Lenition of intra-lexical intervocalic /bdg/ and coda -s in Peninsular vs Latin American Spanish: a large scale study

Abstract

This study focuses on two lenition processes in Peninsular and Latin America varieties of Spanish : the weakening and/or suppression of the intra-lexical intervocalicV/bdg/V and of the coda-s. We examine lenition from the perspective of the geographical and stylistic frequency in large scale corpora and we use forced alignment ofpronunciation variants to quantify its frequency across dialects. Corpora covers several varieties, from Spain and Latin America, and speaking styles. The results showthat lenition occurs more frequently in Latin America varieties and the spontaneous settings lead to increased lenition rates.