Weakening of Intervocalic /P, T, K/ in Two Spanish Dialects: Toward the Quantification of Lenition Processes

Abstract

The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of the experiment's results on our present understanding of stop implementation in Spanish, and suggested avenues for future research. These include the proposal of a method by which the imperfect relationship between speech style and speech rate may be better understood, the consideration of the abruptness and degree of changes in relative intensity values in a vowel---stop consonant---vowel sequence as a potential metric by which stop lenition may be quantified, and finally, the application of a similar experimental method to the voiced stops /b, d, g/ in order to gain insight into the nature by which phonological contrast is upheld in the Spanish stop series.