VOWEL REDUCTION IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN SPANISH

Abstract

The present article studies the question of vowel reduction in contemporary Mexican Spanish. Key terms such as language variant, pluricentric language, and standard norm are clarified. We analyze the vowel characteristics of the Mexican variant of Spanish, and look at a certain variation in vowel quantity, as well as in the formant structure. We examine vowel reduction as a main particularity of the variant and conclude that, even though the phenomenon of vowel reduction cannot be left out when painting a broad picture of contemporary Mexican Spanish, vowel reduction is still not to be considered characteristic of the standard norm of the variant.