Possible phonological changes (was: Rate of change)

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]

	Rubia and lluvia are not homophones because assibilated /R^/ and
/z^/ are noticibly different. You hear something similar to /z^rubja/ &
/z^ubja/.
	There are different degrees of assibilation as well as voiced and
unvoiced varieties. This increases the difference between the two.
	I'm not sure but I think Czech also has both /z^/ and assibiliated
/R^/. Someone please correct me on that.
	Places that are known for stronger assibilation include Guatemala,
Costa Rica, Bogota, parts of Chile (I've heard it from people from both the
North and South) and parts of Argentina (especially Corrientes, according
to Argentines I've spoken to).
	Costa Rican assibilated /R^/ (except for <tr>) tends to be voiced
while Guatemalan assibilated /R^/ tends to be unvoiced.
	<dr-> and <tr-> are affricates similar to <c^r-> and <j^r->. You
occasionally see Costa Ricans saying <chres> for <tres> in Central American
fiction.
	A weaker form of assibilation often shows up in Central and
Southern Mexico, the rest of Central America and lot of the rest of South
America. It's sort of in between a standard trill and Costa Rican
assibilated /R^/.
	Even in Costa Rica, not everyone uses assibilated /R^/. My wife
uses a type of retroflex /R/ similar to an emphatic North American English
/r/ [as in R-r-ight!]. Costa Ricans will often use trilled /rr/ for
emphasis.


>Since in many varieties of Argentinian Spanish (as well as in Chile and
>Uruguay), the phonetic realizations of orthographic <y> and <ll> are also [Z],
>do these examples imply that there are varieties of Spanish where lluvia
>'rain' and rubia 'blonde' are homophones, pronounced as ['ZuBya]? Same for
>callo 'corn (on foot)' and carro 'cart, car', both [kaZo]?

>Gabor

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701