LA FRICATIVA LABIODENTAL SONORA EN EL ESPAÑOL RIOPLATENSE: UN CASO DE ÉNFASIS CONTRASTIVO

The present article is motivated by observations regarding the particular use of the voiced labiodental fricative [v] in Rioplatense Spanish. This work offers a series of examples (n = 15) that serve to document the pragmatic value of [v] in this variety of Spanish, since not only does the voiced labiodental fricative occur with the letter v (i.e. hypercorrection), but it is also evident in contexts that do not require it, as is the case of the letter b , and can be subject to lengthening in order to add emphasis to the discourse. The results of this work suggest that [v] functions regularly as an ‘emphatic’ variant of the phoneme /b/ (i.e. both with letters v and b ) and therefore proves the close relationship between pragmatics and phonetics, not only at the suprasegmental level (such as prosody), but also at the segmental level.