Figure 17. Percentage by age of realisations of labiodental v: divendres (Friday)		Figure 18. Percentage by type of school syllabus of the realisation of labiodental v: divendres (Friday)

2.9 The africative []

The fricative sound [] forms part of the repertoire of phonemes in the traditional language model of the Baix Vinalopó. The modification of this sound is numerically quite small and only found in the youngest age group:

Figure19. Percentage by age of realisation of the volced palatal fricative: dijous (Thursday)

We found two different sounds replacing it. On the one hand, there is the devoicing [], current for long in central Valencian and much more recently occurring in different areas in the neighbouring county of Valls del Vinalopó. Secondly, there is the de-affricativisation of the sound resulting in a sort semiconsonant [].This phenomenon is detectable also in the neighbouring county of Alacantí.

As can be seen in figure 19, devoicing is more habitual among the young adult group: it occurs at more than 20% in their replies. This tendency decreases sharply in the youngest age group (8%). Loss of afficativisation, in contrast, is much less habitual among this youngest or school-age group. Even so, school-agers tend to avoid both pronunciations, which together amount to 22% of the replies, while among the young adults this combined feature amounts to 34%.

Devoicing affects some of the localities in the rural areas around Elx and in the town itself; the loss of affricativisation is distributed across areas or individuals with strong Spanish influence (Elx, Santa Pola, Guardamar, la Marina). In figure 20 it can be seen that where the interviewee claims high use of own language, this favours considerably the realisation of the devoiced affricative [], while low use is associated with loss of affricativization []:

Figure 20. Realisations according to declared own use of Catalan, of the voiced palatal affricative: dijous (Thursday)

Such a pattern could lead one to interpret the two types of phonetic replacement as the result of interference from Spanish but in different contexts: devoicing [] appears in a language situation where Catalan has a degree of vitality, while loss of affricativisation [], tends to occur in social circles more heavily affected by Spanish. And indeed, this last is a normal adaptation of the sound [] of Catalan or English, let us say, as made by Spanish speakers, while the other variant began in central Valencian at a moment of great linguistic vitality, in the 17th and 18th centuries.

There are no notable differences depending on school syllabus. Notice, however, that devoicing is more frequent among Eval subjects where it affects some 16% of the responses, precisely in those who state that they make greater use of their own language. The loss of affricativisation is associated with Lval subjects —11%— and low use of Catalan. Both tendencies affect rural and urban localities more or less indistinctly, while the voiceless variant is more common in the country where once again linguistic vitality is greater.

2.10 The –lt final group before vowels

The traditional way of realising the consonant cluster –lt followed by a vowel in the county is not to delete the dental and thus to pronounce it mo[lt a]mable ("very kind"). We detect a degree of /t/ deletion in this position, thus coinciding with the traditional model of neighbouring counties, part of Valls del Vinalopó, the Foia de Castalla and Alcoi. In the Baix Vinalopó, deletion occurs at 19% for the overall population of the county.

As can be seen in figure 21, deletion of the dental is quite frequent among the school-aged speakers —at 39%— and reduces as one moves up the age range: it occurs in 23% of the replies from the young adults, only 1% of the replies from the adults, and occurs not at all among the elderly:

Figure 21. Percentage by age of realisations of t final clusters in syntactic phonetics: molt amable (very kind)

This feature is found regularly in all localities, without significant distinctions. Patterns of deletion are not related to school syllabus either.

Given the existence of this in the population that has not received schooling (in Catalan) and the non-effect in this case of the type of schooling received, we ascertain that deletion of the dental must be an incipient process in the colloquial model, irrespective and independent of the process of convergence with Spanish or interdialectal levelling caused by the inroads from the extension of standard.

2.11 Loss of intervocalic -d

Since the loss of d intervocalically is a major feature of this dialect, the questionnaire included several items in relation to it. On the one hand, there are items with closely similar equivalents with the d in Spanish (esternudar, oblidar-olvidar, vida, saludar, roda, redona, cadena, madur, quedar) and, on the other, there are those that lack such equivalents (cadira, Nadal, neboda).

We observed a notable difference between the two sets of words: in the group with no closely similar cognate in Spanish (see figure 22), the presence of the d —which will always be a reinsertion from the point of view of the traditional model— is not found at all in the elderly, and at a low level in the adults. The rate increases considerably with the young adults and with the school children it is actually present in the majority of the cases (more than 60%).

In the group with close equivalents in Spanish (see figure 23), the reintroduction reaches 20% for the combined adults and young adults, with a slight increase as one moves down the age group. School children, lastly, realise the d three quarters of the time.

Figure 22. Percentage by age for intervocalic d in words with no similar cognate in Spanish (Nadal (Sp. Navidad) , neboda (Sp. sobrina), cadira(Sp. silla)		Figure 23. Percentage by age for intervocalic d in words with similar cognate in Spanish (esternudar, olvidar-oblidar, vida, roda, saludar, redona, cadena, madur, quedar)

Reintroduction of the dental is closely related to schooling in Catalan (Eval), above all for individuals in Elx, who (as a result of heavy Spanish inroads) use less Catalan both in the family and socially. We see that with Eval subjects frequency of use of the innovation is three times greater than their own local traditional model without d, both in the words that have no close Spanish equivalent and those that have. Even so, the dilution of the traditional model is more patent than in this second group of words:

Figure 24. Percentage by type of school syllabus for intervocalic d in words with no similar cognate in Spanish (Nadal (Sp. Navidad) , neboda (Sp. sobrina), cadira (Sp. silla)		Figure 25. Percentage by type of school syllabus for intervocalic d in words with similar cognate in Spanish (esternudar, olvidar- oblidar, vida, roda, saludar, redona, cadena, madur, quedar)

Generalisation of the disappearance of the intervocalic d is a very much established feature of the speech of the county. At the same time, however, it has carried low prestige for some time, and is stigmatised even, for the lack of correspondence with the Spanish standard and the varieties of Valencian Catalan spoken in neighbouring counties. This explains the reintroduction of the d after being absent traditionally for a long time, because both the factors in question encourage the reintroduction of the d. In this case, Spanish is not the sole determining factor, as it has been in the other cases. Rather, it has joined forces with the pressure of neighbouring dialects —and thus with a trend that was already colloquial —and, more recently, with normative Catalan.

At all events, it should not be overlooked that it is precisely those school children who find themselves in a more heavily Spanish influenced environment that are the most disposed towards this reintroduction. In this group the colloquial tendency to replace the dental has been enhanced both by pressure from Spanish, breaking with the traditional model and the influx of the normative model of Catalan.