Maya-Spanish Contact in Yucatan, Mexico: Context and Sociolinguistic Implications

Michnowicz, Jim

doi:10.31819/9783954878314-003

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…The final research question aimed to describe differences between mood selection of monolingual Spanish and bilingual Spanish/YM speakers. The hypothesis proposed at the beginning of this paper predicted that there would be a difference between bilingual and monolingual Yucatec Spanish speakers (as seen in Michnowicz 2009Michnowicz , 2011Michnowicz , 2012Michnowicz , 2015 in that there would be less subjunctive use in bilingual speakers (as seen in U.S. Spanish by Silva Corvalan (1994), Lynch (1999), and Bookhammer (2013), and others). First, the difference in monolingual and bilingual production of the subjunctive was statistically significant (p= 0.0348).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Previous research (i.e. Michnowicz 2011Michnowicz , 2012Michnowicz , 2015 suggests that bilingual speakers recognize primary differentiations in language use, but complex differences sometimes are not identified. For example, Michnowicz (2011) notes that bilingual speakers have acquired phonemes /b/, /d/, /g/, but they often are unsure of when their approximate counterparts /β/, /ð/, /ɣ/.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Language contact between Yucatec Maya and Spanish has a long history on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Linguists have noted differences between monolingual and bilingual speakers in Yucatec Spanish production with regard to phonetics (Michnowicz 2009(Michnowicz , 2011Solomon 1996Solomon , 1999 and syntax (Hoot 2014, Michnowicz 2015. Previous research (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Michnowicz (2011) notes that bilingual speakers have acquired phonemes /b/, /d/, /g/, but they often are unsure of when their approximate counterparts /β/, /ð/, /ɣ/. Furthermore, Michnowicz (2015) found a simplification in subject pronoun use in bilingual speakers as well as a decreased sensitivity to coreference, a factor that determines pronoun use in Spanish. Overall, these findings suggest that monolingual Yucatec Spanish speakers possess subtle phonetic and syntactic distinctions in their Spanish that bilingual speakers lack.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pragmatic Mood Variation in Bilingual and Monolingual Yucatec Spanish

Bove¹

2019

Borealis

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While linguists (e.g. Michnowicz 2009, 2012; Solomon 1996, 1999; Klee 2009) have described some of the unique features of Yucatec Spanish related to the lexicon , the phonetic system, and syntactic structure, but no work has focused on pragmatics in this variety. The current study utilizes semantic/pragmatic interviews to investigate four cases of pragmatic mood alternation: Suspended Assertion, Reportative Distance, Individualized Reference, and Reactional Assertions. The results examined suggest important differences between monolingual and bilingual speaker reaction to pragmatic triggers. The bilingual Yucatec Maya/Spanish speakers’ perception of pragmatic change in mood varies between the four groups of pragmatic effects; the bilingual speakers were sensitive to Reactional Assertions and Reportative Distance but not sensitive to changes in Suspended Assertion or Individualized Reference. This demonstrates a difference in pragmatic sensitivity to mood selection between bilingual and monolingual speakers of this contact variety. Specifically, bilingual speakers select mood that patterns with monolingual speakers when it is syntactically motivated, but their mood selection differs in areas where this selection pragmatically motivated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pragmatic Mood Variation in Bilingual and Monolingual Yucatec Spanish

Bove¹

2019

Borealis

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“…Thus, Yucatec Maya could be similar to Nahualá K'ichee' in its lack of duration as a cue to stress, which makes it still possible to relate the presence of phonemic vowel length to the lack of post-lexical duration. 2 A final point to bear in mind is that speaker age and gender have been identified as important variables in various sociolinguistic and dialectal studies on Yucatán Spanish (see, e.g., García Fajardo 1984;Michnowicz 2006aMichnowicz , 2008Michnowicz , 2015Pfeiler Blaha 1992;Yager 1989, among others), although the results are anything but conclusive when compared to each other. For example, García Fajardo (1984) studied the vowels and consonants of Yucatecan Spanish in Valladolid, Yucatán, with reference to age, gender and sociocultural groups.…”

Section: Short Vowelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lack of Syllable Duration as a Post-Lexical Acoustic Cue in Spanish in Contact with Maya

García

Uth

2019

Languages

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This paper focuses on the duration of stressed syllables in broad versus contrastive focus in Yucatecan Spanish and examines its connection with Spanish–Maya bilingualism. We examine the claim that phonemic vowel length in one language prevents the use of syllable duration as a post-lexical acoustic cue in another. We study the duration of stressed syllables of nouns in subject and object position in subject-verb-object (SVO) sentences (broad and contrastive focus) of a semi-spontaneous production task. One thousand one hundred and twenty-six target syllables of 34 mono- and bilingual speakers were measured and submitted to linear mixed-effects models. Although the target syllables were slightly longer in contrastive focus, duration was not significant, nor was the effect of bilingualism. The results point to duration not constituting a cue to focus marking in Yucatecan Spanish. Finally, it is discussed how this result relates to the strong influence of Yucatec Maya on Yucatecan Spanish prosody observed by both scholars and native speakers of Yucatecan Spanish and other Mexican varieties of Spanish.

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