Contiguity in prosodic words: Evidence from Spanish

Abstract

Spanish dialects show substantial variation in coda s weakening. Yet, to provide a comprehensive treatment of this phenomenon, a bigger prosodic constituent than just the coda position should be analysed. Crucially, two aspirating varieties of Spanish are considered. The Granada dialect weakens s to [h] inside words, at word edges and at prefix edges. The process may be either transparent (esto [éh.to] 'this', des-calzar [deh.kal.sá] 'to unshoe', las cosas [lah.kó.sah] 'the things') or opaque (des-hecho [de.hé.t∫o] 'undone', las aguas [la.há.ywah] 'the waters'). Chilean Spanish, on the other hand, presents transparent (esto [éh.to] 'this', des-calzar [deh.kal.sá] 'to unshoe') and opaque (las aguas [la.há.ywa] 'the waters') aspiration, as well as deletion (las cosas [la.kó.sa] 'the things'), and no aspiration across a prefix boundary (des-hecho [de.sé.t∫o] 'undone'). The reported variable behaviour calls for an integrated approach to segmental weakening across all prosodic constituents, and for a revision of the present understanding of contiguity. The boundary between the prefix and the stem is protected by the grammar despite the weak coda position of the prefix-final s, therefore the domain of application of the CONTIGUITY constraint should be extended to the supramorphemic level.