1. REALIZATIONS OF /S/ REDUCTION
IN SEVILLE SPANISH
Meagan Horn
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
The Ohio State University
Hayes Graduate Research Forum
March 1, 2013

2. Outline
1.) Purpose for the study
2.) Description and examples of the speech phenomenon
3.) Recent studies and their findings
4.) The current study
- Methodology
- Procedure
- Results
5.) Discussion

3. Seville, Spain

4. Purpose of Study
To analyze the phonetic mechanisms conditioning
an innovative sound change in Seville, Spain:
The postaspiration of voiceless occlusive consonants.
/s/ /p/ /t/ /k/

5. Description
• Reduction of the voiceless sibilant /s/ in Spanish
• Aspiration of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [eh.tah] “these”
• Deletion of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.tah] “these”
[st] : [ht] [Øt] /s/ Reduction

6. Description
• Reduction of the voiceless sibilant /s/ in Seville
• Postaspiration of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.thah] “these”
• Affrication of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.tsah] “these”

7. Description
• Reduction of the voiceless sibilant /s/ in Seville
• Postaspiration of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.thah] “these”
• Affrication of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.tsah] “these”
[st] : [ht] [Øt] /s/ Reduction

8. Description
• Reduction of the voiceless sibilant /s/ in Seville
• Postaspiration of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.thah] “these”
• Affrication of the sibilant consonant /s/
estas > [e.tsah] “these”
[st] : [ht] [Øt] [th] [ts] /s/ Reduction

9. Description
• [st] > [th] [ts] - Distinctive dialectal feature of Seville
– Not documented in any other Spanish consonant system

10. Description
• [st] > [th] [ts] - Distinctive dialectal feature of Seville
– Not documented in any other Spanish consonant system

11. Examples
1.) [gas.to]
Standard
g a s t o
2.) [ga.tso]
Seville
g a ts o
Es un gasto grande – ‘It is a big expense’

12. Examples
1.) [gas.to]
Standard
g a s t o
2.) [ga.tso]
Seville
g a ts o
Es un gasto grande – ‘It is a big expense’

13. Example
Postaspitation = Voice Onset Time (VOT)
2.) [ga.tso]
Seville
g a ts o
Es un gasto grande – ‘It is a big expense’

14. Dependent Variable
Postaspitation = Voice Onset Time (VOT)
2.) [ga.tso]
Seville
g a ts o
Es un gasto grande – ‘It is a big expense’

15. Dependent Variable
Postaspitation = Voice Onset Time (VOT)
Measured in Miliseconds
2.) [ga.tso]
Seville
g a ts o
Es un gasto grande – ‘It is a big expense’

16. Previous Studies
• Only a handful of previous studies
– Corral 2007, Torreira 2007a, 2007b, 2012, Parrell 2012, Ruch 2012
– Focus: Only /st/ consonant clusters
• Overview of significant findings
– Incongruent social factors
– High lexical frequency as a predictor
– Correlation between the duration of preceding segments

17. Analogy to African American English
• Initial personal impressionist investigation led to
a comparison between this sound change and
that of ask [ask] to ax [aks] in AAE
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Historical: ask and axe
– Metathesis: sk > ks

18. Current Study
Data collected in Seville, Spain
in the summer of 2012
The Ohio State University
Department of Spanish and Portuguese

19. Research Questions
• What factors, linguistic and social, are conditioning the usage of
the dialectal pronunciation of /st/?
• Has it extended to the consonants clusters /sp/ and /sk/?
– /st/ : [ht] [th] [ts]
– /sp/ : [hp] [ph] [ps]
– /sk/ : [hk] [kh] [ks]

20. Research Questions
• What factors, linguistic and social, are conditioning the usage of
the dialectal pronunciation of /st/?
• Has it extended to the consonants clusters /sp/ and /sk/?
– /st/ : [ht] [th] [ts]
– /sp/ : [hp] [ph] [ps]
– /sk/ : [hk] [kh] [ks]

21. Research Questions
• What factors, linguistic and social, are conditioning the usage of
the dialectal pronunciation of /st/?
• Has it extended to the consonants clusters /sp/ and /sk/?
– /st/ : [ht] [th] [ts]
– /sp/ : [hp] [ph] [ps]
– /sk/ : [hk] [kh] [ks]

22. Research Questions
• What factors, linguistic and social, are conditioning the usage of
the dialectal pronunciation of /st/?
• Has it extended to the consonants clusters /sp/ and /sk/?
– /st/ : [ht] [th] [ts]
– /sp/ : [hp] [ph] [ps]
– /sk/ : [hk] [kh] [ks]
• What theoretical model best explains the changing phenomenon?

23. Research Questions
• What factors, linguistic and social, are conditioning the usage
of the dialectal pronunciation of /st/?
• Has postaspiration extended to the consonants /p/ and /k/?
– /st/ : [ht] [th] [ts]
– /sp/ : [hp] [ph] [ps]
– /sk/ : [hk] [kh] [ks]
• What theoretical model best explains the changing phenomenon?

24. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

25. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

26. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

27. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

28. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

29. Research Questions
SOCIAL PREDICTORS LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
• Age • Place of articulation /p, t, k/
• Gender • Production of preceding sibilant
• Education Level – Fully realized /s/
– Aspirated /h/
– Trade school
– Elided /Ø/
– University
• Position of stressed syllable
– Advanced degree
• Word boundary
• Closure duration
• Vowel + Preceding Consonant
Duration

30. LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
Place of articulation of the occlusive /p, t, k/
Production of preceding sibilant /s, h, Ø/
Position of stressed syllable
Closure duration
Vowel + Preceding Consonant Duration

31. LINGUISTIC PREDICTORS
Place of articulation of the occlusive /p, t, k/
Production of preceding sibilant /s, h, Ø/
Position of stressed syllable
Closure duration
Vowel + Preceding Consonant Duration

32. Hypotheses - Linguistic
1. Postaspiration will be more frequent in /st/ clusters
than /sp/ or /sk/.
2. Complete elision [Ø] of the /s/ will favor longer
postaspiration of /p, t, k/.

33. Methodology
• Participants:
– 26 native speakers from the city of Seville, Spain
– 13 men, 13 women
– Age distribution
• Younger than 30 years of age: 13
• Older than 30 years of age: 13
– Education distribution
• High school or Trade school level: 10
• University level: 7
• Advanced degrees (MA or PhD): 10

34. Methodology
• Development of stimuli
Phonological Sample stimuli
context: /sp/ /st/ /sk/
Word Internal Boundary déspota ‘despot’ costa ‘coast’ mosca ‘fly’
Preceding Stress [ˈ des.po.ta] [ˈkos.ta] [ˈmos.ka]
Word Internal Boundary esposo ‘wife’ postal ‘postcard’ roscón ‘pastry’
Succeeding Stress [es.ˈpo.sa] [pos.ˈtal] [ros.ˈkon]
los perros ‘the las casas ‘the
Over Word Boundary las tapas ‘the tapas’
Preceding Stress
dogs’ houses’
[las#ˈta.pas]
[los#ˈ pe.ros] [las#ˈ ka.sas]
Over Word Boundary los perrazos ‘the las tapitas ‘the las casetas ‘the
No stressed vowel big dogs’ small tapas’ tents’
preceding or succeeding [los#pe.ˈ ra.θos] [las#ta.ˈpi.tas] [las#ka.ˈ se.tas]

35. Methodology
• Development of stimuli
• Target words containing one of the consonant clusters /sp/ /st/
or /sk/ were embedded in simple Spanish sentences.
costa ‘coast’ [ˡkos.ta]
Voy a la costa ahora
‘I am going to the coast now’

36. Results
Univariate ANOVA with speaker as a random effect
Source F Df1 Df2 Sig.
Corrected model 106.261 9 1,706 .000
Closure Duration 31.528 1 1,706 .000
Place of Articulation 178.400 2 1,706 .000
Type of Sibilant Present 107.842 2 1,706 .000
Vowel + Preaspiration Duration 8.799 1 1,706 .003
Relationship of Stress 70.691 3 1,706 .000

37. Results
Univariate ANOVA with speaker as a random effect
Source F Df1 Df2 Sig.
Corrected model 106.261 9 1,706 .000
Closure Duration 31.528 1 1,706 .000
Place of Articulation 178.400 2 1,706 .000
Type of Sibilant Present 107.842 2 1,706 .000
Vowel + Preaspiration Duration 8.799 1 1,706 .003
Relationship of Stress 70.691 3 1,706 .000

38. Results
Univariate ANOVA with speaker as a random effect
Source F Df1 Df2 Sig.
Corrected model 106.261 9 1,706 .000
Closure Duration 31.528 1 1,706 .000
Place of Articulation 178.400 2 1,706 .000
Type of Sibilant Present 107.842 2 1,706 .000
Vowel + Preaspiration Duration 8.799 1 1,706 .003
Relationship of Stress 70.691 3 1,706 .000

39. Results - Place of Articulation /sp/ vs. /st/ vs. /sk/

40. Results - Place of Articulation /sp/ vs. /st/ vs. /sk/

41. Results
Univariate ANOVA with speaker as a random effect
Source F Df1 Df2 Sig.
Corrected model 106.261 9 1,706 .000
Closure Duration 31.528 1 1,706 .000
Place of Articulation 172.274 2 1,706 .000
Type of Sibilant Present 107.842 2 1,706 .000
Vowel + Preaspiration Duration 8.799 1 1,706 .003
Relationship of Stress 70.691 3 1,706 .000

