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

Resum

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.