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Publication Date

2020

Start Date

14-11-2020 11:50 AM

End Date

14-11-2020 12:10 PM

Description

Spanish underwent significant phonological alteration in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modernity. Perhaps the most important group of changes concerns the sibilants (s-like sounds), which descend from a system of four original sibilants (s, z, ʃ, ʒ) and two alveolar affricates (ts, dz) which became sibilant (s̪, z̪). In a long process spanning until the 16th century, this system simplified to the extent that, in most regions (including the colonies), alveolar sibilants became reduced to a single phoneme /s/, a system called “seseo”. In this work I will examine the transitory stages between the old system and seseo and explore the alternate system of Judaeo-Spanish.

The method used for the most part of this research is text analysis. The texts I used are epistolary, legal and ecclesiastical, and most come from either of two corpora: “GITHE CODEA+”, and Documentos Lingüísticos de la Nueva España: Golfo de México. I also used Spanish historical grammar books and the glossary of a Ladino orthography book.

Some of my findings are: 1. By the late Middle Ages the loss of s/z distinction was dominant in the Christian population of Castilian-speaking Spain. 2. There was a stage of at least 200 years where the northern part of Castilian-speaking Spain merged /s̪/ with /z̪/ and /ʃ/ with /ʒ/ and the southern part conserved the distinctions. 3. Ladino developed an alternate system where /z/ merged with /z̪/ and /s/ with /s̪/.

See full abstract linked below.

REC6-mACOL2020.srt (13 kB)
Video transcript

Giudice-mACOL2020-abstract.pdf (342 kB)
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Nov 14th, 11:50 AM Nov 14th, 12:10 PM

Documentary Exploration of the Evolution of Spanish Sibilants

Spanish underwent significant phonological alteration in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modernity. Perhaps the most important group of changes concerns the sibilants (s-like sounds), which descend from a system of four original sibilants (s, z, ʃ, ʒ) and two alveolar affricates (ts, dz) which became sibilant (s̪, z̪). In a long process spanning until the 16th century, this system simplified to the extent that, in most regions (including the colonies), alveolar sibilants became reduced to a single phoneme /s/, a system called “seseo”. In this work I will examine the transitory stages between the old system and seseo and explore the alternate system of Judaeo-Spanish.

The method used for the most part of this research is text analysis. The texts I used are epistolary, legal and ecclesiastical, and most come from either of two corpora: “GITHE CODEA+”, and Documentos Lingüísticos de la Nueva España: Golfo de México. I also used Spanish historical grammar books and the glossary of a Ladino orthography book.

Some of my findings are: 1. By the late Middle Ages the loss of s/z distinction was dominant in the Christian population of Castilian-speaking Spain. 2. There was a stage of at least 200 years where the northern part of Castilian-speaking Spain merged /s̪/ with /z̪/ and /ʃ/ with /ʒ/ and the southern part conserved the distinctions. 3. Ladino developed an alternate system where /z/ merged with /z̪/ and /s/ with /s̪/.

See full abstract linked below.