Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rhotic variation in the Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and Western Massachusetts

一般来说，卷舌音，特别是颤音，在西班牙语中呈现出巨大的跨方言变化，特别是在波多黎各西班牙语（PRS）中。这种变化不仅在波多黎各岛上得到了证实，而且在美国的一些波多黎各侨民社区也得到了证实。目前的项目侧重于马萨诸塞州西部PRS中颤音的变化，特别是在霍利奥克和斯普林菲尔德的城市中心，波多黎各侨民自20世纪50年代以来一直存在。在这些城市中，我们也发现了美国人均波多黎各人口最高的一些城市。然而，这是第一次对该地区使用的PRS进行声学研究。通过实验设计和声学分析，本研究项目的第一个目的是提供马萨诸塞州西部颤音变化的全面描述，揭示在散居者和波多黎各相关语言社区中发现的颤音实现之间的任何差异。因此，这项研究将有助于争论是否有特定的大陆品种的PRS。此外，PRS最近的研究表明，音素/h/和/x/正在被中和（例如Ramón ‘Raymond’和jamón ‘ham’变成同音音）。在这方面，本研究的进一步目标是了解是否有证据表明在马萨诸塞州西部使用的PRS中存在这种中和。这一现象将通过生产和感知实验来检验。虽然该项目对实验室音韵学和社会语言学的语言学子领域具有重要的理论意义，但也有实际意义，它应该允许教师和演讲者一般地促进和消除马萨诸塞州西部拉丁裔社区的西班牙语的污名，并理解颤音实现构成了存在于波多黎各和散居海外的合法变体。

Rhotic sounds in general, particularly the trill, present enormous cross-dialectal variation in Spanish, especially in Puerto Rican Spanish (PRS). This variation has been attested not only on the island of Puerto Rico but also in some Puerto Rican diasporic communities in the U.S. The present project focuses on trill variation in the PRS spoken in Western Massachusetts, specifically in the urban centers of Holyoke and Springfield, where the Puerto Rican diaspora has been present since the 1950s. In these cities we also find some of the highest per capita populations of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. However, this is the first acoustic study of PRS as spoken in this region. Using experimental designs and acoustic analysis, the first purpose of this research project is to provide a comprehensive description of trill variation in Western Massachusetts, uncovering any differences among those realizations found in the diaspora as well as in relevant speech communities in Puerto Rico. As such, the research will contribute to the debate as to whether there are specific mainland varieties of PRS. Furthermore, recent work in PRS suggests that the phonemes /h/ and /x/ are becoming neutralized (e.g. Ramón 'Raymond' and jamón 'ham' become homophonous). In this vein, a further objective of this study is to understand whether there is evidence for this neutralization in the PRS spoken in Western Massachusetts. This phenomenon will be examined through both production and perception experiments. While the project is of theoretical importance for the linguistic subfields of laboratory phonology and sociolinguistics, there are also practical implications that should allow for instructors and speakers in general to promote and destigmatize the Spanish of the Latino community in Western Massachusetts and to understand that trill realizations constitute a legitimate variation that exists in Puerto Rico as well as in the diaspora.