Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes

The present study analyzes the prosodic characteristics of the variety of Spanish in contact with Basque (in the Basque Country, Spain). We focus on information-seeking yes/no questions, which present different intonation contours in Spanish and Basque. In Castilian Spanish, these sentences end in a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Romera Ciria, Magdalena, Elordieta Alcibar, Gorka
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repositorio:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/40007
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/40007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Basque
Bilingualism
Intonation
Language attitudes
Language contact
Social factors
Spanish
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spelling Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudesRomera Ciria, MagdalenaElordieta Alcibar, GorkaBasqueBilingualismIntonationLanguage attitudesLanguage contactSocial factorsSpanishThe present study analyzes the prosodic characteristics of the variety of Spanish in contact with Basque (in the Basque Country, Spain). We focus on information-seeking yes/no questions, which present different intonation contours in Spanish and Basque. In Castilian Spanish, these sentences end in a rising contour, whereas in Basque, they end in a falling or rising–falling circumflex contour. In our previous work, this topic was investigated among the urban populations of Bilbao and San Sebastian. The results were that 79% of information-seeking yes/no questions had final falling intonational configurations. All the speakers presented a substantial presence of final falls regardless of their linguistic profile, but there were differences among speakers in the degree of presence of such features. A correlation was observed between the dependent variable of ‘frequency of occurrence of final falls in absolute interrogatives’ and social factors, such as ‘degree of contact with Basque’ and ‘attitudes towards Basque and the Basque ethnolinguistic group’. The correlation was that the higher the degree of contact with Basque and the more positive the attitudes towards Basque and the Basque ethnolinguistic group, the greater the frequency of occurrence of final falling intonational contours in information-seeking absolute interrogatives. The interpretation of this correlation was that the adoption of the characteristic Basque prosody allows speakers to be recognized as members of the Basque community. In the present study, we focused on rural areas. Falling intonational contours at the end of information-seeking absolute interrogatives were even more common than in urban areas (93.4%), and no correlation was found with degree of contact with Basque and with attitudes towards Basque. Our interpretation is that in rural areas the presence of Basque in daily life is stronger, and that there is a consolidated variety of Spanish used by all speakers regardless of their attitudes. Thus, the adoption of intonating features of this language is not the only indicator belonging to the Basque ethnolinguistic group. Our study reveals the great relevance of subjective social factors, such as language attitudes, in the degree of convergence between two languages.This work has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant number FFI2016-80021-P), the Basque Government (grant number IT1396-19) and the University of the Basque Country (grant number GIU18/221).MDPICiencias Humanas y de la EducaciónGiza eta Hezkuntza Zientziak2020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2454/40007reponame:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarrainstname:Universidad Pública de NavarraInglésinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/FFI2016-80021-P© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/400072026-06-17T12:41:47Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
title Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
spellingShingle Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
Romera Ciria, Magdalena
Basque
Bilingualism
Intonation
Language attitudes
Language contact
Social factors
Spanish
title_short Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
title_full Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
title_fullStr Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
title_full_unstemmed Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
title_sort Information-seeking question intonation in Basque Spanish and its correlation with degree of contact and language attitudes
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Romera Ciria, Magdalena
Elordieta Alcibar, Gorka
author Romera Ciria, Magdalena
author_facet Romera Ciria, Magdalena
Elordieta Alcibar, Gorka
author_role author
author2 Elordieta Alcibar, Gorka
author2_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Humanas y de la Educación
Giza eta Hezkuntza Zientziak
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Basque
Bilingualism
Intonation
Language attitudes
Language contact
Social factors
Spanish
topic Basque
Bilingualism
Intonation
Language attitudes
Language contact
Social factors
Spanish
description The present study analyzes the prosodic characteristics of the variety of Spanish in contact with Basque (in the Basque Country, Spain). We focus on information-seeking yes/no questions, which present different intonation contours in Spanish and Basque. In Castilian Spanish, these sentences end in a rising contour, whereas in Basque, they end in a falling or rising–falling circumflex contour. In our previous work, this topic was investigated among the urban populations of Bilbao and San Sebastian. The results were that 79% of information-seeking yes/no questions had final falling intonational configurations. All the speakers presented a substantial presence of final falls regardless of their linguistic profile, but there were differences among speakers in the degree of presence of such features. A correlation was observed between the dependent variable of ‘frequency of occurrence of final falls in absolute interrogatives’ and social factors, such as ‘degree of contact with Basque’ and ‘attitudes towards Basque and the Basque ethnolinguistic group’. The correlation was that the higher the degree of contact with Basque and the more positive the attitudes towards Basque and the Basque ethnolinguistic group, the greater the frequency of occurrence of final falling intonational contours in information-seeking absolute interrogatives. The interpretation of this correlation was that the adoption of the characteristic Basque prosody allows speakers to be recognized as members of the Basque community. In the present study, we focused on rural areas. Falling intonational contours at the end of information-seeking absolute interrogatives were even more common than in urban areas (93.4%), and no correlation was found with degree of contact with Basque and with attitudes towards Basque. Our interpretation is that in rural areas the presence of Basque in daily life is stronger, and that there is a consolidated variety of Spanish used by all speakers regardless of their attitudes. Thus, the adoption of intonating features of this language is not the only indicator belonging to the Basque ethnolinguistic group. Our study reveals the great relevance of subjective social factors, such as language attitudes, in the degree of convergence between two languages.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2454/40007
url https://hdl.handle.net/2454/40007
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/FFI2016-80021-P
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
instname:Universidad Pública de Navarra
instname_str Universidad Pública de Navarra
reponame_str Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
collection Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
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