Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives
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In
While an urban legend attributes the presence of the dental fricative to a Spanish king with a lisp, the various realizations of these coronal fricatives are actually a result of historical processes that date to the 15th century.
Origins
Castilian 'lisp'
A persistent urban legend claims that the prevalence of the sound /θ/ in Spanish can be traced to a Spanish king who spoke with a lisp, whose pronunciation spread via prestige borrowing to the rest of the population. This myth has been discredited by scholars.[1] Lundeberg (1947) traces the origins of the legend to a chronicle of Pero López de Ayala which says that Peter of Castile "lisped a little" ("ceceaba un poco"). However, Peter reigned in the 14th century and the sound /θ/ began to develop in the 16th century (see below). Moreover, a true lisp would not give rise to the systematic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ that characterizes Standard Peninsular pronunciation. For example, a lisp would lead one to pronounce siento ('I feel') and ciento ('hundred') the same (as [ˈθjento]) whereas in standard peninsular Spanish they are pronounced [ˈsjento] and [ˈθjento].
The misnomer "Castilian lisp" is used occasionally to refer to the presence of [θ] in Peninsular pronunciation (in both distinción and ceceo varieties).
Historical evolution
In the 15th century, Spanish had developed a large number of
Pronunciation | Orthography | ||
---|---|---|---|
voiced affricate → fricative | postalveolar | /dʒ/ → /ʒ/ | ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩; ⟨j⟩ elsewhere |
voiceless fricative | /ʃ/ | ⟨x⟩ | |
voiceless affricate | /t͡ʃ/ | ⟨ch⟩ | |
voiced fricative | apicoalveolar | /z̺/ | intervocalic ⟨s⟩ |
voiceless fricative | /s̺/ | ⟨s⟩ in syllable onset or coda; ⟨ss⟩ between vowels | |
voiced affricate → fricative | coronal | /d͡z̪/ → /z̪/ | ⟨z⟩ |
voiceless affricate | /t͡s̪/ | ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩; ⟨ç⟩ before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩ |
The second step was the devoicing of voiced sibilants.[8] In the north, /z̺/ and /ʒ/ were lost, but /z̪/ remained contrastive with its new pronunciation /s̪/, because there had been no voiceless /s̪/ previously. This sound contrasted with two acoustically similar sounds: dentoalveolar /t͡s̪/ and apicoalveolar /s̺/. By 1600, /t͡s̪/, too, had deaffricated and merged with the earlier /s̪/ that had already developed from /z̪/.[8] Subsequent changes to the sound system of Spanish retained the contrasts while enhancing the segments by increasing articulatory distance amongst their rather subtle acoustic contrasts, an appropriate step due to the high productivity of these phonemes in differentiating frequently used minimal pairs. The dentoalveolar one was moved "forward" to interdental /θ̟/, losing its former sibilance in the process (which increased its acoustic distance to the remaining sibilant ⟨s⟩), and the prepalatal one was moved "backward" to velar /x/, also losing its former sibilance, all in all resulting in the three-way distinction of modern Standard Peninsular pronunciation:
Original 6-way contrast | Deaffrication 1 | Devoicing | Deaffrication 2 | Modern distinción | Orthography |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/d͡z̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /z̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /s̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /s̪/ | [θ̟] | ⟨z⟩ or ⟨c⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) |
/z̺/ – /s̺/ | /s̺/ | [s̺] | ⟨s⟩ | ||
/ʒ/ – /ʃ/ | /ʃ/ | [x] | ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) |
In the south, the devoicing process and deaffrication of /t͡s/ gave rise to new fricatives that were indistinguishable from the existing ones. The process of increasing articulatory distance still applied, however, and /ʃ/ retracted to /x/ in the south just as it did in the north.
Original 6-way contrast | Deaffrication 1 | Devoicing | Deaffrication 2 | Modern seseo | Modern ceceo | Orthography |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
/d͡z/ – /t͡s/ | /z/ – /s/ + /ts/ | /s/ – /ts/ | /s/ | [s̻] | [θ̺] | ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩), ⟨s⟩ |
/z/ – /s/ | ||||||
/ʒ/ – /ʃ/ | /ʃ/ | [x] | ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) |
The development of the sibilants in
Distinction
Distinction (Spanish: distinción) refers to the differentiated pronunciation of the two Spanish phonemes written ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ or ⟨c⟩ (only before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, the so-called "soft" ⟨c⟩):
- ⟨s⟩ represents a );
- ⟨z⟩ and soft ⟨c⟩ represent a voiceless dental fricative /θ/ (the ⟨th⟩ in think).
By the early 1700s the six sibilant phonemes of medieval Spanish had all merged into three phonemes in the dialects with this distinction and two phonemes elsewhere, but spelling still reflected the older pronunciation system. From 1726 to 1815 the RAE reformed spelling, resulting in a modern Spanish orthography which reflects the system with distinction.[11] This distinction is universal in Central and Northern parts of Spain, except for some bilingual speakers of Catalan and Basque, according to Hualde (2005).
In most of Spain, this distinction is between an apical [
Lack of distinction
In most Spanish-speaking regions and countries the phonemic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ does not exist. These varieties of Spanish are sometimes said to exhibit neutralización ('neutralization') as opposed to distinción.
