Abstract

CALVO SHADID, Annette  and  ORTEGA RODRIGUEZ, Manuel. On certain diphthongs in Costa Rica’s great metropolitan area spanish: Phonetic and phonological analysis. Káñina [online]. 2017, vol.41, n.2, pp.33-48. ISSN 2215-2636.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rk.v41i2.30474.

This article reports on the data collection and articulatory phonetic analysis of the pronunciation of certain diphthongs in the Spanish of Costa Rica’s Great Metropolitan Area. We found that consonantization of initial position diphthongs does not appear to be a typical feature of this region’s population, at least in careful speech, and we conclude that there are, phonologically speaking, initial position diphthongs in Spanish. Moreover, consonantization, when it occurs, is more common in hue- than in hie-. On the other hand, middle position hiatuses are not pronounced as such, but they are usually articulated as diphthongs, while the diphthong in construir is usually articulated as a hiatus. Important exceptions, as well as sex, age and education-level distributions are also discussed. We hope thus to contribute to the dense debate on the controversial phonological status of Spanish initial position diphthongs and vowel confluence in general.

Keywords : Costa Rican Spanish; phonology; phonetics; diphthongs; acoustics.

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