Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2012
Abstract
That particular sounds are characteristic of different languages is widely understood. For example, studies of Amerindian languages of the Amazon basin have discovered sounds as unique as a ―voiced, lateralized apical-alveolar/sublaminal-labial double flap with egressive lung air‖ [L,], exhibited only in Pirahã, an isolated language spoken by approximately one hundred people (Everett 92). English has an apparent proclivity for the phoneme /ʃ /, which, as Baugh and Cable point out, may be produced by twelve different spellings (14). This paper argues that the phoneme /ʧ /, represented exclusively in Spanish by the digraph ch, may be viewed as one of the most characteristic sounds of contemporary Mexican Spanish, which in terms of population is the most widely spoken variety of the language in the world1. This paper will investigate the sources of this phoneme in Mexican Spanish and offer some explanations for its ubiquity.
Volume
16
First Page
147
Last Page
162
ISSN
1553-3018
Recommended Citation
Nappo, Daniel. "The Frequency of ch /ʧ / in Contemporary Mexican Highland Spanish." Hipertexto 16 (2012): 147-162.
Comments
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