Event Title

Phonemes and Allophones of Mexican Spanish

Research Mentor(s)

Bernardo-Hinesley, Sheryl

Description

Did you know that there are over 50 million Hispanics in the United States, and ⅔ of that population identifies as being of Mexican origin? As a double major in Spanish and Linguistics, I was interested in conducting a study in regards to the phonetics of Mexican Spanish to further flourish linguists' understanding of dialectology across borders. For my study, I specifically wanted to find out if /tʃ/ and [ʃ] were separate phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme. My hypothesis was that /tʃ/ and [ʃ] would be allophones of the same phoneme because of them being postalveolar and having a similar sound. Participants in my study came from all kinds of different backgrounds. They all differed in gender, age, social status, and location. Question: Are /tʃ/ and [ʃ] different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Question: Do people that live closer to each other speak the same? Question: Do boundaries like country borders, rivers, and mountains change people's speech? My participants were asked to describe drawings, answer a series of questions, and read a short passage which I recorded and visited later to be able to do my transcription. I chose these methods to avoid the observer's paradox which is when the speech of a participant is influenced involuntarily by the presence of the observer. By using these methods, I knew the participants would be less conscious of what they were saying so I would be getting more natural results. After transcribing and analyzing the data collected, it was evident that /tʃ/ and [ʃ] are allophones of the same phoneme since my study resulted in locating minimal pairs with the same meaning. An example of this would be mucho and musho. They both sound similar but changing the sound doesn’t change the meaning of the word.

Document Type

Event

Start Date

May 2020

End Date

May 2020

Department

Linguistics

Genre/Form

student projects, posters

Type

Image

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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COinS
 
May 18th, 9:00 AM May 22nd, 5:00 PM

Phonemes and Allophones of Mexican Spanish

Did you know that there are over 50 million Hispanics in the United States, and ⅔ of that population identifies as being of Mexican origin? As a double major in Spanish and Linguistics, I was interested in conducting a study in regards to the phonetics of Mexican Spanish to further flourish linguists' understanding of dialectology across borders. For my study, I specifically wanted to find out if /tʃ/ and [ʃ] were separate phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme. My hypothesis was that /tʃ/ and [ʃ] would be allophones of the same phoneme because of them being postalveolar and having a similar sound. Participants in my study came from all kinds of different backgrounds. They all differed in gender, age, social status, and location. Question: Are /tʃ/ and [ʃ] different phonemes or are they allophones of the same phoneme? Question: Do people that live closer to each other speak the same? Question: Do boundaries like country borders, rivers, and mountains change people's speech? My participants were asked to describe drawings, answer a series of questions, and read a short passage which I recorded and visited later to be able to do my transcription. I chose these methods to avoid the observer's paradox which is when the speech of a participant is influenced involuntarily by the presence of the observer. By using these methods, I knew the participants would be less conscious of what they were saying so I would be getting more natural results. After transcribing and analyzing the data collected, it was evident that /tʃ/ and [ʃ] are allophones of the same phoneme since my study resulted in locating minimal pairs with the same meaning. An example of this would be mucho and musho. They both sound similar but changing the sound doesn’t change the meaning of the word.