1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Language Ecology
  4. Volume 3, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 3, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2452-1949
  • E-ISSN: 2452-2147
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of voice quality variation in the system of a contact language, Afro-Yungueño Spanish, a restructured variety of Spanish spoken in the Bolivian Yungas valleys. Based on case studies of naturally occurring conversation between multiple speakers, we show that certain non-modal phonation types, in this case falsetto and breathy voice, are used to index expressiveness, intensification, or emphasis. We argue that these practices have discursive meaning that could otherwise also be encoded by means of grammatical and lexical resources, and that they are an integral part of the linguistic system of this variety. We claim that these practices may have resulted from the specific socio-historical context in which this variety evolved. This suggests that voice quality and ecological factors should not be underestimated in order to reach a more complete picture of how meaning is conveyed in apparently simplified contact languages.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/le.18010.per
2019-06-12
2024-12-01

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/le.18010.per
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Babel, Anna M.
    2010 Contact and Contrast in Valley Spanish. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.
  2. Bakker, Peter
    2008 Pidgins versus creoles versus Pidgincreoles. InSilvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler, eds.The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies. Oxford: Blackwell. 130–157.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. 2009 Phonological complexity in Pidgins. InNicholas Faraclas and Thomas B. Klein, eds.Simplicity and Complexity in Creoles and Pidgins. London: Battlebridge. 7–27.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Blount, Ben G. and Elise J. Padgug
    1977 Prosodic, paralinguistic, and interactional features in parent-child speech: English and Spanish. Journal of Child Language4(1): 67–86. 10.1017/S0305000900000489
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900000489 [Google Scholar]
  5. Bonnie, Richard J.
    2011 The Segmental Features of Ghanaian English Pronunciation: A Description of Usage at the Mesolectal Level. Unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Ghana.
  6. Bruyn, Adrienne
    2008 Grammaticalization in pidgins and creoles. InSilvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler, eds.The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies. London: Blackwell. 385–410.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Campbell, Nick and Parham Mokhtari
    2003 Voice quality: The 4th prosodic dimension. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Barcelona: ICPhS. 2417–2420.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Clements, J. Clancy and Shelome Gooden
    eds. 2011 Language Change in Contact Languages: Grammatical and Prosodic Considerations. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/bct.36
     https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.36 [Google Scholar]
  9. Colton, Raymond H. and Harry Hollien
    1973 Perceptual differentiation of the modal and falsetto registers. Folia Phoniatrica25: 270–280. 10.1159/000263711
     https://doi.org/10.1159/000263711 [Google Scholar]
  10. Daval-Markussen, Aymeric and Peter Bakker
    2017 Typology of Creole languages. InAlexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon, eds.The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 254–286. 10.1017/9781316135716.009
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316135716.009 [Google Scholar]
  11. DeGraff, Michel
    2005 Linguists’ most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole Exceptionalism. Language in Society34: 533–591. 10.1017/S0047404505050207
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404505050207 [Google Scholar]
  12. Esling, John H. and Jerold A. Edmondson
    2011 Acoustical analysis of voice quality for sociophonetic purposes. InMarianna Di Paolo and Malcah Yaeger-Dror, eds.Sociophonetics: A Student’s Guide. London and New York: Routledge. 131–148.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Faraclas, Nicholas
    2009 Suprasegmentals and the myth of the simplicity continuum from ‘Pidgin’, to ‘Creole’, to ‘natural languages’. InNicholas Faraclas and Thomas B. Klein, eds.Simplicity and Complexity in Creoles and Pidgins. London: Battlebridge. 29–47.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Ferrand, Carole T.
    2002 Harmonics-to-noise ratio: An index of vocal aging. Journal of Voice16(4): 480–487. 10.1016/S0892‑1997(02)00123‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0892-1997(02)00123-6 [Google Scholar]
  15. Foley, W. A.
    1997 Anthropological Linguistics. An Introduction. London: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Garrett, Paul B.
    2006 Contact languages as endangered languages: What is there to lose?Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages21(1): 175–190. 10.1075/jpcl.21.1.05gar
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.21.1.05gar [Google Scholar]
  17. Gil, David
    2006 How complex are isolating languages?InMatti Miestamo, Kaius Sinnemäki, and Fred Karlsson, eds.Language Complexity: Typology, Contact, Change. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 109–132.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Gobl, Christer and Ailbhe Ní Chasaide
    2003 The role of voice quality in communicating emotion, mood and attitude. Speech Communication40: 189–212. 10.1016/S0167‑6393(02)00082‑1
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-6393(02)00082-1 [Google Scholar]
  19. Good, Jeff
    2004 Tone and accent in Saramaccan: Charting a deep split in the phonology of a language. Lingua 114: 575–619. 10.1016/S0024‑3841(03)00062‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(03)00062-7 [Google Scholar]
  20. Gordon, Matthew and Peter Ladefoged
    2001 Phonation types: A cross-linguistic overview. Journal of Phonetics29: 383–406. 10.1006/jpho.2001.0147
     https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.2001.0147 [Google Scholar]
  21. Grivičić, Tamara and Chad Nilep
    2004 When phonation matters: The use and function of yeah and creaky voice. Colorado Research in Linguistics17(1): 1–11.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Halliday, Michael A. K.
