Variación estilística de la /s/ implosiva en el habla radiofónica de Guayaquil y su percepción social

The paper analyzes the stylistic variation of implosive /s/ in Guayaquil Spanish. The aim is to verify the sociolinguistic status of /s/-weakening according to Labov’s three-level hierarchy: linguistic indicators, markers, and stereotypes. It is argued that the aspired allophone [h], by representing a clear pattern of stylistic variation, can be qualified as a marker, and since it receives metalinguistic commentary from the speakers, it is also a stereotype in the Guayaquil speech community. The analysis contains a quantitative study of /s/ variation on a corpus of radio speech (CHARG) and a qualitative confrontation of the results with responses gathered in a language attitudes survey.