Enregisterment of rhotacism, ceceo and spirantization in western Andalusia

The case of the television series Allí abajo

Abstract

This contribution is based on the hypothesis that metalinguistic discourses of recent decades, among others consolidated by cultural activities such as cinema or television series, have supported the discursive construction of Andalusian Spanish as a variety of European Spanish. Certain salient phonetic-phonological features of western Andalusian Spanish are used to create a discursive linguistic reality. To get a profound analysis of these processes, the theory of enregisterment forms the theoretical basis of this contribution, since it guides in particular to a better understanding of the social production of linguistic varieties – also in the cultural domain – and their social classification in the speech community in general. This paper analyzes how enregisterment works through the realization of phonetic-phonological features – ceceo, rhotacism and spirantization – by fictitious protagonists of the television series Allí Abajo and through their metalinguistic commentaries.