Silvina Bongiovanni, PhD.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Romance and Classical Studies, Michigan State University

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ANTICIPATORY VOWEL NASALIZATION

My doctoral work examined the production of anticipatory vowel nasalization and word-final nasals in Santo Domingo and Buenos Aires Spanish by means of nasometry. In addition to documenting dialectal differences, this research examines co-variation between weakening of the nasal consonant and nasalization.

• Bongiovanni, S. (2021). Acoustic investigation of anticipatory vowel nasalization in a Caribbean and a non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish (2021). Linguistics Vanguard, 7(1), 1-11.


• Bongiovanni, S. (2021). Covariation between nasal consonant and anticipatory vowel nasalization: Evidence from a Caribbean and a non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish. Laboratory Phonology, 12(1), 1-30.


• Accounting for participants’ best linguistic behavior: Vowel nasalization, nasal consonant weakening and /s/ production (in review).

PALATAL NASAL IN BUENOS AIRES SPANISH

I have done work on the merger between /ɲ/ and /nj/ by native speakers of Buenos Aires Spanish. I found that older male speakers produce a contrast, whereas females do not —Women are leading sound change. I am now developing a new set of protocols.

• Bongiovanni, S. (2021). An acoustic analysis of the merger of /ɲ/ and /nj/ in Buenos Aires Spanish. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 51(2), 177-201.


• Bongiovanni, S. (2016). Neutralización del contraste entre /ɲ/ y /nj/ en el español de Buenos Aires: Un estudio de percepción. Signo y Seña| Revista del Instituto de Lingüística, (27), 11-46 .


• Bongiovanni, S. (2016). An exploratory study of midvowel gliding and nasal decomposition in Argentine Spanish. IULC Working Papers, (16).


• Bongiovanni, S. (2015). Are /n+j/ and /ɲ/ Neutralized in Buenos Aires Spanish? An Initial Acoustic Analysis. In E. W. Willis, P. M. Butragueño, & E. Herrera (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the Laboratory Approaches to Romance Phonology. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

VELARIZATION OF WORD-INTERNAL CODA STOPS IN LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH

In some dialects of Latin American Spanish we find that "Pepsi" may be pronounced as "Pecsi" (there are even ads about it!). I have examined the frequency of phonotactic collocations, as well as the sociolinguistic distribution of velarized variants.

• Bongiovanni, S. (online first). A case for velarization of Spanish word-medial coda stops as hypercorrection. Spanish in Context.


• Bongiovanni, S. (2022). Velarization of word-internal syllable coda stops. In Manuel Díaz-Campos (Ed.), Handbook of Spanish variationist approaches , (pp. 53-65). Routledge.


• Bongiovanni, S. (2014). “¿Tomas [pepsi], [peksi] or [pesi]?”: A variationist sociolinguistic analysis of Spanish syllable coda stops. IULC Working Papers, 14(2), 43-61.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

I am also interested in the acquisition of phonological systems by L2 speakers. In collaboration with Danielle Daidone, Alisha Reeves, Jamie Root, Ryan Lidster and Chisato Kojima, I am investigating the impact of High Variability Phonetic Training in the foreign language classroom. We are currently examining Spanish, French and Japanese, and will soon have an open educational website for anyone teaching these languages.

I have also examined the impact of context of learning (study abroad vs. at-home) in phonetic development with learners of Spanish, with Avizia Long and Megan Solon. I am now working L2 acquisition of /d/ weakening.

• Long, A. Y., Solon, M., & Bongiovanni, S. (2018). Context of learning and second language development of Spanish vowels. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 11(1), pp. 59-87.


• Bongiovanni, S., Long, A. Y., Solon, M. & Willis, E. (2015). The effect of short-term study abroad on second language Spanish phonetic development. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8(2), pp. 243-283.