Summary

We explore sound change and phonological process in Andalusian Spanish, spoken in southern Spain. Research topics focus on processes related to vowel harmony, vowel-to-vowel coarticulation, pronunciation of rhotics, post-aspiration of /sp st sk/, voicing of intervocalic /p t k/, and the use of falsetto. You can read more about a recent conference that we organized here.

Representative publications

• Nicholas Henriksen, Amber Galvano, & Micha Fischer. (Accepted). Sound change in Western Andalusian Spanish: Investigation into the actuation and propagation of post-aspiration. Journal of Phonetics.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Lorenzo García-Amaya. (2019). Falsetto in interaction in Western Andalusian Spanish: A pilot study. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 34, 101-124.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2017). Patterns of vowel laxing and harmony in Iberian Spanish: Data from production and perception. Journal of Phonetics, 63, 106–126.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Sarah Harper. (2016). Investigating lenition patterns in south-central Peninsular Spanish /sp st sk/ clusters. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 46(3), 287–310.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Lorenzo J. Garcia-Amaya. (2012). Transcription of intonation of Jerezano Andalusian Spanish. Estudios de Fonética Experimental 21, 109-162.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Erik W. Willis. (2010). Acoustic characterization of phonemic trill production in Jerezano Andalusian Spanish. In Proceedings of Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology 4, ed. by M. Ortega-Llebaria, pp. 115-127. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.

Summary

Through this interdisciplinary collaboration funded through the University of Michigan Humanities Collaboratory, we combine ethnographic, linguistic, and historical methods in order to explore the voices and ideologies of a displaced Afrikaans community that has resided in Patagonia, Argentina for the past 110+ years. You can read more about our project here, and access our digital archive here.

Representative publications

• Henriksen, Nicholas, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, & Micha Fischer. (2021). Exploring language dominance through code-switching: Intervocalic voiced stop lenition in Afrikaans-Spanish bilinguals. Phonetica , 78(3), 201–240.
• Szpiech, Ryan, Joshua Shapero, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina Alberto, Victoria Langland, Ellie Johandes, & Nicholas Henriksen. (Accepted). Afrikaans in Patagonia: Language shift and cultural integration in a rural immigrant community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 266, 33–54.
• Henriksen, Nicholas, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Andries W. Coetzee, & Daan Wissing. (2019). Language contact in Patagonia: Durational control in the acquisition of Spanish and Afrikaans phonology. In The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Phonology, ed. by S. Colina & F. Martínez-Gil, pp. 416-438. New York: Routledge.
• Alberto, Paulina, Ana Silva, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Victoria Langland, Ryan Szpiech, Ellie Johandes, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). Los otros afro-argentinos: narrativas raciales de la colectividad sudafricana de la Patagonia del siglo XX. In Estudios Latinoamericanos 4: Actas de las Sextas Jornadas del GEALA, ed. by E. Lamborghini, M. Ghidoli, & J. F. Martínez Peria, pp. 175-190. Buenos Aires: Editions of the CCC Cultural Center of the Floreal Gorini Cooperation.
• Coetzee, Andries, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Jiseung Kim, Daan Wissing, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). Velar Palatalization in Patagonian and South-African Afrikaans: Language and Settlement History in an Expatriate Community. In Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019, ed by S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain & P. Warren, pp. 1610-1614. Canberra, Australia: Australian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
• Cook, Ian K., Ella Deaton, Ellie Johandes, Kelly Kendro, Paulina Alberto, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Victoria Langland, Ana Silva, Ryan Szpiech, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2020). Collaboration transcending crisis: An innovative faculty-student collaborative model. Inside Higher Ed.
• Silva, Ana M., Paulina L. Alberto, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Ellie Johandes, Victoria Langland, Ryan Szpiech, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). La asombrosa historia de los gauchos sudafricanos de la Patagonia. Viva, 5 May 2019, 16–20.
• Szpiech, Ryan, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina L. Alberto, Victoria Langland, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). Language and identity: lessons from a unique Afrikaans community in Patagonia. The Conversation. [Republication in Spanish]
• Henriksen, Nicholas, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina L. Alberto, Victoria Langland, Ryan Szpiech, & Joshua Shapero. (2018). From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement. Babel, 24, 16–21.

Summary

We explore multiple components of the Spanish prosodic system, such as syllable structure, stress, intonation, prosodic timing, and falsetto. Our research on intonation is couched within the autosegmental-metrical approach to intonational phonology. Our research on prosodic timing centers on bilingual communities in South America.