Seseo
Seseo
Ceceo
Ceceo
In
La casa ('the house') | La caza ('the hunt') | |
---|---|---|
Distinción | /la ˈkasa/ | /la ˈkaθa/ |
Seseo | /la ˈkasa/ | |
Ceceo | /la ˈkas̟a/ |
Ceseo or seceo
Many speakers of ceceo and seseo dialects in Spain show sociolinguistic variation in usage. In some cases, this variation may arise when a ceceo or seseo speaker more or less consciously attempts to use distinción in response to sociolinguistic pressure (hypercorrection). However, as, for instance, in the case of the variation between the standard velar nasal and alveolar pronunciation of the nasal in -ing in English (walking versus walkin'), the switching may be entirely unconscious. It is perhaps evidence of the saliency of three-way ceceo-seseo-distinción variation that inconsistent use has elicited evaluative comments by some traditional Spanish dialectologists. For instance, Dalbor (1980) discussed it as "sporadic or chaotic switching [between [s] and [θ]] and the use of intermediate sounds impossible to determine with precision".[27] Obaid (1973) proposes the synonymous terms ceseo [θeˈseo] and seceo [seˈθeo] to refer to these "mixed" patterns, and notes surprise at a speaker who produced all four possible pronunciations of Zaragoza ([θaɾaˈɣoθa], [saɾaˈɣosa], [θaɾaˈɣosa] and [saɾaˈɣoθa]) within the space of a few minutes.[28] In fact, sociolinguistic variation is typically highly structured in terms of how often each variant will appear given various social and linguistic independent variables. The Spanish spoken by the inhabitants of the Canary Islands is exclusively seseante, but exclusive seseo is quite rare in mainland Spain – even in areas, such as Seville, listed as being majority seseante.
See also
References
- ^ See for instance Linguist List Archived 2014-08-30 at the Wayback Machine and About.com Archived 2014-07-13 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Penny (2002), p. 86.
- ^ Harris (1969), p. 208.
- ^ a b Harris (1969), p. 213.
- ^ Penny (2002), pp. 86–87.
- ^ Harris (1969), p. 209.
- ^ Harris (1969), pp. 216–217.
- ^ a b c Harris (1969), p. 210.
- ^ Harris (1969), p. 214.
- ^ Penny (2002), pp. 27–28.
- ^ Penny (2000), pp. 213–214.
- ^ Penny (2000), p. 120.
- ^ Seseo Archived 2021-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, Royal Spanish Academy (in Spanish).
- ^ Dalbor (1980), p. 6.
- ^ Dalbor (1980), p. 22.
- ^ Alvarez Menéndez (2005), p. ?.
- ^ Alonso (1951).
- ^ Lapesa (1969).
- ^ Dalbor (1980), pp. 5–19.
- ^ Herranz H. (1990).
- ^ Hualde (2005), p. 154.
- ^ Brogan (2018), pp. 104–105.
- ^ Brogan & Bolyanatz (2018), p. 204.
- ^ Brogan (2018), p. 84.
- ^ Dalbor (1980), p. 7.
- ^ Obaid (1973), p. 63.
Sources
- Alvar, Manuel (1991). Atlas lingüístico y etnográfico de Andalucía. Madrid: Arco Libros. ISBN 9788476351062.
- Alvarez Menéndez, Alfredo Ignacio (2005). Hablar en español: la cortesía verbal, la pronunciación estandar del español, las formas de expresión oral. Universidad de Oviedo. ISBN 3896577719.
- Alonso, Amado (1951). "Historia del ceceo y del seseo españoles" (PDF). Centro Virtual Cervantes. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
- Brogan, Franny D. (2018). Sociophonetically-based phonology: An Optimality Theoretic account of /s/ lenition in Salvadoran Spanish (PhD). University of California, Los Angeles.
- Brogan, Franny D.; Bolyanatz, Mariška A. (July 2018). "A sociophonetic account of onset /s/ weakening in Salvadoran Spanish: Instrumental and segmental analyses". Language Variation and Change. 30 (2): 203–230. S2CID 149803757.
- Dalbor, John B. (1980). "Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain". Hispania. 63 (1). American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 5–19. JSTOR 340806.
- Fernández López, Justo (1999–2007), Ceceo y seseo – Origen y evolución histórica (PDF) (in Spanish), Hispanoteca, Institut für Romanistik, Universität Innsbruck., archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-06-17, retrieved 2018-06-16
- Harris, James (1969). Spanish Phonology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
- Herranz H., Atanasio (1990). "El español de Honduras a través de su bibliografía". Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. 38 (1): 15–61. JSTOR 40298986.
- Hualde, Jose Ignacio (2005). The Sounds of Spanish. Cambridge, UK/NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54538-2.
- Lapesa, Rafael (1969). "Sobre el Ceceo y el Seseo en Hispanoamérica". Revista Iberoamericana. 21 (41): 409–416. . Retrieved May 14, 2016.
- Lundeberg, Olav K. (1947), "What Is Ceceo? Inquiry and Proposal", Hispania, 30 (3), American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 368–373, JSTOR 333415
- Navarro Tomás, Tomás; Espinosa, Aurelio Macedonio Jr.; Rodríguez-Castellano, L. (1933). "La frontera del andaluz" (PDF). Revista de Filología Española (in Spanish). XX (3): 225–277. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
- Obaid, Antonio H. (1973). "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'". Hispania. 56 (1). American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 60–67. JSTOR 339038.
- Penny, Ralph J. (2000). Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521780452.
- Penny, Ralph (2002). A History of the Spanish Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-01184-6.
External links
- Articles on seseo and ceceo in the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas of the Real Academia Española
- An explanation of the development of Mediæval Spanish sibilants in Castile and Andalusia
- A recording of the sibilants as they would have been pronounced in medieval Spanish