Ceceo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Spanish dialectology, the terms ceceo, seseo and distinción are used to describe the opposition between dialects that distinguish the phonemes /θ/ and /s/, and those that have merged the two sounds into either /s/ (seseo) or /θ/ (ceceo). Dialects that distinguish the two sounds, and thus pronounce the words casa ("house") and caza ("hunt") differently, are described as having distinción, whereas the dialects that lack this distinction and pronounce the two words as homophones are described as having seseo if both words are pronounced with [s] or ceceo if both words are pronounced with [θ]. Seseo is typical of the Latin American and Canarian dialects and some dialects of central Andalusia, whereas distinción is typical of most dialects in Spain, except in much of Andalusia and the Canary Islands. Ceceo is only found in some dialects of Spain, in the southernmost part of Andalusia.

[edit] Distinción

Distinción refers to the differentiated pronunciation of the two phonemes written s and z (or c before e or i) in Spanish:

1. s is pronounced as a voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ (either laminal like in English, or apical);
2. c (before e/i) and z are pronounced as a voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ (the "th" in "think").

This pronunciation is the standard on which Spanish orthography was based, and it is universal in Central and Northern parts of Spain, except for some bilingual speakers of Catalan and Basque, according to Hualde (2005). It is also found in some parts of Hispanic America^{[citation needed]}. Thus, in Spanish the choice between the spellings se, si and ce, ci, or za, zo, zu and sa, so, su is determined by pronunciation, unlike English, where it is often done according to etymology or pure orthographic conventions.

[edit] Confusión

In many other Spanish-speaking regions and countries, however, the phonemic distinction between s and z has been neutralized. These varieties of Spanish are sometimes said to exhibit confusión ("merger") as opposed to distinción. This is a problematic term that can refer to at least four different pronunciation patterns (Dalbor 1980). In this case, their pronunciation may or may not coincide with the English pronunciation.

[edit] Ceceo

Map of Andalusia.     ceceo     seseo     distinction

Ceceo is a phenomenon found in a few dialects of southern Spain in which the historical phonemes s and z are both realized as /θ/. In other words, only the latter sound is used for c (+e or i), z, and s. Ceceo is found primarily in some varieties of Andalusian Spanish, although Hualde reports that there is some evidence of it in parts of Central America. It is a largely rural pronunciation and is often stigmatized. Note that although these dialects make no distinction between the letters s and c/z, they are never pronounced as in English in this case.

[edit] Seseo

Seseo is the merger in the opposite direction: the original phonemes s and z are both pronounced as /s/. Seseo is the most widespread pronunciation among Spanish speakers worldwide. Although a minority pronunciation in Spain, virtually all speakers in Hispanic America are seseantes, and seseo is considered standard in all varieties of Latin American Spanish. It does coexist with distinción and ceceo in parts of Spain (e.g. in some areas of Andalusia). Traditional dialect atlases (e.g., Alvar 1991) show one variant or another used in adjacent regions . In Spain, seseo is considered "more socially acceptable or perhaps 'less substandard' than ceceo" (Dalbor 1980, p. 6).

The following table gives an example of the three pronunciation patterns discussed so far:

[edit] Ceseo or seceo

Many speakers of ceceo and seseo dialects in Spain show sociolinguistic variation in usage. In some cases, this variation may arise when a ceceo or seseo speaker more or less consciously attempts to use distinción in response to sociolinguistic pressure (hypercorrection). However, as, for instance, in the case of the variation between the standard velar nasal and alveolar pronunciation of the nasal in -ing in English (walking versus walkin), the switching may be entirely unconscious. It is perhaps evidence of the saliency of three-way,ceceo, seseo, distinción variation that inconsistent use has elicited evaluative comments by some traditional Spanish dialectologists. For instance, Dalbor (1980) discussed it as "sporadic or chaotic switching [between /s/ and /θ/] and the use of intermediate sounds impossible to determine with precision" (p. 7). Obaid (1973) proposes the synonymous terms ceseo and seceo to refer to these "mixed" patterns, and notes surprise at a speaker who produced all four possible pronunciations of Zaragoza within the space of a few minutes (p. 63). In fact, sociolinguistic variation is typically highly structured in terms of how often each variant will appear given various social and linguistic independent variables.

[edit] Origins

Map showing the presence or absence of /θ/ in the Iberian Peninsula. Areas in light green are either seseo zones for Spanish and Galician or areas where other languages, not having the [s] / [θ] contrast, are spoken

[edit] Castilian lisp

A persistent urban legend claims that the prevalence of the sound /θ/ in Spanish can be traced back to a Spanish king who spoke with a lisp, and whose pronunciation spread by prestige borrowing to the rest of the population. This myth is discredited by scholars for lack of evidence.^[1] Lundeberg (1947) traces the origins of the legend back to a chronicle of López de Ayala stating that Pedro of Castile "lisped a little" ("ceceaba un poco"). The timeline is totally incorrect, however: Pedro reigned in the 14th century, but the sound /θ/ only began to develop in the 16th century (see below). Moreover, it is clear that a true lisp would not give rise to the systematic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ that characterizes Standard Peninsular pronunciation.

