LINGUIST List 15.564

Thu Feb 12 2004

Qs: Puerto Rican Spanish Phonetic Symbol

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  1. Wilfredo Valentin-Marquez, Puerto Rican Spanish - IPA Symbol

Message 1: Puerto Rican Spanish - IPA Symbol

 Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 12:54:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Wilfredo Valentin-Marquez <wvalentiumich.edu>
Subject: Puerto Rican Spanish - IPA Symbol

What is the specific IPA symbol for the standard variant of /r/ in
Puerto Rican Spanish described by Navarro Tomas (El espanol en Puerto
Rico, 1948) as an ''intermediate sound'' between [l] and the flap?
This variant is a ''pronunciation that seems to have a preference
towards one of [the /l/ and /r/] phonemes, but making it possible to
perceive at the same time the presence of the twin type'' (p. 76, my
translation). I would like to know if the following description from
Ladefoged (A Course in Phonetics, 4th ed., 2001) is the right
interpretation for Navarro's description: ''If, when making [the
alveolar flap] or [the retroflex flap], you allow the airstream to
flow over the sides of the tongue, you will produce a sound that is
intermediate in quality between those sounds and [l]. This will be a
voiced alveolar or retroflex lateral flap.'' (pp. 153-154). Is the
voiced alveolar described by Ladefoged the same realization identified
by Navarro? (Navarro's sound has been treated in the literature as a
fricative --e.g. Poplack's doctoral dissertation 1979; Lopez Morales,
Estratificacion social del espanol de San Juan de Puerto Rico 1983).
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