Pre-voicing phonation mode in Spanish plosives: beyond cross-linguistic transfer?

Abstract

Among the different phonation modes, there is one which characterizes the Spanish language in opposition to English: pre-voicing in voiced plosives. Previous experience in analytical observation of this acoustic phonetic phenomenon has led to the posing of a question that has unchained this work. Once having seen that this occurrence (pre-voicing) is given in Spanish, it was aimed to deepen in the question of why it traverses the border between two different languages which are provenant from very different language families. Bearing into consideration the cross-linguistic transfer phenomenon as being at least one factor which is echoed in the appearance of pre-voicing, an original procedure was designed in order to test the degree of prevalence or percentage of variability that the measuring of voice onset time showed after a pilot group of students had undergone a target-motivated session on the issue. This was done via a theoretical introduction to two groups of first year degree participants to new methods of analyzing speech, expecting an awareness raising of vocal tract configuration and perhaps a subsequent change in the values of pre-voiced VOT, approaching to a native English-like realization of voiced plosives. Although results were predominantly not positive, some interesting conclusions have been extracted about other possible factors that may affect and explain the actual performance of this phonation mode in English voiced plosives production by native Spanish speakers.