and male Mexican listeners rate strong /s/ as less heteronormative across the board. Mexican female listeners, however, rate strong /s/ as more heteronormative. These results suggest that listeners integrate their own local ideologies with their understanding of regional differences when socially evaluating language variation.
Conference Presentations by Christina Garcia
Only Wolf (1984) has explored real-time data, finding that upper-class young men who had previously produced variable voicing exhibited nearly a categorical use of [ʒ] five years later, perhaps revoicing to highlight their social status. This age-grading may indicate stable variation rather than a change in progress. However, it is difficult to conclude whether Porteños’ variant use is due to a language-internal change or if it is motivated by social factors. Building on King (2009), who shows most Porteños perceptually distinguish [ʃ] and [ʒ], we conducted a matched-guise test to quantitatively explore what social meaning is indexed by [ʃ] or [ʒ] in Buenos Aires. The stimuli came from five native speakers from Argentina (three men and two women), who were recorded reading a news report two times, once with [ʃ] and once with [ʒ]. From each speaker’s recordings, one utterance was extracted as a baseline audio file, and it was manipulated to yield two recordings differing only in [ʃ] or [ʒ]. The ten target audio files were presented in a pseudorandom order to 74 listeners from Buenos Aires, who rated the speakers on a matrix of social qualities, such as how upper-class, cheto ‘snobby’, old, nice, and porteño they sounded. Evaluations of whether the participants were from the wealthier north side of Buenos Aires, the south of Buenos Aires, or another area were also measured.
Using the 7,400 total listener evaluations, separate mixed effects linear regression models were fitted to each scalar property, and a multinomial regression model was fitted to perceived speaker origin. The results show that the same voices are perceived as significantly higher class, more stuck up, and older when heard with the voiced [ʒ] (p < 0.001). Interestingly, contrary to what is typically found for prestige variants, [ʒ] is not heard as more intelligent or professional. Thus, [ʒ] seems to be associated with fixed social types rather than permanent qualities or stances. On the other hand, speakers were evaluated as significantly more porteño and more likely to be from the south of Buenos Aires when heard with [ʃ] (p < 0.01). While studies from half a century ago found majority [ʒ] production (see Guitarte, 1955), in present-day Buenos Aires the voiceless variant appears to be considered the standard. These results show that [ʃ] and [ʒ] are indeed imbued with social meaning, as they are employed to index specific social types, which suggests that sheísmo and zheísmo may now be in stable variation in Buenos Aires.
References
Chang, C. (2008). Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish. In M. Westmoreland & J. A. Thomas (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 4th workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 54-63). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1973). El rehilamiento bonaerense a fines de siglo XVIII. Thesaurus, 28, 338-343.
Guitarte, G. (1955). El ensordecimiento del žeísmo porteño. Revista de Filología Española, 39, 261-283.
King, C. (2009). Language attitudes toward devoicing among young adults in Buenos Aires. Senior Honors Thesis, The Ohio State University.
Rohena-Madrazo, M. (2011). Sociophonetic variation in the production and perception of obstruent voicing in Buenos Aires Spanish. Doctoral dissertation, New York University.
Wolf, C. (1984). Tiempo real y tiempo aparente en el estudio de una variación lingüística: Ensordecimiento y sonorización del yeísmo porteño. In L. Schwartz & I. Lerner (Eds.), Homenaje a Ana María Barrenechea (pp. 175-196). Madrid: Castalia.
Wolf, C., & Jiménez, E. (1979). El ensordecimiento del yeísmo porteño: un cambio fonológico en marcha. In A. M Barrenechea (Ed.), Estudios lingüísticos y dialectológicos: Temas Hispánicos (pp. 115-145). Buenos Aires: Hachette.
preconsonantal /s/ differ based on whether the listeners and speakers use predominantly /s/-weakening Puerto Rican Spanish or predominantly non–/s/-weakening Mexican Spanish. We find that for measures of status, Puerto Rican and Mexican listeners both show a smaller effect of /s/ when rating Puerto Rican as opposed to Mexican speakers. However, we see no effect of speaker nationality on
heteronormativity, and Puerto Rican listeners and male Mexican listeners rate strong /s/ as less heteronormative across the board. Mexican female listeners, however, rate strong /s/ as more heteronormative. These results suggest that listeners integrate their own local ideologies with their understanding of regional differences when socially evaluating language variation.
