A simplification analysis of Andalusian aspirated stop clusters

Abstract

Weakening or “aspiration” of syllable-final /s/ is a widespread phenomenon in Spanish. When /s/ precedes a voiceless stop in varieties with /s/-aspiration, the result is normally a pre-aspirated stop [ht]. Some speakers in southern Spain now realize /s/ + stop (sC) clusters as post-aspirated stops, particularly in Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS) [Ruch and Harrington, J. Phonics 45(1), 12 (2014)]. Previous studies have analyzed this change as a timing realignment [Parrell, J. Phonics 40(1), 37 (2012)] or articulatory overlap [Torreira, JIPA 42(1), 49 (2012)]. The current study is the first to investigate sC clusters in naturalistic data. The data consist of 34 sociolinguistic interviews with WAS speakers. Preliminary results based on 10 speakers indicate a negative correlation between closure duration and VOT, and lower overall duration of post-aspirated clusters. Affrication of /ht/ to [ts] occurred at a rate of 7%, and deletion of the vowel in 4% of /ht/ tokens in vowel-initial words (e.g., [tha] for está), a phenomenon not reported in laboratory speech. We argue that low-level gestural realignment cannot account for the naturalistic variability in sC clusters, and argue for an account involving simplification to a single post-aspirated stop.