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，在西班牙语中表现出巨大的跨方言差异，特别是在波多黎各西班牙语(PRS)中。这种变异不仅在波多黎各，而且在美国的一些波多黎各侨民社区也得到了证明。本项目侧重于马萨诸塞州西部，特别是自1950年代以来波多黎各侨民一直存在的霍利约克和斯普林菲尔德市中心所说的PRS的颤音变异。在这些城市，我们还发现了美国人均波多黎各人口最多的一些城市。然而，这是该地区第一次对普雷斯语进行声学研究。利用实验设计和声学分析，本研究项目的第一个目的是全面描述马萨诸塞州西部的颤音变异，揭示在散居国外的人以及波多黎各相关语言社区中发现的这些实现之间的任何差异。因此，这项研究将有助于关于是否存在特定的内地品种的PR的辩论。此外，最近在PR中的研究表明，音素/h/和/x/正在变得中性(例如，Ramón‘Raymond’和jamón‘ham’变成同音)。在这方面，这项研究的另一个目标是了解在马萨诸塞州西部所说的PR中是否有这种中和的证据。这一现象将通过生产实验和知觉实验来检验。虽然该项目对实验室音系学和社会语言学的语言学分支领域具有重要的理论意义，但也具有实际意义，使教师和演讲者能够促进和消除马萨诸塞州西部拉丁裔社区的西班牙语，并理解TRILL实现构成波多黎各和散居国外的人存在的一种合法变体。

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.