Sounding Salvadorean: phonological variables in the Spanish of Salvadorean youth in Toronto
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This dissertation offers an investigation of linguistic and social constraints on three variables (syllable- and word-final (s), syllable-initial (s) and word-final (n) in the Spanish of Salvadorean youth living in Toronto, Canada. Both final (s) and final (n) have been investigated extensively in many varieties of Spanish. However, most of these analyses have focused on Caribbean varieties such as Cuban Spanish or Puerto Rican Spanish. This study presents a variable rule analysis of (s) and (n) in Salvadorean Spanish, a lesser-studied variety. Social factors play a role in the variant realizations of both (s) and (n). An analysis of social factors reveals clear social stratification for (s): /s/ retention, the variant with the most overt prestige, is favoured by women and speakers from the highest socio-economic class. The overtly positive evaluation for [s] is confirmed in an analysis of speech styles where rates of /s/ retention rise to almost 100% in the more careful styles (reading passage and word list).A variable rule analysis of linguistic factors constraining final (s) reveals that both phonological and grammatical constraints govern variation. [s] is more likely to be retained before voiceless alveolar /t/, and before coronals generally. /s/ deletion is favoured by following continuants, a constraint also found for /n/ deletion. An analysis of /s/ deletion offers little evidence supporting functionalist hypotheses governing variation. Findings for position in noun phrase are similar to those found in previous studies (Poplack 1980, Alba 1990). The variant realization of final (n) is also governed by phonological constraints. As in previous studies (e.g. Cedergren 1972, Lipski 1984) following vowels and following pause favour velar [ill, as do following velars. Following continuants favour /n/ deletion. Functional motivations do not appear to constrain /n/ deletion. Social factors also govern (n). While overtly prestigious retained [n] remains the most frequent variant overall, velar [y], a traditionally stigmatized variant is favoured by speakers from the highest socio-economic class. Furthermore, rates of velarization and deletion remain consistent across speech styles. These patterns point to differences in the social salience and meaning of (s) and (n) for these Salvadorean youth in Toronto.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".