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Part of
Spanish Phonetics and Phonology in Contact: Studies from Africa, the Americas, and Spain
Edited by Rajiv Rao
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 28] 2020
► pp. 103–140

Chapter 5
A preliminary, descriptive survey of rhotic and approximant fricativization in Northern Ecuadorian Andean Spanish varieties, Quichua, and Media Lengua

| University of Saskatchewan
This chapter examines acoustic data from six speech communities in the northern Andean region of Ecuador to describe variation in the Spanish rhotics /r, ɾ/ and approximants /ʎ, j/, as well as their relationship to the Quichua fricatives /ʐ, ʒ/. Data were collected from four dialects of Spanish, Imbabura Quichua, and Media Lengua, a mixed language containing Spanish lexicon and Quichua morphosyntax. Results from this preliminary, descriptive survey support claims that speakers of both urban and rural dialects of Spanish make extensive use of [ʐ] for /r/ and [ʒ] for /ʎ/, in addition to a wealth of phonetic variation. Similarly, /r/ and /ʎ/ from Spanish borrowings in Media Lengua and Quichua assimilate to [ʐ] and [ʒ], respectively, with little exception.
Keywords: Ecuadorian Spanish, Media Lengua, Quichua, fricativization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Andean Spanish
    • 1.2Imbabura Quichua
    • 1.3Media Lengua
  • 2.Production of liquids and fricatives
    • 2.1Trills [r] and approximant trills [r̞]
    • 2.2Fricatives [ʒ] and [ʐ]
    • 2.3Approximants [ʎ] and [j]
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Field locations
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Materials
    • 3.4Procedures
      • 3.4.1Elicitation sessions
      • 3.4.2Reading sessions
    • 3.5Categorization
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Trills (Spanish) and voiced retroflex fricatives (Quichua)
    • 4.2Taps
    • 4.3Palatal lateral approximants (Spanish) and voiced alveopalatal fricatives (Quichua)
    • 4.4Palatal approximants
    • 4.5Results summary
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Fricative maintenance/divergence
    • 5.2Taps
    • 5.3Yeísmo or lleísmo?
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 6 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.28.05ste
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