Semester of Graduation

Spring 2018

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This sociolinguistic study explores the articulation of /-s/ in syllable-final position in the speech of Venezuelans that reside in Southern Louisiana and residents from Cartagena, Colombia. The results show similarities between both Caribbean communities, such as not favoring retention, and elements that differentiate the communities based on their geolects. One of the most significant differences is that speakers from Cartagena promote elision while Venezuelans that reside in Louisiana promote aspiration. Furthermore, the results show a connection between the time of residence of Venezuelans in Louisiana and retention. There is a great variety of studies about elided consonantal articulation of Caribbean Spanish speakers but there is only one previous study about the elision of /-s/ in speakers from Cartagena, Colombia, by Barbara Lafford in 1986. There are not many studies focused on the elision of /-s/ in the speech production of Venezuelan speakers. The methodology used in this research implements a combination of tools that were not available in the past, such as Language Variation Suite, RStudio, and Praat. Therefore, this study contributes to our current knowledge of the articulation of /-s/ in syllable-final position.

Date

4-3-2018

Committee Chair

Orozco, Rafael

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4679

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