Existeix la vocal neutra en català nord-occidental? Caracterització acústica d'algunes vocals àtones emeses a la televisió de Lleida

Abstract

In Catalan dialectology, the presence of the central vowel schwa is considered a key feature that distinguishes Eastern Catalan from the Western Catalan. The article deals with the question to what extent Western Catalan's Lleida dialect, under the influence of Barcelona's Eastern Catalan prestige variety, nevertheless begins to integrate this sound, which is actually foreign there. The analysis is based on empirical material obtained from television broadcasts by local Lleida TV. Here, the relevant vowel phonemes are examined phonetically for their formant frequencies. It is shown that although centralisation phenomena can certainly be observed, Lleidatan has on the whole remained true to its Western Catalan character.