The prosody of Uruguayan-Brazilian border Spanish: Cross-generational and Social variation

The present dissertation has the main aims of describing the Spanish prosody of bilingual speakers of Portuguese living in the Uruguayan-Brazilian border and observing how it varies across three different generations of bilinguals through an apparent-time analysis. In particular, I will explore whether this variation could be attributed to the influence of Montevideo Spanish (MS), the national prestige language in Uruguay; i.e. I will explore whether younger speakers, who travel to Montevideo more often and avoid the use of Portuguese (UP and/or BP), approach the patterns of Montevideo Spanish more closely than older speakers who have spent most of their lives in the border and have stronger ties to the local identity. I will also look at their place of origin, urban vs. rural, and socioeconomic status. I intend to test and record a list of stimuli produced by the mentioned bilinguals in different contexts of production (mediated vs. unmediated) to also control for influence of beliefs about the interlocutor). This study will allow us to understand the role sociolinguistic factors play in bilingual speech and how variation can be traced in prosodic factors such as speech rhythm, speech rate and intonation.

Faculty Supervisor:

Laura Colantoni

Student:

Partner:

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Toronto

Program: