The weakening of intervocalic /d/ in the Spanish of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Comparison with other speech communities

Abstract

The present paper compares the results obtained from the analysis of intervocalic /d/ in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with those of other PRESEEA research groups (four Spanish groups and a Latin American one). The Spanish of the Canary Islands is placed, as in other phenomena, halfway between Peninsular and Latin American Spanish. In this process of weakening, interdialectal differences in the degree of deletion of /d/ in participles and the determiner todo stand out, together with some virtually Panhispanic characteristics. The differences in the weakening of the obstruent in these two contexts are closely related to the frequency of their use in the different communities.