Spanish rhotic variation in Corozal Town, Belize
Open Access
- Author:
- Bero, Trevor
- Graduate Program:
- Spanish (PHD)
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 02, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Katharina Schuhmann, Outside Unit & Field Member
John Lipski, Major Field Member
Rena Cacoullos, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Matthew Carlson, Major Field Member
Paola Migliaccio-Dussias, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Spanish
rhotics
Belize
sociolinguistics
language variation
Belizean Spanish
language contact
dialect contact
phonetics
phonology - Abstract:
- When compared to knowledge of Spanish dialects around the world, the Spanish spoken in northern Belize appears almost entirely unstudied by linguists. Despite this paucity of attention, these dialects should be of greater interest for many reasons. First, northern Belize has continuously served as a cultural and linguistic crossroads from the pre-Colombian era to today. This includes contact at various times between groups of English colonists, indigenous and Spanish speaking Mayans, Spanish speaking Mexicans, and several distinct ethnic groups descended from free and enslaved Africans. Second, Spanish speakers in the northernmost city of Corozal Town, where the interviews in the present work were conducted, face unique linguistic pressures from both English and Mexican Spanish. The few previous studies examining Belizean Spanish highlight the use of a retroflex rhotic variant as the most salient linguistic feature. Many of these studies focus on the effects of contact between Spanish and English, assuming that the retroflex is somehow connected to this phenomenon. Breaking with this assumption, the present study provides the first variationist account of linguistic and social factors constraining use of the retroflex in the Spanish of Corozal Town. Importantly, this work contextualizes findings within broader patterns of rhotic variation and change in Spanish and across languages. Results demonstrate linguistic factors such as position in word affecting variation, with word initial and word internal syllable final positions demonstrating highest usage rates of the retroflex. Further analysis reveals that surrounding phonetic context plays a role for the variation in both positions, with preceding vowels and following front vowels favoring the retroflex in word initial position and following alveolar or dental consonants favoring the retroflex for word internal syllable final rhotics. Interestingly, findings for word internal syllable final position mirror those found for non-standard rhotics in other dialects of Spanish, including ones not in a language contact situation involving English. Finally, word frequency is found to have no effect on retroflex use. Overall, linguistic factors suggest that the retroflex is not a current locus of change in this variety. Furthermore, the results support a reconsideration of the canonical phonological contrast in Spanish rhotics. The impacts of social factors are best understood in combination and in light of linguistic attitudes, revealed through content analysis of the sociolinguistic interviews. Analysis of age and gender shows that older women are the stronghold of the retroflex variant. The effects of contact with nearby Mexican Spanish are also tested, revealing that speakers with frequent contact may be adopting the canonical trill rhotic in initial position. This suggests the trill as a possible site of change in progress and highlights the relative prestige of Mexican Spanish for speakers in Corozal. Further findings and implications are also discussed.