El canvi lingüístic en la fonologia del mallorquí: estudi variacional de tres fenòmens

Abstract

Catalan is a language that consists of a large number of dialects with many particular features. These differences can be notified on different stages of language such as syntax, lexicon, morphology or phonology. Majorcan dialect of Catalan has ever kept some distance from other varieties of Catalan concerning phonological solutions that affect contact consonantal contexts. After having observed that there is a change on the Majorcan dialect affecting phonology, there has been an interest to investigate the main driving force that is causing this variation on a phonological level. Majorcan society has suffered a deep change during the last decades concerning an arrival of standardized Catalan media and a general increase on the educational level of the population, that has been educated on the basis of Catalan standardization. Thus, Majorcan sociolinguistic context has changed so fast from one extreme to another. Therefore, in the present study the effects of the standard variety of Catalan on the Majorcan dialect are investigated. To demonstrate that, this study focuses on the variation of three characteristic phonological phenomena of the Catalan subdialect of Manacor. The results show that some of these phonological traits have experienced some changes that reduce their differences between them and the standard variety of Catalan and that they are closer to each other, while other phonological traits have not. This means that Majorcan dialect could have been modified by the effects of the standard variety in some cases, but that some other traits have remained unchanged.