Perception of social variables related to allophones of taps and trills

This work presents preliminary research into determining value judgments of socioeconomic class and educational level of speakers based on the allophones of the alveolar tap /ɾ/ and trill /r/ in found in Costa Rican Spanish speech. The population of speakers is male and female professionals living in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) [23-46 years]. Data was collected through written questionnaires and recordings. Speakers were asked about their linguistic attitude to their own variant. Speakers were also asked if they had had any negative experiences regarding their individual speech. Each speaker was also asked to evaluate the variant in a series of guises read by another speaker in the study population. All speakers performed the tap as vibrant in most positions; vibrant and retroflex realizations of the tap were observed before nasal. Vibrant, fricative, and retroflex variants were observed as allophones of the trill. Most speakers maintained a single variant for the alveolar tap and trill, although the variants used differed among the individual speakers. All speakers showed allophonic realizations to the alveolar tap and alveolar trills consistent with those found in Costa Rican middle or upper class. It was not possible to determine if the perception of a lower educational level could be related to a perception of the voice as that of a younger person. The main limitation of this study is that the sample of speakers is small, and that the speakers belong to similar socioeconomic backgrounds.