Representative publications

• Henriksen, Nicholas, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Andries W. Coetzee, & Daan Wissing. (2019). Language contact in Patagonia: Durational control in the acquisition of Spanish and Afrikaans phonology. In The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Phonology, ed. by S. Colina & F. Martínez-Gil, pp. 416-438. New York: Routledge.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Lorenzo García-Amaya. (2019). Falsetto in interaction in Western Andalusian Spanish: A pilot study. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 34, 101-124.
• Henriksen, Nicholas & Stephen Fafulas. (2017). Prosodic timing and language contact: Spanish and Yagua in Amazonian Peru. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 10(2), 225–257.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2016). Investigating the nature of the left periphery in Peninsular Spanish wh-question intonation. Phonetica, 73(1), 1–32.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2015). Syllable structure and word stress effects in Peninsular Spanish nuclear accents. Laboratory Phonology, 6(1), 53-86.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2014). Initial peaks and final falls in the intonation of Manchego Peninsular Spanish wh-questions. Probus, 26(1), 83-134.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2013). Style, prosodic variation, and the social meaning of intonation. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43(2), 153-193.
• Henriksen, Nicholas. (2012). The intonation and signaling of declarative questions in Manchego Peninsular Spanish. Language and Speech 55(4), 543-576.

Summary

We explore the relationship between studying abroad and oral fluency in second-language Spanish. Specifically, we explore the influence of factors such as attention control and other cognitive abilities, in addition to factors such as syntactic complexity, language use, and degrees of bilingualism, on a speaker's ability to articulate speech in a second language.

Representative publications

• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (Accepted). Investigating the relation between L2 pauses, syntactic complexity, and pause location: Longitudinal data from L2-Spanish study-abroad learners. Second Language Research.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2022). An investigation into utterance-fluency patterns of advanced L2 bilinguals: Afrikaans and Spanish in Patagonia. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 12(2), 163-190.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2022). A change of setting: Measuring language use in an overseas immersion context. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 6, 32-58.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo & Sean Lang. (2020). Filled pauses are susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence: Evidence from Afrikaans-Spanish bilinguals. Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2017). Detailing L1 and L2 use in study-abroad research: Data from the Daily Linguistic Questionnaire. System, 71, 60–72.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2008). The effect of topic on rate of speech. ELIA (Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada), 8, 117–150.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2018). Utterance fluency in the study abroad context: An overview of research methodologies. In C. Sanz & A. Morales-Front (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Study Abroad Research and Practice (pp. 181–192). New York: Routledge.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (2022). Exploring the connection between language use and oral proficiency during study abroad: Results from the Daily Language Questionnaire 2. Foreign Language Annals, 55(1), 198-221.

Summary

We study the effect of syntactic variability on learners' processing of novel sentences in Spanish. Our measures derive from eye-tracking procedures and acceptability judgment tasks. In this project, we collaborate with Julie Boland, Savi Namboodiripad, and Stephen Tobin.

Representative publications

• García-Amaya, Lorenzo. (Accepted). Investigating the relation between L2 pauses, syntactic complexity, and pause location: Longitudinal data from L2-Spanish study-abroad learners. Second Language Research.

Summary

We study the effect of textual enhancement and captioning on the learning of grammar structures in second-language Spanish, such as the preterite/imperfect, the subjunctive, the conditional, and gustar-type verbs.

Representative publications

• Cintrón-Valentín, M., & Lorenzo García-Amaya. (2021). Investigating textual enhancement and captions in L2 grammar and vocabulary: An experimental study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43(5), 1068-1093.
• Cintrón-Valentín, Myrna, Lorenzo García-Amaya, & Nick C. Ellis. (2019). Captioning and grammar learning in the L2 Spanish classroom. The Language Learning Journal, 47(4), 439-459.
• García-Amaya, Lorenzo & Myrna Cintrón-Valentín. (2021). The Effects of Textually Enhanced Captions on Written Elicited Imitation in L2 Grammar. Modern Language Journal, 105(4), 919-935.

Summary

We strive to communicate our research findings to a broad audience, with the goal of making our research, teaching, and service commitments accessible to a broad non-academic public.

Representative publications

• Henriksen, Nicholas & Matthew Neubacher. (2021). Un-muting voices in a pandemic: Linguistic profiling in a time of crisis. High Stakes Humanities: Being Human during COVID-19, ed by K. Hass, pp. 344–356. University of Michigan Press.
• Cook, Ian K., Ella Deaton, Ellie Johandes, Kelly Kendro, Paulina Alberto, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Victoria Langland, Ana Silva, Ryan Szpiech, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2020). Collaboration transcending crisis: An innovative faculty-student collaborative model. Inside Higher Ed.
• Silva, Ana M., Paulina L. Alberto, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Ellie Johandes, Victoria Langland, Ryan Szpiech, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). La asombrosa historia de los gauchos sudafricanos de la Patagonia. Viva, 5 May 2019, 16–20.
• Szpiech, Ryan, Andries W. Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina L. Alberto, Victoria Langland, & Nicholas Henriksen. (2019). Language and identity: lessons from a unique Afrikaans community in Patagonia. The Conversation. [Republication in Spanish]
• Henriksen, Nicholas, Andries Coetzee, Lorenzo García-Amaya, Paulina L. Alberto, Victoria Langland, Ryan Szpiech, & Joshua Shapero. (2018). From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement. Babel, 24, 16–21.