42. Results – Type of Sibilant Present /s/ vs. /h/ vs. /Ø/

43. Results – Type of Sibilant Present /s/ vs. /h/ vs. /Ø/

44. Confirmation of Linguistic Hypotheses
1. Postaspiration will be more frequent in /st/ than /sk/ /sp/
PARTIALLY CONFIRMED
/st/ and /sk/ favor longer postaspiration similarly
2. Complete elision [Ø] of /s/ will favor the postaspiration
PARTIALLY CONFIRMED
/Ø/ and /h/ favor longer postaspiration similarly

45. Study Conclusions
• Appears to be a purely linguistic phenomenon.
– More social data is needed to confirm this finding.
• The consonant /k/ not only patterns with /t/ but is
becoming more salient.
– This is crosslinguistic pattern of postaspiration.
• Aspirated [h] and elided [Ø], the reduced variants of /s/,
favor longer postaspiration.
– A articulatory trade-off is occurring.

46. Conclusions:
Analogy to African American English
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Historical: ask and axe
• Unrelated to Seville Spanish as postaffrication occured in entirely
different linguistic contexts and is extensively studied.
– Metathesis: sk > ks
• Not the case in Seville Spanish
– Much more variation in different possible variants in Spanish
– Ruch (2012) proposes up to 8 different variants
• Since no social factors proved to be significant, no detailed
investigation of prestige was completed.

47. Questions?

48. Bibliography
Browman, Catherine P., and Louis Goldstein. "Articulatory Phonology: An Overview." Phonetica 49.3-4 (1992): 155-80.
Kelso, J.A.S. "Phase Transitions and Critical Behavior in Human Bimanual Coordination." Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative, and
Comparative Physiology246.6 (1984): 1000-004.
McDorman, Richard E. "Aks Yourself." Word, The Online Journal on African American English (2009): n. pag. Web.
Moya Corral, Juan A. "Noticia de un sonido emergente: La africada dental procedente del grupo -st- en Andalucía." Revista De Filología De La
Universidad De La Laguna25 (2007): 457-66.
Parrell, Benjamin. "The Role of Gestural Phasing in Western Andalusian Spanish Aspiration." Journal of Phonetics 40, 10 Sept. (2011): 37-45.
Ruch, Hanna. "La Variante [ts] en el Español de la Ciudad de Sevilla: Aspectos Fonético- fonológicos y Sociolingüísticos de un Sonido
Innovador." Diss. University of Zurich. (2012).
Torreira, Francisco. “Coarticulation between aspirated-s and voiceless stops in Spanish: An interdialectal comparison.” In N. Sagarra,& A.J.
Toribio (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the ninth Hispanic linguistics symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. (2007b):
113-120.
Torreira, Francisco. “Investigating the nature of aspirated stops in Western Andalusian Spanish.” Journal of the International Phonetic
Association, 42. (2012): 49-63.

49. Analogy to African American English
• Initial personal impressionist investigation led to
a comparison between this sound change and
that of ask [ask] to ax [aks] in AAE
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Historical: ask and axe
– Metathesis: sk > ks

50. Analogy to African American English
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Historical: ask and axe
• Old English word: axian or acsian
• Chaucer: "I axe, why the fyfte man / Was nought housband
to the Samaritan?" (Wife's Prologue 1386)
• The evolution of axian can still be heard in parts of England.
– Metathesis: sk > ks
• Asterisk [as.ter.isk] or [as.ter.iks]

51. Conclusions:
Analogy to African American English
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Historical: ask and axe
• Unrelated to Seville Spanish
• The /ts/ did exist in Old Spanish but as a result of a
vocalic phenomenon.
– Not as a result of contact with the sibilant /s/

52. Conclusions:
Analogy to African American English
• Two proposed hypthoses for the change in AAE
– Metathesis: sk > ks
• Not the case in Seville Spanish
– Variation in different possible variants in Spanish
– Ruch (2012) proposes up to 8 different variants
– [sth] [ht] [hth] [th] [hts] [ts]

53. Theoretical Model
Articulatory Phonology (Brown and Goldstein 1992)
No descrete sounds – instead, descrete articulatory gestures.
1.) The opening of the glottis
[s] 2.) The contact between the tongue and
the alveolar ridge (directly behind the teeth)

54. Theoretical Model
Articulatory Phonology (Brown and Goldstein 1992)
No descrete sounds – instead, descrete articulatory gestures.
1.) The opening of the glottis
[s]

55. Theoretical Model
Articulatory Phonology (Brown and Goldstein 1992)
No descrete sounds – instead, descrete articulatory gestures.
1.) The opening of the glottis
[h]

56. Theoretical Model
Articulatory Phonology (Brown and Goldstein 1992)
No descrete sounds – instead, descrete articulatory gestures.
1.) Opening of the glottis
[t] 2.) The contact between the tongue and
the teeth with full closure and blockage of air.

57. Theoretical Model
Articulatory Phonology (Brown and Goldstein 1992)
No descrete sounds – instead, descrete articulatory gestures.
[ht]
h t h
[hth]
h t h