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This study examines dialectal variation and linguistic change in cases of (non) realisation of the final rhotic sound in sequences of infinitive verbs followed by clitic pronouns in Catalan (cantar-te, cosir-nos). The studied varieties seem to be undergoing a linguistic change influenced by other varieties of the language, including the oral standards recommended by the Institute of Catalan Studies and the Valencian Academy of the Language, in which the phonetic expression of the infinitive marker is obligatory. This phenomenon is investigated from both a historical and contemporary perspective through a literature review that includes information about Catalan varieties and other closely related Romance languages, such as Occitan, Asturian, Galician, and Spanish. Furthermore, it entails a data collection questionnaire, comprising both a production and perception test, administered to 104 Peninsular Catalan speakers across 7 survey locations.
Dialectal convergence and divergence can be described, respectively, as the increase and decrease in similarity between dialects (Hinskens et al., 2005). As is known, a process of dialectal convergence can lead to a reduction in intrasystemic variation and, therefore, dialectal simplification (Trudgill, 1986). Often, these processes of dedialectalisation, meaning the gradual loss of idiosyncratic characteristics of a specific linguistic variety through assimilation to another variety, occur due to vertical convergence with a prestigious variety (Valls, 2013). When this convergence occurs with the standard of the same language, often considered the recipient of this prestige (Haugen, 1966; Lamuela, 1986; Richards & Smith, 2010; Costa, 2021), we refer to it as a standardisation process.
Historically, the rhotic sound was only pronounced in this context in the area of Tortosa and in Central Valencian. However, despite the non-pronunciation of the rhotic being the traditional majority solution, normative standards have considered it an undesirable option, and it hasn't enjoyed social prestige. The data obtained demonstrate that there is an almost established expansion of the pronunciation of the rhotic among the young population in most survey locations. The statistical values are highly significant for both age groups, both in the production and perception tests. This indicates dialectal levelling as a result of the convergence with the standard. Furthermore, this linguistic change is reinforced by the overall functioning of Spanish and the orthographic system of the Catalan language. Nevertheless, there are still young speakers who use the traditional forms and have a positive perception of them. In other nearby languages, such as Asturian, Aragonese or Occitan, the non realisation of the rhotic sound in an enclitic context has been incorporated into the standard language.