Cover not available
Part of
The Continuity of Linguistic Change: Selected papers in honour of Juan Andrés Villena-Ponsoda
Edited by Matilde Vida-Castro and Antonio Manuel Ávila-Muñoz
[Studies in Language Variation 31] 2024
► pp. 56–78

Chapter 3
Social patterns in s-palatalisation in Moroccan and Turkish ethnolectal Dutch

One half of a sociolinguistic study

| Meertens Instituut , Netherlands | Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen , Netherlands
| Meertens Instituut , Netherlands

This is a study of variable s-palatalisation in Turkish and Moroccan ethnolectal Dutch, with special attention to its social distribution. Following a discussion of the phenomenon of ethnolectal variation, this chapter introduces the Roots of Ethnolects project as well as the present sub-study. It then explores palatalisation both in general and specifically in the realisation of /s/, before presenting the details of this study on s-palatalisation in the Roots of Ethnolects data, including methodology, the speakers studied, material and data, coding, measurement and analysis. Lastly, it discusses the findings from the point of view of the research questions guiding the Roots of Ethnolects project as well as issues for further research.

Keywords: ethnolect, Centre of Gravity, first and second language acquisition, language contact, language variation, palatalisation, social meaning
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ethnolectal variation
  • 3.The roots of ethnolects project
    • 3.1The present study
  • 4.S-palatalisation
    • 4.1Palatalisation
    • 4.2Variable palatalisation of coronals other than /s/
    • 4.3Variable palatalisation of /s/
  • 5.S-palatalisation in the roots of Ethnolects data: Method and approach
    • 5.1Speakers
    • 5.2Material and data
    • 5.3Coding and measurement
    • 5.4Data analyses
  • 6.Findings
  • 7.Discussion and issues for further research
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.31.03hin
References
Bateman, Nicoleta
2011 On the typology of palatalization. Language and Linguistics Compass 5(8). 588–602. [URL]. (15 May, 2022.) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bekker, Ian
2007 Fronted /s/ in General White South African English. Language Matters 38. 46–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bekker, Ian & Erez Levon
2017 The embedded indexical value of /s/-fronting in Afrikaans and South African English. Linguistics 55. 1109–‍1139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bell, Alan
1984 Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2). 145–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhat, D. N. Shankara
1978 A General study of palatalization. In Joseph Greenberg, Charles Ferguson & Edith Moravcsik (eds.), Universals of human languages, vol. 2, 47–92. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & David Weenink
2010 Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. [URL]. (16 May, 2022.)Google Scholar
Brouwer, Dédé.
1989 Gender variation in Dutch. A sociolinguistic study of Amsterdam speech. Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen dissertation.Google Scholar
Brugman, Hennie & Albert Russel
2004 Annotating multi-media/multi-modal resources with ELAN. In Maria Teresa Lino et al.. (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’04). [URL]. (16 May, 2022.)Google Scholar
Calder, Jeremy
2019 The fierceness of fronted /s/: Linguistic rhematization through visual transformation. Language in Society 48. 31–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, Ana Maria
2004 I speak like the guys on TV: Palatalization and the urbanization of Uruguayan Portuguese. Language Variation and Change 16. 127–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caubet, Dominique
1993 L’Arabe Marocain: Tome 1: Phonologie et morphosyntaxe [Moroccan Arabic: Book 1: Phonology and morphosyntax]. Paris & Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
1997 Turkish phonology. In Alan S. Kaye & Peter T. Daniel (eds.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa, vol. 2, 883–898. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Corneau, Caroline
1999 An EPG Study of Palatalization in French. In John Ohala (Ed.), Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, San Francisco 1–7 August 1999 (ICPhS 99), vol. 1, 61–64.Google Scholar
Dilthey, Wilhelm
1883 Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. Versuch einer Grundlegung für das Studium der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte [Introduction to the human sciences. An attempt to lay a foundation for the study of society and history], vol. 1. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.Google Scholar
Ditewig, Sanne, Laura Smorenburg, Hugo Quené & Willemijn Heeren
2021 An acoustic-phonetic study of retraction of /s/ in Moroccan Dutch and endogenous Dutch. Nederlandse Taalkunde 26(3). 147–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope
2019 The limits of meaning: Social indexicality, variation, and the cline of interiority. Language 95(4). 761–776. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fought, Carmen
2013 Ethnicity. In Jack Chambers & Natalie Schilling (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change, 2nd edn., 388–‍406. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González, Hebe Alicia
2014 Procesos fonológicos como rasgos areales: El caso de la palatalización en las lenguas chaqueñas [Phonological processes as areal features: The case of palatalization in the Chaco languages]. Liames 14(1). 11–39.Google Scholar
Goossens, Jan
1969 Strukturelle Sprachgeographie. Eine Einführung in Methodik und Ergebnisse [Structural linguistic geography. An introduction to methodology and results]. Heildelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew, Paul Barthmaier & Kathy Sands
2002 A cross-linguistic acoustic study of voiceless fricatives. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32. 141–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, Roeland van Hout & Paul van Gent
2019 Re-evaluating the prestige of regional accents in Netherlandic Standard Dutch: The role of accent strength and speaker gender. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 38(2). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harrel, Richard
1962 A short reference grammar of Moroccan Arabic. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Hinskens, Frans
