Yeismo

The future of yeísmo


Abstract The purpose of this investigation is to describe the phonological phenomenon in Spanish called yeísmo, which consists of the loss of the palatal lateral phoneme /ʎ/ and its merging into the palatal fricative phoneme /ʝ/. Furthermore, the study aims to find out about its origins, its geographical extension today and the variables that favored this change.Findings are that yeísmo originated sometime between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century in an urban center in southern Spain or in separate locations that were far apart geographically. Despite discrepancies in conclusions between the different authors about the time and place where it first appeared, there is a general agreement that yeísmo is well spread and established both in the SpanishPeninsula and Latin America, and that there is a tendency for the sound /ʎ/ to disappear completely from the Spanish phonological system in a near future.

1. Introduction For many years yeísmo has been a topic of discussion among linguists. Yeísmo is a phonological phenomenon which consists of the loss of the palatal lateral approximant phoneme /ʎ/ corresponding in Spanish to the letter (grapheme)‹ll› as in pollo ´chicken´ or lluvia ´rain´, and its merging into the palatal fricative phoneme /ʝ/, corresponding in Spanish to the letter (grapheme) ‹y› as in raya ´line´ or yo ´I´. Even though the first occurrences of yeísmo date back to the Middle Ages, this phenomenon has spread considerably over recent decades. In this paper I will try to answer the following research questions: • • • Where andwhen did yeísmo first appear? In which countries or regions does this phenomenon happen today? What variables have favored this change?


 

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There has been much debate over these questions and some of the answers remain unclear. In this paper, I examine the works of various authors who have tried to give answers to these questions in the past. The term yeísta refers to a speakeror a region that does not make the distinction between the two phonemes (/ʎ/ and /ʝ/). The term dephonologization refers to a process by which a sound type looses its distinctive status and becomes a variant (positional or stylistic) of another phoneme.

2. Hypothesis

Yeísmo is a change that happened through several centuries and has spread
rapidly over the last decades. In early stages itused to be stigmatized and the

yeísta pronunciation was considered vulgar and typical of the lower social classes.
As I have said, there is still much debate as to when and where yeísmo first originated, and which factors made this change possible. However, there seems to be an agreement about the fact that this change is well spread and established, and that there is a tendency for the sound/ʎ/ to disappear completely from the Spanish phonological system in a near future. This paper consists of several sections; their content is as follows. In section 3, I will provide a definition of yeísmo, explaining first how it happens as a consequence of the softening of the lateralized palatal articulation. Second, I will talk about the different phonetic solutions (depending on the region)related to the merging of the two phonemes. In section 4, I will explain the origins of yeísmo. This is something that has been controversial for some time, and different hypotheses can be found according to different authors. Section 5 provides a number of explanations for this phonological change. I will examine the change from the point of view of the ease of speech for the speaker,
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 the low stability of the lateral phoneme /ʎ/ and also from a sociolinguistic point of view, which includes important factors that favored the change. In section 6 I will talk about the geographical extension of the phenomenon in Spain and Latin America. Also in this section I will include those areas where the distinction between phonemes can still be found and those that are yeísta....