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Part of
Current Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
Edited by Diego Pascual y Cabo and Idoia Elola
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 27] 2020
► pp. 295–318

Chapter 14
No es tan simple como parece

The effect of duration of one-closure rhotics on the perception of Spanish /ɾ/ and /r/

| Indiana University
| Indiana University
This study analyzes the effect of duration on the perception of Spanish /ɾ/ and /r/. A total of 143 participants completed a questionnaire with 183 stimuli. The stimuli were Spanish words with one single intervocalic tap whose duration was manipulated. Participants listened to each stimulus once, selected the word they heard, and rated its pronunciation. The results suggest that the perception of /r/ significantly increases as duration increases. However, those stimuli identified as /r/ were not considered good exemplars of such category. The stimuli identified as /ɾ/ that had shorter duration were perceived as good instances of such category, but as duration increased, the ratings for /ɾ/ decreased. The phonological implications of these results are discussed in this article.
Keywords: perception, rhotics, Spanish phonology, tap, trill
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1.Spanish alveolar trill
    • 2.2Variable production of Spanish trills among native speakers
    • 2.3Spanish rhotics among second language learners
    • 2.4About the duration of rhotics
  • 3.The present study
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Instrument
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Procedure
    • 4.4Analysis
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Phonological implications
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 4 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.27.14mel
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Henriksen, Nicholas, Shayna Greenley & Amber Galvano
2023. Sociophonetic Investigation of the Spanish Alveolar Trill /r/ in Two Canonical-Trill Varieties. Language and Speech 66:4 ► pp. 896 ff. DOI logo
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