Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain

Abstract

T WO of the most interesting dialectal features of Spain are the seseo and ceceo of the eight southern provinces that comprise Andalucia (Almeria, Cadiz, C6rdoba, Granada, Huelva, Ja6n, Malaga, and Sevilla). Supposedly seseo speakers do not pronounce the interdental slit fricative phoneme / / found in the national standard dialect castellano, and ceceo speakers do not pronounce its alveolar groove fricative phoneme I/s/. Thus, where castellano speakers contrast these two sounds for the letters z, c + e, i and s, x, respectively, in all positions, as in cierra-sierra,' caza--casa, Velizquez-Velasco, and vez--ves, seseo speakers pronounce all these words with / / and ceceo speakers with /0/. The chronology and development of seseo and ceceo, along with that of /0/ itself and the various realizations of / /, is a complicated and controversial question in Spanish historical linguistics. In the present study, however, we will treat these matters mainly from a synchronic point of view. Castellano, the national standard dialect,' is taught in schools, is heard on radio and television and in films, and is used all over the country in offices, stores, and public places in general, often sideby-side with other dialects of Spanish and even other languages, such as catalkn. Castellano is characterized by its own unique intonation and several other prominent sound features, including the above-mentioned contrast between / / and / 0/ (hereafter referred to as distinci6n) and a sibilant sometimes called impressionistically s gorda or s espesa. This sound, represented as [s], is articulated by raising the tongue tip to the alveolar ridge, with slight retraction and sometimes even retroflexion. Its acoustic quality is quite noticeable to foreigners and often sounds to them somewhat like the palatal [9] of English 'ship.' The use of this particular sibilant [s] is not in itself a distinctive feature of the dialect castellano since not all speakers use it exclusively, and it can also be found in other dialects of peninsular Spanish and in another language, cataldn. Nor is distinci6n exclusive with castellano since it can be found in other dialects of peninsular Spanish. Thus, when a speaker from Granada, for example, makes a phonemic ontrast between /Is/ and /0/, he will be categorized in this study as having distinci6n but will not be considered a speaker of castellano. However, when an individual makes distinci6n, uses the apicoalveolar [s], and possesses certain other phonetic features not discussed here, he is probably from central or northern Spain and is thus a speaker of the dialect casteliano. Not all speakers from Andalucia can be characterized as having seseo or ceceo. Many, although they do not speak the specific dialect castellano, nonetheless make the distinci6n. Dialectal studies have shown that not only well-educated people, particularly in the cities of Granada and Sevilla, distinguish but also many rural and uneducated speakers from Almeria, Ja6n, C6rdoba, and Huelva.2 Nevertheless, the majority of Andalusians, regardless of educational level and social status, are said to be seseantes or ceceantes. Both these modes have their origin in the modifications of the medieval dental sibilant (now / 0/) and the subsequent loss of the apico-alveolar phoneme / /. These modes are really statistical tendencies, as we shall see, rather than absolutes. A great many Andalusians exhibited in the past, and, as our experience has shown, still exhibit in the present a sibilant mode that lies at some undetermined point between the theoretical extremes of seseo and ceceo. This inbetween variation still lacks a standard or widely accepted label and is the subject of analysis in the present study.