PHONOLOGICAL ACQUISITION OF SPANISH AS A NON-NATIVE LANGUAGE AND ACOUSTIC-ARTICULATORY DESCRIPTION OF SIBILANTS

Abstract

The phonological variation of sibilants in the pronunciation of Brazilian learners of Spanish/NML (Non-Mother Tongue) is investigated, with the aim of describing the phonetic-phonological phenomena of seseo, ceceo and distinção, as well as establishing guidelines for the teaching and learning of these categories, considering Spanish-speaking diversity. The research is based on collecting and analyzing oral production data from language students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Theoretically, it is based on the concepts of acquisition/L2 and interlanguage by Ellis (1997) and Almeida Filho (1995) and also dialogues with the theory of Use Phonology by Bybee (2001), who emphasize the impact of frequency of occurrence on the acquisition of sounds. The results indicate that learners tend to transfer phonological patterns from Portuguese to Spanish, especially in the use of the voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] to the detriment of the interdental [θ] and the apico-alveolar [s̪], reinforcing the predominance of seseo. At the initial levels, more variation is observed, including the realization of the interdental [θ], while at the advanced levels the apico-alveolar and other variants in the realization of sibilants predominate. The acoustic analysis confirms that friction duration is a relevant parameter for distinguishing voiceless and voiced fricatives.