Flapping of coronal /n, l, d, s/ in Spanish

Abstract

This paper is a first approach to flapping in Spanish. This phenomenon has been traditionally associated with /l/, but recent research has revealed that it is also possible with other coronal consonants, namely /n, d, s/. With this data in mind, we have carried out an acoustic study based on the analysis of a spontaneous speech corpus. Its main goal has been to examine if the flap is a possible allophone for these phonemes and, in case it is, to account for its context of emergence. In addition, it is also interesting to determine whether rhotic sounds can be a widespread realization for coronal segments in weakening contexts. The results show that all of the phonological categories investigated display [ɹ] or [ɹ̝] allophones, especially in unstressed medial intervocalic positions (in spite of some differences between categories), which are contexts generally related to weakening. In any case, it seems that rhotic sounds are common realizations in lenition situation.