In this study, Plaza uses
sociolinguistic methodology and focuses on analysis of the post-tonic variable /e/. He
bases his research on the hypothesis that the native variant [i] is strongly stigmatized:
(1)
(post-tonic) /e/ - <i,e,>
The speech
community is Espluga de Francolí and the real universe of the sample consists of
individuals born in this town between 1931 and 1973 (20 informants-2.3%). As a result,
with no clear justification, an extremely important age range is left out of the study
the population aged over 60.
2.9. PLA, J. (1995).
"L'obertura de []
a Barcelona: el xava i altres varietats", in M. T. TURELL (ed.). La
sociolingüística de la variació. Barcelona: PPU, pp. 165-219.
This study
must be assessed from a different point of view than that used thus far, since the author
only aims to put forward hypotheses and perform a qualitative analysis of the vowel
variable in its acoustic aspect:
(1)- <a>
Pla indicates
that the word xava is now popularly applied to the whole range of varieties of
Catalan spoken in Barcelona opening [], with relative disregard to the ethnolinguistic or social origin
of the speaker. The initial hypothesis is that this phenomenon becomes rarer as the age of
speakers increases and is almost categorical among those born since the 1970s. This is
therefore a historically recent change, at least in terms of current social dimensions.
The author
collates the data by combining the sociolinguistic and experimental methods. He works with
8 male informants aged between 17 and 25. The justification for the absence of female
informants lies in the fact that acoustic data vary in terms of the frequential pitch of
vowel formants and, therefore, a standardizing statistical treatment would have been
required to consider them as a whole.
2.10. MONTOYA, B. (1995).
"L'observació del canvi fonològic en el català balear", in M. T. TURELL
(ed.). La sociolingüística de la variació. Barcelona: PPU, pp. 165-219.
This study,
like that above, also has features distinguishing it from those before it: it needs to be
catalogued under what is termed historical sociolinguistics.
Of the
different angles adopted by this method to reconstruct linguistic changes, this study is
based on processes that are still taking place and retrospectively monitors the point up
to which it is possible to extract information. Montoya professes to reinterpret, using
the postulates of Labovian sociolinguistics, certain phonic aspects of insular Catalan
described in the first third of the twentieth century since dialectology (A. M. Alcover,
A. Griera and F. de B. Moll). Thus, he tries to re-tread the path taken by a series of
variables from the beginning of the century up to the present time.
The chosen
variables are:
Three
modifications in consonantism (dealt with succinctly due to a lack of data): 1) transient
intervocalic elision of /-d-/ in Mallorca; 2) a tendency towards Menorcan ieisme;
and 3) generalized suppression of intervocalic /-j-/ in Menorca.
The two vowel
variables are given a more comprehensive treatment: 1) The change /'/ > /'/, a recent transformation of
Balearic vocalism that centuries past had extended across the eastern half of Catalonia;
2) the other variable is // in absolute final position subject to change towards [].
2.11. CARRERA, J. (1999).
L'alternança A/E al Segrià. Doctoral thesis, University of Barcelona. (11)
As was
mentioned in the introduction, this is the only research since 1995 that has dealt with a
variable phonic phenomenon. This doctoral thesis, supervised by Dr. L. Pons and Dr. J.
Julià, enhances Labovian methodology with a series of new requirements, providing very
successful interpretative results.
The itinerary
used by the author to establish the definitive research includes exploratory studies
(Carrera 1993, 1995a, 1995b), which formed the basis of the nuclear
hypotheses of the Doctoral thesis.
For the first
time in the Catalan-speaking scope, a contrastive analysis is made of the conduct of two
towns towards a variable phenomenon: one deemed rural, Alguaire, and the other urban,
Lleida. Both speech communities form part of the strict north-western geolect, Lleidatà.
The real universe of the sample are Catalan-speakers (36 informants in Alguaire
1.6%; 36 informants in Lleida 0.05%). An important innovation in the spectrum of
ages is the study of children aged 3 to 5 years. Observation of this segment enables
comparisons to be made between the pronunciation of school and pre-school children.
The variable
rule aims to describe, explain and predict the presence of the variants [e] and [a] in:
1. absolute
initial pretonic vowel spelt e;
2. non-absolute initial or medial pretonic vowel spelt e;
3. and non-absolute initial or medial pretonic vowel spelt e.
This is
the most thorough study carried out thus far because, as well as using a very
comprehensive means of statistical processing, it also involves an abundance of
qualitative tests. |