ERIC Number: EJ1403915
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2133
EISSN: EISSN-2153-6414
Speaking Race or Racialized Speaking: Evidence from Perceptions of Lateral Variants by Puerto Rican Listeners
Ramos, Jorge E.; Shea, Christine
Hispania, v106 n3 p473-494 2023
In this study we show that the perception of lateral variants by Puerto Rican listeners changes according to who the listener believes is speaking. Puerto Rican listeners heard sentences with target words featuring either rhotic [voiced alveolar tap or flap] or lateral [l] (amo[voiced alveolar tap or flap] -- amo[l]) codas, a sociophonetic alternation that is common in Puerto Rican Spanish. Across four conditions characterized by the presence or absence of social cues, listeners judged speakers on five Likert items: honesty, intelligence, SES, work ethic, and pleasantness. Condition 1 included only the sociophonetic variant while conditions 2, 3 and 4 included information about speaker nationality (flag, either Puerto Rican or Dominican), or racial phenotype (pictures of people) or both nationality and racial phenotype. The results revealed that for the sociophonetic variant only condition (no additional speaker information), listeners rated the lateral variant more negatively. However, for the three conditions where speaker information was provided, ratings were significantly affected by listeners' perception of racial phenotype and nationality, with almost no interaction with phonetic variant. These results suggest that what was a significant effect for sociophonetic variant (condition 1) was overshadowed by perceptions of speaker racial phenotype and nationality. In other words, racialized speaking matters.
Descriptors: Race, Racism, Puerto Ricans, Language Variation, Language Attitudes, Pronunciation, Auditory Perception, Spanish, Likert Scales, Ethics, Intelligence, Socioeconomic Status, Interpersonal Competence, Evaluators, Phonetics, Genetics, Illustrations, Correlation, Speech Communication
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc. 900 Ladd Road, Walled Lake, MI 48390. Tel: 248-960-2180; Fax: 248-960-9570; e-mail: AATSPoffice@aatsp.org; Web site: http://www.aatsp.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Puerto Rico
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A