On covariation between nasal consonant weakening and anticipatory vowel nasalization: Evidence from a Caribbean and a non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish

In this study, I examine co-variation between the word-final nasal consonant and anticipatory vowel nasalization in two dialects of Spanish. In Caribbean dialects of Spanish, nasalization has been proposed as allophonic (an intended feature of the vowel) but elsewhere it is presumably coarticulatory (a marker of nasal consonant weakening). I argue that, when differences in the phonological interpretation of nasalization are factored in, the temporal extent of nasalization cannot be exclusively attributed to weakening of the nasal consonant. Twenty-eight speakers from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and twenty-six from Buenos Aires (Argentina) were recorded with a nasometer. Findings revealed that when the feature for nasality is phonologized in the representation of the vowel (Santo Domingo Spanish), earlier onset of nasalization can (and does) obtain with little (and arguably even without) weakening of the nasal. By analyzing nasal consonant weakening concurrently with anticipatory vowel nasalization, this study bridges the gap between the aforementioned sources of variation in nasalization.

Spoken word recognition in a second language: The importance of phonetic details

Spoken word recognition depends on variations in fine-grained phonetics as listeners decode speech. However, many models of second language (L2) speech perception focus on units such as isolated syllables, and not on words. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated how fine-grained phonetic details (i.e. duration of nasalization on contrastive and coarticulatory nasalized vowels in Canadian French) influenced spoken word recognition in an L2, as compared to a group of native (L1) listeners. Results from L2 listeners (English-native speakers) indicated that fine-grained phonetics impacted the recognition of words, i.e. they were able to use nasalization duration variability in a way similar to L1-French listeners, providing evidence that lexical representations can be highly specified in an L2. Specifically, L2 listeners were able to distinguish minimal word pairs (differentiated by the presence of phonological vowel nasalization in French) and were able to use variability in a way approximating L1-French listeners. Furthermore, the robustness of the French “nasal vowel” category in L2 listeners depended on age of exposure. Early bilinguals displayed greater sensitivity to some ambiguity in the stimuli than late bilinguals, suggesting that early bilinguals had greater sensitivity to small variations in the signal and thus better knowledge of the phonetic cue associated with phonological vowel nasalization in French, similarly to L1 listeners.

Acoustic investigation of anticipatory vowel nasalization in a Caribbean and a non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish

Spanish dialectology observes that dialects with a preference for velarized variants of /n/ (e.g. Caribbean dialects) include nasalized vocalic allophones in their inventory. Instrumental cross-dialectal comparisons of Spanish anticipatory nasalization, however, remain surprisingly rare. To this end, I compare the time-course of nasality in pre-nasal vowels in Argentine and Dominican Spanish, as well as across a number of linguistic variables described in the phonetic, sociolinguistic and historical literature. Twenty-eight speakers from Santo Domingo and twenty-six from Buenos Aires were recorded with a nasometer, an ideal instrument for data collection in the field. Measurements of nasal energy were extracted to acoustically characterize the time-course of nasality. Results indicate that Dominican speakers present more extensive anticipatory vowel nasalization than Argentine speakers. These findings are consistent with observations of allophonic nasalization (i.e. phonologized) in the Caribbean dialect under study, Dominican Spanish. Regarding the linguistic variables, stressed pre-nasal vowels showed earlier onset of nasalization, particularly among the Caribbean speakers, which further provides support for the phonological differences in vowel nasality.

A study of contextual vowel nasalization in standard peninsular Spanish

Since Navarro Tomás (1918) it is well known in Spanish phonetics that vowels between nasals become nasalized and that vowels followed by a nasal in syllable coda position might undergo a certain degree of nasalization, even if Spanish does not have nasal vowels from the phonological point of view. This study aims to explore this phenomenon through the use of a Nasometer by examining several nasal-vowel contexts (NV, VN, and NVN sequences; and with post-vocalic nasals in tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic sequences with reference to the preceding vowel), the distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables containing the target vowel, and three speaking rate conditions (slow, normal, and fast). The utterances produced by three speakers of Standard Peninsular Spanish are analyzed. Results of the percentage of nasality and nasalance indicate that the variables under examination are statistically significant in the process of vowel nasalization, though to a varying extent. A closer look at the different syllable positions in the nasal-vowel relationship addresses the issue of anticipatory vs. carryover coarticulation effects on vowel nasalization.