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The influence of language shift on Sanapaná vowels: An exemplar-based perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2022

Jens E. L. Van Gysel
Jens E. L. Van Gysel*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper presents the first sociophonetic study of Sanapaná (Enlhet-Enenlhet), spoken by around one thousand people in Paraguay. It examines the effects of L2 (Spanish/Guaraní) fluency and loss of L1 exposure on vowel quality and within-category variability of /e, o/ productions in the Sanapaná /e, a, o/ system. Data from eleven native Sanapaná speakers suggest that age and multilingualism may have little explanatory power by themselves. Speakers living in a majority-L2 environment show greater within-category variability and increased convergence of /e, o/ toward the L2 high vowels /i, u/ than daily users of Sanapaná. This suggests that decreased L1 exposure is the main factor driving language shift-related change in Sanapaná. I explain these findings in an exemplar-theoretic framework. Although the number of speakers sampled is limited, these data provide a valuable addition to our knowledge of sociolinguistic variation in small, underrepresented communities.

Keywords

SanapanáEnlhet-EnenlhetExemplar TheoryLanguage ContactLanguage ShiftMultilingualismSociophoneticsUsage-Based Linguistics
Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 107 - 135
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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