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In:Bridging Boundaries: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Hispanic Linguistics
Edited by Gregory L. Thompson and Scott M. Alvord
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 46] 2026
► pp. 359–387

Chapter 14
En la zona donde ello[ɦ] [b]i[v]ían

Limited spirantization and labiodentalization of /b/ in the production of U.S. Salvadorans living in Boston

 | The Ohio State University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Linguistic inquiry into the speech practices of U.S. Salvadorans living in the American West and Southwest reveals patterns of morphosyntactic (Lipski, 1988; Woods & Shin, 2016) and sociophonetic accommodation (Aaron & Hernández, 2007; Raymond, 2012) in dialectal contact settings. Most research to date has focused on salient or stigmatized features. This sociophonetic study explores Spanish /b/ — specifically, limited spirantization and labiodentalization — in the speech of 17 U.S. Salvadorans who participated in sociolinguistic interviews from the Spanish in Boston Project (Erker, 2025). Speakers of LS dialects (Campos-Astorkiza, 2018), including those of Central American varieties (Carrasco et al., 2012), produce voiced stops where approximants are expected (e.g., el vaso ‘the glass’ [el.ˈba.so] rather than [el.ˈβa.so]). This pattern persists even when syllable-final /s/ is aspirated or elided (e.g., los vasos [loɦ.ˈba.sos]; Amastae, 1989). While phonetic context is the strongest predictor of spirantization patterns (Eddington, 2011), research shows that labiodentalization (e.g., el vaso [el.ˈva.so]) is influenced by orthography, task type, gender, writing proficiency, time in the U.S., and stress (Chappell, 2019; Helms et al., 2022; Ortega, 2018; Stevens, 2000; Trovato, 2017). Using a variationist approach, this study examines how linguistic and social factors shape (a) manner and place of articulation (MOA and POA, respectively) and (b) degree of constriction via consonant-vowel intensity ratios (CVIRs). Results show that LS persists, with preceding liquids marking a site of potential change. Labiodentals occur across <b> and <v> contexts. Preceding sound, age, syllable stress, word position, orthography, and percent of life in the U.S. (PLUS; Erker & Otheguy, 2021) shape production patterns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Linguistic practices of U.S. Salvadorans
    • 2.2Limited spirantization of voiced stops in Spanish
    • 2.3The study of [v] in U.S. Spanish dialects
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants and data collection
    • 3.2Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Results for MOA (Limited Spirantization)
    • 4.2Results for CVIR (limited spirantization)
    • 4.3Results for place of articulation (POA/labiodentalization))
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
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