Date of Award

2013-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Linguistics

Advisor(s)

Natalia Mazzaro

Abstract

This thesis examines the Spanish phoneme /e/ and its open allophone(s). Current literature shows that there is no complete agreement with regards to the specific phonetic environments that trigger the opening of /e/, nor if "open" is the best term to describe the allophone(s). Examining /e/ allophones in Spanish monolinguals clarifies current literature inconsistencies; and therefore, creates a baseline for future studies related to this particular vowel. In this study, the speech of ten Spanish monolingual university students was recorded. Participants read a list of words that contained /e/ in certain phonetic contexts. Each instance of /e/ was acoustically analyzed by measuring the first two formants of /e/. Results show that certain phonetic contexts affect not only /e/'s height but also its displacement.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

48 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Raquel Gonzalez de Anda

Share

COinS