An examination of the perceptions of Cuban and Peninsular Spanish varieties by native, second language learners of Spanish, and monolingual English speakers

Abstract

Individuals have been found to make judgments on a person’s personality, income, education, and employment in as little as 30 seconds after listening to their voice. This study investigates the perceptions of Cuban and Peninsular Spanish varieties by native Cuban and Peninsular Spanish speakers, second language (L2) Spanish learners, and monolingual English speakers, to analyze whether (i) these groups differ in their ability to recognize these varieties, and (ii) whether there is stigma attributed to either accent. The study consisted of 5 Cuban (Havana) and 5 Peninsular (Madrid) voices which were disguised and rated by 20 adult listeners. The methodology included the administration of a Bilingual Language Profile (BLP) questionnaire and a survey intended to gauge at listeners’ perceptions. Results revealed that listeners do make unconscious assumptions on an individual’s voice, as the Peninsular variety was often attributed to a higher educational level (84% SP, 48% CU), income (60% SP, 40% CU), and was more closely associated with a CEO position (32%), while the Cuban voice was associated with being funnier and slightly more intelligible. Furthermore, native Cuban listeners were found to outperform all other groups in their ability to correctly categorize the accents with an accuracy rate of 92%.