2004 Nieuwe regenboogkleuren. Jonge typen niet-standaardtaal en hun taalkundig belang [New rainbow colours. New types of non-standard language and their linguistic relevance]. Inaugural address, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Amsterdam: VU University Press. [URL].Google Scholar
2011 Emerging Moroccan and Turkish varieties of Dutch: Ethnolects or ethnic styles? In Friederike Kern & Margret Selting (eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas, 103–131. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Ethnolects: Where language contact, language acquisition and dialect variation meet. 7th Ιnternational Conference on Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory (MGDLT7). 1–27.Google Scholar
Hinskens, Frans, Khalid Mourigh & Pieter Muysken
Forthcoming 2024 Urban contact dialects in the Netherlands. In Paul Kerswill & Heike Wiese (eds.), Urban contact dialects and language change: Insights from the Global North and South. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Holmes-Elliot, Sophie & Erez Levon
2017 The substance of style: Gender, social class and interactional stance in /s/-fronting in southeast England. Linguistics 55. 1045–1072. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hout, Roeland van
1989 De structuur van taalvariatie: Een sociolinguïstisch onderzoek naar het stadsdialect van Nijmegen [The structure of language variation. A sociolinguistic study on the urban dialect of Nijmegen]. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen dissertation.Google Scholar
Kossmann, Maarten
2012 Berber. In Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Erin Shay (eds.), The Afroasiatic languages, 18 101. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kossmann, Maarten & Harry Stroomer
1997 Berber phonology. In Alan S. Kaye (ed.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa (including the Caucasus), vol. 1, 461–475. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Li, Fangfang
2017 The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistics 55. 1021–1044. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, Ian
1984 Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marzo, Stefania, Eline Zenner & Dorien Van de Mieroop
2018 When sociolinguistics and prototype analysis meet: The social meaning of sibilant palatalization in a Flemish Urban Vernacular. In Eline Zenner, Ad Backus & Esme Winter-Froemel (eds.), Cognitive contact linguistics placing usage, meaning and mind at the core of contact-induced variation and change, 127–156. Berlin, Munich & Boston, MA: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meel, Linda van
2016 The roots of ethnolects. A sociophonological study in Amsterdam and Nijmegen. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen dissertation. Digital version: [URL]. (16 May, 2022.)Google Scholar
Monteiro, Renata Conceição Neves
2009 A produção palato-alveolar de /S/ nas vozes do Amapá [The palato-alveolar production of /S/ in the voices of Amapá]. João Pessoa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba MA thesis.Google Scholar
Mourigh, Khalid
2017 Stance-taking through sibilant palatalisation in Gouda Moroccan Dutch. Nederlandse Taalkunde 22(3). 421–446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muysken, Pieter
2013 Ethnolects of Dutch. In Frans Hinskens & Johan Taeldeman (eds.), Language and space: Dutch, 739–761. Berlin & Boston, MA: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Nespor, Marina & Irene Vogel
1986 Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Padgett, Jaye
2003 The Emergence of Contrastive Palatalization in Russian. In: D. Eric Holt (ed.), Optimality Theory and Language Change. Dordrecht: Springer, 307 335. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pharao, Nicolai & Marie Maegaard
2017 On the influence of coronal sibilants and stops on the perception of social meanings in Copenhagen Danish. Linguistics 55. 1141–1167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pharao, Nicolai, Marie Maegaard, Janus Spindler-Møller & Tore Kristiansen
2014 Indexical meanings of [s+] among Copenhagen youth: Social perception of a phonetic variant in different linguistic contexts. Language in Society 43. 1–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Podesva, Robert & Janneke van Hofwegen
2016 /s/exuality in smalltown California: Gender normativity and the acoustic realization of /s/. In Erez Levon & Ronald Beline Mendes (eds.), Language, sexuality, and power: Studies in intersectional sociolinguistics, 168–188. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reidy, Patrick F.
2016 Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 140. 2518–2529. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rietveld, Toni & Vincent van Heuven
2013 Algemene fonetiek [General phonetics]. Bussum: Coutinho.Google Scholar
Rubach, Jerzy
2011 Slavic Palatalization. In Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume & Keren Rice (eds), The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Volume V. Phonology across Languages. Oxford/Boston: Blackwell-Wiley, 2908 2935. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rutter, Ben
2014 The acquisition of newly emerging sociophonetic variation: /str-/ in American English. Journal of Child Language 41. 1166–1178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sokhey, Navdeep Kaur
2015 The women (and men) who speak Funnyi: Negotiating social meanings through palatalization of the Cairene nasal. Austin: University of Texas at Austin MA thesis.Google Scholar
Stuart-Smith, Jane
2007 Empirical evidence for gendered speech production: /s/ in Glaswegian. In Jennifer Cole & José Ignacio Hualde (Eds.), Laboratory phonology 9, 65–86. New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2020 Changing perspectives on /s/ and gender over time in Glasgow. Linguistics Vanguard 6(s1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villena-Ponsoda, Juan Andrés
1987 Forma, sustancia y redundancia contextual en el vocalismo andaluz [Contextual form, substance and redundancy in Andalusian vowels]. In Juan Andrés Villena-Ponsoda, Forma, sustancia y redundancia contextual: El caso del vocalismo del español andaluz, 87–94. Malaga: Universidad de Málaga.Google Scholar
2001 La continuidad del cambio lingüístico [The continuity of linguistic change]. Granada: Universidad de Granada.Google Scholar