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H9: The intonation of Spanish in Argentina

Principal investigator: Christoph Gabriel

Research assistants: Ingo Feldhausen, Andrea Pešková

Undergraduate assistants:

Fruth, Ricarda
Kireva, Elena
Nanula, Nina
Rodríguez Arguedas, Mariela
Schlegel, Natividad
Teichmann, Claudia

Research partners:

Arana, Valeria (Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
Blázques, Bettiana (Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
Buthke, Carolin (Universität Osnabrück)
Colantoni, Laura (University of Toronto)
Dabrowski, Alejandra (Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
Kubarth, Hugo (Universität Graz)
Kuchenbrandt, Imme (Universität Bremen)
Labastía, Leopoldo (Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
Lee, Su-Ar (University of Florida)
Meisenburg, Trudel (Universität Osnabrück)
Prieto, Pilar (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Sichel-Bazin, Raphael (Universität Osnabrück, Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Vázques, Mónica (Universidad Nacional del Comahue)

Project publications

  • Benet, Ariadna / Feldhausen, Ingo / Pešková, Andrea (in Vorbereitung): Prosodische Grenzen in der Spontansprache. Arbeiten zur Mehrsprachigkeit, Universität Hamburg.
  • Feldhausen, Ingo / Gabriel, Christoph / Pešková, Andrea (2010): "Prosodic Phrasing in Argentinean Spanish: Buenos Aires and Neuquén." In: Hasegawa-Johnson, Mark et al. (eds.): Speech Prosody 2010. Chicago, IL. [PDF]
  • Gabriel, Christoph / Feldhausen, Ingo / Pešková, Andrea / Colantoni, Laura / Lee, Su-Ar / Arana, Valeria / Labastía, Leopoldo (2010, i. E.): "Argentinian Spanish Intonation." In: Prieto, Pilar / Roseano, Paolo (eds.): Transcription of Intonation of the Spanish Language. München: Lincom, 285-317.
  • [Sound files published in Atlas interactivo de la entonación del español]
  • Gabriel, Christoph / Feldhausen, Ingo / Pešková, Andrea (2011, i.E.): "Prosodic Phrasing in porteño Spanish." In: Gabriel, Christoph / Lleó, Conxita (eds.): Intonational Phrasing in Romance and Germanic: Cross-Linguistic and Bilingual Studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 153-182.
  • Gabriel, Christoph / Pešková, Andrea / Labastía, Leopoldo / Vázquez, Betiana (2011, i. E.): "La entonación en el español de Buenos Aires." In: Colantoni, Laura / Rodríguez Louro, Celeste (eds.): Perspectivas teóricas y experimentales sobre el español de la Argentina.
  • Pešková, Andrea / Feldhausen, Ingo / Gabriel, Christoph (2011, i. E.): "Fraseo prosódico en el español porteño." In: Di Tullio, Ángela / Kailuweit, Rolf (eds.): El español rioplatense. Frankfurt/Madrid: Vervuert.

Abstract

Our project aims at taking stock of the intonation of the prestigious Argentinean dialect porteño. This Spanish variety shares a number of prosodic features with Italian, which can be traced back to a migration-induced language contact. Based on data from speakers of different age and geographical origin as well as by means of a comparison with older sound documents, it will be examined if presumably “Italian” characteristics become more salient or rather weakened after the change into Spanish monolingualism. The project aims at a better understanding of the role that intonation plays in multilingualism and language change.

Point of Departure

Immigration and Multilingualism in Buenos Aires
Due to large streams of immigrants from Central and Southern Italy, about a third of the population of Buenos Aires was made up of Italians at the beginning of the 20th century (Fontanella de Weinberg 1987, Lipski 2004); in certain neighborhoods Italian immigrants made up 45% of the population. The linguistic situation in Buenos Aires was determined by multilingualism and especially by Spanish-Italian bilingualism for a long time. Though Spanish monolingualism is nowadays prevailing in Buenos Aires, the prestigious Argentinean dialect porteño (< puerto ‘harbor’), that is usually perceived as the typical Argentinean Spanish, is characterized by a strong Italian influence. It is especially the intonation of porteño-Spanish, besides lexical and also morphological particularities, that is characterized as “Italian” in numerous descriptions (Kailuweit 2005, Di Tullio 2003, Wurl 2007, Vidal de Battini 1964).

Intonation: Close-to-Standard Varieties vs. porteño-Spanish
The intonation of Spanish close-to-standard varieties is characterized by the contrast of two pitch accents: early peak (LH*, fast rise within the metrically strong syllable) vs. late peak (L*H, slow rise causing the peak to appear after the strong syllable). L*H reflects the default realization of prenuclear accents, while LH* represents the nuclear accent and is consequently perceived as the focal pitch accent at the same time (Sosa 1999, Face 2001, Hualde 2002a, b). The most prominent “Italian” feature of porteño-intonation is the realization of prenuclear pitch accents as a rising tone with an early peak, analyzed by Colantoni/Gurlekian (2004) as H* (for Italian cf. Rabanus 2001, D’Imperio 2002). Thus, porteño-Spanish lacks the alignment contrast L*H vs. LH*. This lack is compensated for by a syllable-internal early alignment (F0-peak in the first third of the stressed syllable) and a higher scaling (increased F0-value), cf. Gabriel (2006). The diagram below schematically contrasts the alignment of pitch accents in close-to-standard varieties and in porteño-Spanish. The syllable-internal early alignment is symbolized by ‘←H’ and the increased F0-value by ‘^H’.