    1992 New ways of meaning: The challenge to applied linguistics. InMartin Pütz, ed.Thirty Years of Linguistic Evolution. Studies in Honour of René Dirven on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 59–95. 10.1075/z.61.09hal
     https://doi.org/10.1075/z.61.09hal [Google Scholar]
  23. Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva
    2005 Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511614132
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614132 [Google Scholar]
  24. Henton, Caroline G. and R. A. W. Bladon
    1985 Breathiness in normal female speech: Inefficiency versus desirability. Language and Communication5(3): 221–227. 10.1016/0271‑5309(85)90012‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0271-5309(85)90012-6 [Google Scholar]
  25. Hidalgo Navarro, Antonio
    2011 Humor, prosodia e intensificación pragmática en la conversación coloquial española. VERBA38: 271–292.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Hinton, Leanne, Johanna Nichols, and John J. Ohala
    eds. 1994 Sound Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Hualde, José Ignacio and Armin Schwegler
    2008 Intonation in Palenquero. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages23(1): 1–31. 10.1075/jpcl.23.1.02hua
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.23.1.02hua [Google Scholar]
  28. Jourdan, Christine
    2008 The cultural in Pidgin genesis. InSilvia Kouwenberg and John V. Singler, eds.The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies. London: Wiley Blackwell. 359–381.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Kerswill, Paul
    2010 Contact and new varieties. InRaymond Hickey, ed.The Handbook of Language Contact. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 230–251. 10.1002/9781444318159.ch11
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444318159.ch11 [Google Scholar]
  30. Klein, Thomas B.
    2011 Typology of Creole phonology. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages26(1): 155–193. 10.1075/jpcl.26.1.06kle
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.26.1.06kle [Google Scholar]
  31. Kuster, Wouter
    2006 Complexity in linguistic theory, language learning and language change. InMatti Miestamo, Kaius Sinnemäki and Fred Karlsson, eds.Language Complexity: Typology, Contact, Change. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 3–22.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Labov, William
    1972 Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Ladd, D. Robert, Kim E. A. Silverman, Frank Tolkmitt, Günther Bergmann and Klaus R. Scherer
    1985 Evidence for the independent function of intonation contour type, voice quality, and F0 range in signaling speaker affect. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America78(2): 435–444. 10.1121/1.392466
     https://doi.org/10.1121/1.392466 [Google Scholar]
  34. Laver, John
    1980 The Phonetic Description of Voice Quality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Lipski, John M.
    2008 Afro-Bolivian Spanish. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. 10.31819/9783865279026
     https://doi.org/10.31819/9783865279026 [Google Scholar]
  36. 2015 ‘Toned-up’ Spanish: Stress → pitch → tone(?) in Equatorial Guinea. InChristina Tortora, Marcel den Dikken, Ignacio L. Montoya, and Teresa O’Neill, eds.Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory9. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 233–256.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Lucchesi, Dante, Alan Baxter, and Ilza Ribeiro
    eds. 2009 O português afro-brasileiro. Salvador: EDUFBA. 10.7476/9788523208752
     https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523208752 [Google Scholar]
  38. Matras, Yaron and Jeannette Sakel
    2007 Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110199192
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199192 [Google Scholar]
  39. McWhorter, John
    2011 Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity: Why do Languages Undress?Berlin: DeGruyter. 10.1515/9781934078402
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9781934078402 [Google Scholar]
  40. Mendoza-Denton, Norma
    2011 The semiotic hitchhiker’s guide to creaky voice: Circulation and gendered hardcore in a Chicana/o gang persona. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology21(2): 261–280. 10.1111/j.1548‑1395.2011.01110.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2011.01110.x [Google Scholar]
  41. Meyerhoff, Miriam and Anna Strycharz
    2013 Communities of practice. InJ. K. Chambers and Natalie Schilling, eds.The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 2nd ed.Malden: Wiley. 428–447. 10.1002/9781118335598.ch20
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118335598.ch20 [Google Scholar]
  42. Mühlhäusler, Peter
    1996 Linguistic adaptation to changed environmental conditions: Some lessons from the past. InAlwin Fill, ed.Sprachökologie und Ökolinguistik. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 105–130.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Newman, Michael and Angela Wu
    2011 ‘Do you sound Asian when you speak English?’ Racial identification and voice in Chinese and Korean Americans’ English. American Speech86(2): 152–178. 10.1215/00031283‑1336992
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-1336992 [Google Scholar]
  44. Nielsen, Rasmus
    2010 ‘I ain’t never been charged with nothing!’: The use of falsetto speech as a linguistic strategy of indignation. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics15(2): 110–121.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Ohala, John J.
