Measuring rates of word-final nasal velarization: The effect of dialect contact on in-group and out-group exchanges

Abstract

Three Salvadoran corpora were used to analyze word-final nasal variation in a situation of dialect contact. To determine the effect of ethnicity on the variation, two different interviewers, one an out-group member and a speaker of Mexican Spanish, the other an in-group member and a speaker of Salvadoran Spanish, interacted with Salvadorans, born or claiming family ties to San Sebastián, El Salvador, now living in the Holly Spring area of Houston. To explore the impact of the speech community, the same Mexican interviewer gathered data in Segundo Barrio, which - unlike Holly Spring - is an area of Houston where Mexicans are the overwhelming majority. The Houston data were compared to data gathered in situ in San Sebastián, the latter serving as the control group used to quantify possible modifications in the contact speech samples. The Houston data showed that Salvadorans interviewed by an in-group member of the community produced higher rates of nasal velarization; their velarization rates closely matched the patterns characteristic of the non-contact variety. In addition, Salvadorans in Holly Spring velarized more than their counterparts in Segundo Barrio. The Houston informants used lower frequencies of nasal velarization to out-group interviewers, thus showing accommodation and producing linguistic patterns closer to those found in the contact Mexican variety. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2009.