Sex, attitudes, and the assibilation of /r/ among young people in San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the assibilation of /r/ among young people in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in light of previous research on women's speech in language change. It is demonstrated that assibilation, an innovation known to have first appeared in the speech of women of the middle and upper social echelons, is closely associated with sex, sociocultural level, and attitude toward traditional male and female roles. These attitudes are suggested as a factor that plays an important role in the dynamics of the change, showing opposite effects among young men and women. That is, young men with traditional attitudes assibilate least, whereas young women with traditional attitudes assibilate most frequently. Parallels between this study and one of a similar innovation in Argentinian Spanish suggest a generalized pattern of change in which variables introduced by women of the middle and upper social echelons become markers of gender display in the lower classes, where they grow to be favored by women and avoided by men. The discovery of the role of attitude toward traditional sex roles in this pattern of change is unique to the present study.