ABSTRACT
The present study contributes to an ongoing discussion on sociophonetic perceptions and attitudes towards particular dialectal variants and their speakers in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean (e.g., Bullock & Toribio, 2009; Duany, 2002, 2011; Mejía Pardo, 1993; Ortiz-López & Maymí, 2019; Ortiz-López & Martínez Pedraza, 2020; Suárez Büdenbender, 2013, 2009). By comparing the linguistic perceptions of native speakers of Dominican Spanish living in the Dominican Republic and Dominicans living in Puerto Rico, the study examines the linking between particular characteristic linguistic features and stereotypical notions (a perceived level of education, socioeconomic status, and even ethnicity) of the speakers who use them. A total of 38 participants (20 Dominican immigrants and 18 Dominicans living on their home island) were asked to evaluate recordings along a linguistic spectrum that included recordings of a newly arrived Dominican immigrant, an established Dominican immigrant, and a native Puerto Rican. The results point to social and psycholinguistic mechanisms among ethnolinguistic groups in contact, that generate and promote, consciously or unconsciously, sociolinguistic perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes towards others and their linguistic varieties. Thus, the dialectal or sociolectal variety, phenotype, ethnic origin, socioeconomic status, profession, intelligence, etc., acquire positive or negative values in light of the community’s prevailing ideology.