Only Wolf (1984) has explored real-time data, finding that upper-class young men who had previously produced variable voicing exhibited nearly a categorical use of [ʒ] five years later, perhaps revoicing to highlight their social status. This age-grading may indicate stable variation rather than a change in progress. However, it is difficult to conclude whether Porteños’ variant use is due to a language-internal change or if it is motivated by social factors. Building on King (2009), who shows most Porteños perceptually distinguish [ʃ] and [ʒ], we conducted a matched-guise test to quantitatively explore what social meaning is indexed by [ʃ] or [ʒ] in Buenos Aires. The stimuli came from five native speakers from Argentina (three men and two women), who were recorded reading a news report two times, once with [ʃ] and once with [ʒ]. From each speaker’s recordings, one utterance was extracted as a baseline audio file, and it was manipulated to yield two recordings differing only in [ʃ] or [ʒ]. The ten target audio files were presented in a pseudorandom order to 74 listeners from Buenos Aires, who rated the speakers on a matrix of social qualities, such as how upper-class, cheto ‘snobby’, old, nice, and porteño they sounded. Evaluations of whether the participants were from the wealthier north side of Buenos Aires, the south of Buenos Aires, or another area were also measured.
Using the 7,400 total listener evaluations, separate mixed effects linear regression models were fitted to each scalar property, and a multinomial regression model was fitted to perceived speaker origin. The results show that the same voices are perceived as significantly higher class, more stuck up, and older when heard with the voiced [ʒ] (p < 0.001). Interestingly, contrary to what is typically found for prestige variants, [ʒ] is not heard as more intelligent or professional. Thus, [ʒ] seems to be associated with fixed social types rather than permanent qualities or stances. On the other hand, speakers were evaluated as significantly more porteño and more likely to be from the south of Buenos Aires when heard with [ʃ] (p < 0.01). While studies from half a century ago found majority [ʒ] production (see Guitarte, 1955), in present-day Buenos Aires the voiceless variant appears to be considered the standard. These results show that [ʃ] and [ʒ] are indeed imbued with social meaning, as they are employed to index specific social types, which suggests that sheísmo and zheísmo may now be in stable variation in Buenos Aires.
References
Chang, C. (2008). Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish. In M. Westmoreland & J. A. Thomas (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 4th workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 54-63). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1973). El rehilamiento bonaerense a fines de siglo XVIII. Thesaurus, 28, 338-343.
Guitarte, G. (1955). El ensordecimiento del žeísmo porteño. Revista de Filología Española, 39, 261-283.
King, C. (2009). Language attitudes toward devoicing among young adults in Buenos Aires. Senior Honors Thesis, The Ohio State University.
Rohena-Madrazo, M. (2011). Sociophonetic variation in the production and perception of obstruent voicing in Buenos Aires Spanish. Doctoral dissertation, New York University.
Wolf, C. (1984). Tiempo real y tiempo aparente en el estudio de una variación lingüística: Ensordecimiento y sonorización del yeísmo porteño. In L. Schwartz & I. Lerner (Eds.), Homenaje a Ana María Barrenechea (pp. 175-196). Madrid: Castalia.
Wolf, C., & Jiménez, E. (1979). El ensordecimiento del yeísmo porteño: un cambio fonológico en marcha. In A. M Barrenechea (Ed.), Estudios lingüísticos y dialectológicos: Temas Hispánicos (pp. 115-145). Buenos Aires: Hachette.