    1994 The frequency code underlies the sound symbolic use of voice pitch. InLeanne Hinton, Johanna Nichols, and John J. Ohala, eds.Sound Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 325–347.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Perez, Danae
    2014 Contact languages in contact: On the challenge of compiling the corpus of Afro-Yungueño Spanish. Paper presented atContact, Variation and Change: Afro-Latin Language Varieties, Aarhus, Denmark.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. 2015 Traces of Portuguese in Afro-Yungueño Spanish?Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages30(2): 307–343. 10.1075/jpcl.30.2.04per
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.30.2.04per [Google Scholar]
  48. . fc.Social conditioning of the transmission of areal features in the Central Andes. InEeva Sippola and Danae M. Perez eds. Postcolonial Varieties in the Americas. Berlin: De Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Podesva, Robert J.
    2007 Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics11(4): 478–504. 10.1111/j.1467‑9841.2007.00334.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00334.x [Google Scholar]
  50. 2013 Gender and the social meaning of non-modal phonation types. InChundra Cathcart, I-Hsuan Chen, Greg Finley, Shinae Kang, Clare S. Sandy, and Elise Stickles, eds.Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 427–448.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Podesva, Robert J. and Patrick Callier
    2015 Voice quality and identity. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics35: 173–194. 10.1017/S0267190514000270
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000270 [Google Scholar]
  52. Rivera-Castillo, Yolanda
    2011 Subsystem interface and tone typology in Papiamentu. InJ. Clancy Clements and Shelome Gooden, eds.Language Change in Contact Languages. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 177–198. 10.1075/bct.36.08riv
     https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.36.08riv [Google Scholar]
  53. Schwegler, Armin
    2014 Portuguese remnants in the Afro-Hispanic diaspora. InPatrícia Amaral and Ana M. Carvalho, eds.Portuguese–Spanish Interfaces: Diachrony, Synchrony, and Contact. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 403–441.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Sessarego, Sandro
    2013 On the non-Creole bases for Afro-Bolivian Spanish. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages28: 363–407. 10.1075/jpcl.28.2.04ses
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.28.2.04ses [Google Scholar]
  55. Sicoli, Mark A.
    2010 Shifting voices with participant roles: Voice qualities and speech registers in Mesoamerica. Language in Society39: 521–553. 10.1017/S0047404510000436
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000436 [Google Scholar]
  56. 2015 Voice registers. InDeborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton, and Deborah Schiffrin, eds.The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden: Wiley. 105–126.
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Siegel, Jason F.
    2010 Decreolization: A critical review. InJ. Clancy Clements, Megan E. Solon, Jason F. Siegel, and B. Devan Steiner, eds.ULC Working Papers 9: New Perspectives on Language Contact and Contact-Induced Language Change. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. 83–98.
     [Google Scholar]
  58. Stross, Brian
    2013 Falsetto voice and observational logic: Motivated meanings. Language in Society42(2): 139–162. 10.1017/S004740451300002X
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740451300002X [Google Scholar]
  59. Stuart-Smith, Jane
    1999 Glasgow: Accent and voice quality. InPaul Foulkes and Gerald Docherty, eds.Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold. 203–222.
     [Google Scholar]
  60. Studer, Elena F. S. de
    1984 [1958] La trata de Negros en el Río de la Plata durante el siglo XVIII. Buenos Aires: Edigraf.
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Szakay, Anita
    2012 Voice quality as a marker of ethnicity in New Zealand: From acoustics to perception. Journal of Sociolinguistics16(3): 382–397. 10.1111/j.1467‑9841.2012.00537.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2012.00537.x [Google Scholar]
  62. Trittin, Pamela Jean and Andrés des Santos y Lleó
    1995 Voice quality analysis of male and female Spanish speakers. Speech Communication16: 359–368. 10.1016/0167‑6393(95)00004‑8
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-6393(95)00004-8 [Google Scholar]
  63. Trudgill, Peter
    2011 Sociolinguistic Typology: Social Determinants of Linguistic Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Wennerstrom, Ann
    2001 The Music of Everyday Speech. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Yakpo, Kofi
    2018 A Grammar of Pichi. Berlin: Language Science Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  66. 2019 Inheritance, contact, convergence: Pronominal allomorphy in the African English-lexifier Creoles. English World-Wide. 40(2).
     [Google Scholar]
  67. Yuasa, Ikuko Patricia
    2010 Creaky voice: A new feminine voice quality for young urban-oriented upwardly mobile American women?American Speech85(3): 315–337. 10.1215/00031283‑2010‑018
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2010-018 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/le.18010.per
Loading
On the relevance of voice quality in contact varieties
Language Ecology 3, 3 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1075/le.18010.per
/content/journals/10.1075/le.18010.per
/content/journals/10.1075/le.18010.per
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Afro-Bolivians; Afro-Yungueño Spanish; breathy voice quality; falsetto; language ecology; simplicity

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error