SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF THE DESPALATALIZATION OF NASAL PALATAL PHONEME IN THE SPANISH SPOKEN IN THE CITY OF ROSARIO (ARGENTINA

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses, from a sociolinguistic point of view, the frequency of the phenomenon of the depalatalization of the voiced palatal nasal phoneme in the Spanish spoken in the main city of the litoraleña linguistic area: Rosario. For the purpose of this paper, a survey comprising 168 respondents has been conducted –taking into account age, sex and sociocultural level variables– in the most populous city of the Argentinian province of Santa Fe. The results demonstrate the existence of the process of dephonologization in the Spanish spoken in this zone, a reality which is barely considered by the existing bibliography; at the same time, the results are described according to the recorded variables and, furthermore, are based on the phonic context and the prosodic characteristics in which the process of elimination of the palatal character of the aforementioned phoneme is manifested.