Social perceptions of /f/ fortition in Guatemalan Spanish

Abstract

Research on Guatemalan Spanish has increasingly shown the effects of contact with Mayan languages. However, whereas most studies have focused on the structural outcomes of Spanish-Mayan contact, fewer studies have analyzed how native Guatemalans socially perceive these features and, by extension, those who employ them. This study presents an analysis of one contact feature of Guatemalan Spanish: the fortition of the voiceless labiodental fricative, or /f/ > [p]. Results of a matched guise of 116 native listeners of Guatemalan Spanish reveal that [p] guises index speakers as Maya and elicit more negative overt and covert attitudes than [f] guises. Furthermore, participants who self-identified as Maya were more likely to rate [p] guises as less prestigious than participants who did not identify as Maya, indicating that the Maya participants may display outgroup favoritism in order to disassociate themselves with the discrimination and racism that often accompanies their racial identity in Guatemala.