Aims and Methodology

Based on a larger corpus than in previous studies (e. g. Arana et al. 2007, Colantoni/Gurlekian 2004, Gabriel 2006), the project takes stock of the intonational properties of porteño-Spanish:

  • Inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones
  • Strategies of tonal focus marking

The different prosodic characteristics which porteño-Spanish shares with several Italian dialects constitute the point of departure (realization of prenuclear pitch accents as early peak, typical source contour usually called long fall, tonal distinction between contrastive and neutral focus; cf. Gabriel 2006, Kaisse 2001). Data will be collected from spontaneous and elicited speech as well as from perception experiments. The theoretical framework for modeling the results is the Autosegmental-Metrical model of intonational phonology (Beckman/Pierrehumbert 1986, Ladd 1996). This model has already been applied to several Romance languages and is thus suitable for comparative language studies and for an investigation of the effects multilingualism has on intonation.

Furthermore, we will investigate how the influence of the relevant Italian dialects (mainly central and Southern varieties) is manifested in the intonational system of the Spanish spoken in present-day Argentina. In this respect, it is of special interest to find out if and how the relevant prosodic features spread geographically as well as through different age groups. The following factors will be taken into account:

Regional dimension

  • Subjects from Buenos Aires (strong Italian influence due to immigration)
  • Subjects from Patagonia (originally no Italian influence)


Diachronic dimension

  • Subjects up to 25 years of age (whose scholar education was characterized by a predominant use of porteño-Spanish)
  • Subjects older than 25 years of age (whose scholar education was characterized by an intended approximation to the standard Castilian norm)
  • Older sound documents (e.g. radio interviews)

References

  • Arana, V. et al. (2007): “Buenos Aires Spanish.” Vortrag PaPI 07 (Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia), Universidade do Minho, Braga, 27.6.2007.
  • Beckman, Mary E. / Pierrehumbert, J. B. (1986): “Intonational Structure in English and Japanese.” Phonology Yearbook 3, 255-310.
  • Böck, C. / Pfaffstaller, U. (2007): “Versuche zur sprachgeografischen Gliederung Argentiniens.” Kremnitz, Georg (ed.): Von La Quiaca nach Ushuaia. Wien: Praesens, 17-76.
  • Colantoni, L. / Gurlekian, J. (2004): “Convergence and intonation: historical evidence from Buenos Aires Spanish.” Bilingualism. Language and Cognition 7, 107-119.
  • D’Imperio, M. (2002): “Italian Intonation: An Overview and Some Questions.” Probus 14, 37-69.
  • Di Tullio, A. (2003): “Il cocoliche: alla ricerca della lingua dell’immigrante.” Bollettino Linguistico Campano 3/4, 1-23.
  • Face, T.L. (2001): “Focus and Early Peak Alignment in Spanish Intonation.” Probus 13, 223-246.
  • Fontanella de Weinberg, M. B. (1987): El español bonaerense. Cuatro siglos de evolución lingüística (1580-1980).Buenos Aires: Hachette.
  • Gabriel, C. (2006): “Focal Pitch Accents and Subject Positions in Spanish: Comparing Close-to-standard Varieties and Argentinean porteño.” Hoffmann, R. / Mix­dorff, H. (eds.): Speech Prosody 2006. Dresden: TUDpress.
  • Hualde, J.I. (2002a): “Intonation in Spanish and the other Ibero-Romance Languages: Overview and Status Quaestionis.” Wiltshire, C. R. / Camps, J. (eds.): Romance Phonology and Variation. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 101-115.
        Hualde, J.I. (2002b): “Introduction.” Probus 14, 1-7.
  • Kailuweit, R. (2005): “Hybridität, Exempel: Lunfardo.” Noll, V. / Symeonidis, H. (eds.): Sprache in Iberoamerika. Hamburg: Buske, 291-311.
  • Kaisse, E. (2001): “The long fall: An intonational melody of Argentinean Spanish.” In: Her­schensohn, J. et al. (eds.): Features and Interfaces in Ro­mance. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 148-160.
  • Ladd, R.D. (1996): Intonational Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Lipski, J. M. (2004): “El español de América y los contactos bilingües recientes: apuntes mircrodialectológicos.” Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana 2, 89-103.
  • Rabanus, S. (2001): Intonatorische Verfahren im Deutschen und im Italienischen. Gesprächsanalyse und autosegmentale Phonologie. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
  • Sosa, J.M. (1999): La entonación del español. Madrid: Cátedra.
  • Vidal de Battini, B.E. (1964): El español de la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Consejo Nacional de Educación.
  • Wurl, U. (2007): “Cocoliche.” Kremnitz, Georg (ed.): Von La Quiaca nach Ushuaia. Wien: Praesens, 157-175.