Doctoral Dissertation Research: An acoustic analysis of Spanish-K'ichee' (Mayan) bilingual intonation

博士论文研究：西班牙语-Kichee（玛雅）双语语调的声学分析

• 批准号: 1322179
• 负责人: Almeida Toribio
• 金额: $ 1.15万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1322179&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; acoustic; analysis

This dissertation project seeks to investigate the production of bilingual speech forms in the contact situation between Spanish and K'ichee' (Mayan) in Guatemala, where the languages stand in a situation of unstable diglossia. Specifically, it examines the phonetic transfer or convergence in the intonation contours of bilinguals that differ in language proficiency, as they produce contrastive focus utterances in naturalistic interviews and in controlled experiments. The principal questions that motivate the work are whether bilinguals give any prosodic emphasis to a contrastive focus constituent in K'ichee', and whether they present evidence of transfer from one language to the other or of convergence of intonation contours. The dissertation also explores the differences in prosodic focus marking in Spanish-dominant versus K'ichee'-dominant bilinguals and examines the patterns of interaction between these bilinguals' dominant languages. In pursuing these research aims, multiple tasks are employed to elicit contrastive focus productions from bilinguals from two dialect regions: Cantel, which is close to the Spanish-speaking urban center of Quetzaltenango, and Nahualá, which is further removed. The present study presents one of the first acoustic analyses of K'ichee' and Guatemalan Spanish and it contributes more generally to the literature on bilingual and contact Spanish intonation. In addition, it brings needed attention to an underrepresented indigenous population and its endangered language. Finally, in providing insight into the communicative norms and needs of this bilingual population, it may aid in the design and implementation of educational programs tailored to communities of Spanish-Mayan bilinguals throughout Guatemala.

本论文项目旨在调查生产的双语语音形式之间的接触情况下，西班牙语和K 'ichee'（玛雅语）在危地马拉，在那里的语言站在一个不稳定的双语的情况。具体来说，它研究的语音转移或收敛的语调轮廓的双语者，不同的语言水平，因为他们产生对比焦点话语在自然的采访和对照实验。激发这项工作的主要问题是，双语者是否对K 'ichee'中的对比焦点成分给予任何韵律强调，以及他们是否提供了从一种语言转移到另一种语言或语调轮廓趋同的证据。本文还探讨了西班牙语为主和基切语为主的双语者在韵律焦点标记上的差异，并考察了这些双语者的主导语言之间的互动模式。在追求这些研究目标，多个任务，从两个方言地区的双语引起对比焦点产品：坎特尔，这是接近西班牙语的城市中心的克萨尔特南戈，和纳瓦拉，这是进一步删除。本研究提出了第一个声学分析K 'ichee和危地马拉西班牙语，它有助于更普遍的双语和接触西班牙语语调的文献。此外，它还提请人们注意土著人口代表性不足及其濒危语言。最后，在提供深入了解这一双语人口的沟通规范和需求，它可能有助于设计和实施适合整个危地马拉的西班牙-玛雅双语社区的教育方案。