1 janvier 2024
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.15446/fyf.v37n1.104644
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Melanie Uth et al., « Labialization of final nasals: a comparative study of three regions of American Spanish », HAL-SHS : linguistique, ID : 10.15446/fyf.v37n1.104644
We compare the non-assimilative labialization of final nasals in Spanish in three corporaof American Spanish (Mexican, Colombian and Paraguayan). While non-assimilativelabialization is known in Yucatecan Spanish, it is largely unknown in other Spanishspeakingregions, and is therefore often attributed to Mayan influence. However,similar pronunciation habits have coincidentally been reported in both Paraguay andColombia. By empirically comparing labialization in three corpora produced on the samemethodological basis, we conclude that the evidence in support of language contact is atbest highly indirect. Regardless of this, we find that the most marked difference is thatthe rate of labialization seems to be determined by the length of the subsequent pause inthe data from the Yucatecan peninsula, but not in those from Colombia and Paraguay.We argue that it is true that contact may have eventually triggered the development ofthis feature in Yucatecan Spanish, since contemporary Spanish has almost no labialfinal nasals, whereas Mayan does. However, linguistic profile (monolingual vs. bilingualspeakers) has no effect on our Yucatecan and Paraguayan data, and in the totality of ourdata we also find no evidence to support the hypothesis that language contact would haveplayed a (major) role in the development of labial nasals in the three varieties.