From one fricative to another

This paper examines the perceptual categorization of a novel phone in Western Andalusian Spanish that emerges from the interplay of two phonological processes: /s/ reduction and the spirantization of /b d g/. Previous studies suggest that when a weakened /s/ precedes voiced stops, the outcome is often a singleton fricative in this dialect (/sb/ [v], /sd/ [ð], /sg/ [ɣ]), functioning as a distinctive allophone compensating for the lenited /s/. To test the perceptual categorization of this compensation process, we constructed minimal pairs such as /u.na.bo.ta/ [u.na.β̞o.ta] vs. /u.nas.bo.tas/ [u.na.vo.ta]. Results from two discrimination tasks revealed that Andalusian listeners perceived the fricative realizations of /b d g/ as plural, implying the perception of an underlying /s/. This strategy produces three discrete allophonic realizations of phonemic /b d g/: an occlusive, an approximant, and a fricative when preceded by an elided /s/.