Nevertheless, for speakers of seseo varieties of Spanish, where /θ/ is absent, and for people who are more familiar with seseo pronunciation (e.g., learners of Spanish in North America), the use of /θ/ by Peninsular speakers is striking, and does indeed give an impression of "lispiness". The misnomer "Castilian lisp" is used occasionally to refer to this aspect of Peninsular pronunciation (in both distinción and ceceo varieties).

[edit] Historical evolution

In the 15th century Spanish had developed six sibilant phonemes, more than any current variety of Spanish, and those six phonemes merged differently as they evolved during the 16th and early 17th centuries into the pronunciation of the modern dialects. There were three pairs of voiceless versus voiced sibilants: dentoalveolar affricates /t͡s̪/ vs. /d͡z̪/ (spelled c/ç vs. z), apicoalveolar fricatives /s̺/ vs. /z̺/ (spelled -ss-/s-/-s vs. -s-), and postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ vs. /ʒ/ (x vs. j/g). The first step away from that system was to deaffricate the dentoalveolars, resulting in the fricatives /s̪/ and /z̪/ which still contrasted with the apicoalveolar fricatives /s̺/ and /z̺/.

The second step in northern and central varieties was to lose the voiceless/voiced distinction in favour of the voiceless element in the pair, in most phonetic contexts (thus the voiced phonemes /z̪/, /z̺/ and /ʒ/ were lost), and the final step was to alter the pronunciation of the three remaining voiceless phonemes so as to enhance their rather subtle acoustic contrasts, an appropriate step due to the high productivity of these phonemes in differentiating frequently used minimal pairs. The dentoalveolar one was moved "forward" to interdental /θ̟/, losing its former sibilance in the process (which increased its acoustic distance to the remaining sibilant s), and the prepalatal one was moved "backward" to velar /x/ (allophonically, also further back to uvular [χ]), also losing its former sibilance. All in all resulting in the three-way distinction found in modern Standard Peninsular pronunciation:

In many varieties of Andalusian, however, the two sets of alveolar sibilants followed a different phonological evolution. Fernández López suggests that the phonemes corresponding to written s(s) were realized more dentally (perhaps under Mozarabic influence). The deaffrication of the dentoalveolars (spelled c/ç/z) thus gave rise to new fricatives that were indistinguishable from the existing dentoalveolar fricatives (spelled s(s)). This merger was then followed by loss of voicing, leading to a single phoneme /s/ (corresponding to four historical phonemes). This single merger phoneme came to be pronounced differently in different parts of Andalusia. In ceceo areas (particularly the southernmost provinces like Cádiz), this phoneme developed into a non-sibilant apico-dental [θ̺], perceptually similar to the interdental /θ̟/ used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic c/z. In seseo areas (particularly in the westernmost provinces like Seville and Huelva), the merger phoneme developed a predorsal alveolar realization [s̻] (like English s), perceptually similar to the apicoalveolar /s̺/ used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic s. This seseo variety was the pronunciation that most impacted Latin America, thanks to the many emigrants leaving for the Americas from Andalusian and Canarian ports, in particular Seville.

Ladino has conserved most of the old phonemes and its study has cast light on the evolution of Spanish.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Alvar, Manuel (1991). Atlas lingüístico y etnográfico de Andalucía. Madrid: Arco Libros.
• Dalbor, John B. (1980). "Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain". Hispania 63: 5–19. doi:10.2307/340806. 
• Fernández López, Justo (1999-2007). "Ceceo y seseo – Origen y evolución histórica". Hispanoteca, Institut für Romanistik, Universität Innsbruck. (in Spanish)
• Hualde, Jose Ignacio (2005). The Sounds of Spanish. Cambridge, UK/NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54538-2. 
• Lundeberg, Olav K. (1947). "What Is Ceceo? Inquiry and Proposal". Hispania 30: 368–373. doi:10.2307/333415. 
• Obaid, Antonio H. (1973). "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'". Hispania 56: 60–67. doi:10.2307/339038. 

[edit] See also

• History of the Spanish language
• Spanish dialects and varieties
• Spanish phonology

[edit] External links

• Articles on seseo and ceceo in the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas of the Real Academia Española
• An explanation of the development of Mediæval Spanish sibilants in Castile and Andalusia.
• A recording of the sibilants, as they would have been pronounced in medieval Spanish.