Se comen la [s] pero a veces son muy fisnos

Since the late 1970s, scholars have devoted significant attention to coda sibilants in Dominican Spanish. While many have attended to the linguistic and social factors that condition the syllable-final /s/ elision that characterizes popular Dominican speech (e.g., las fiestas patronales “the patron saints feasts” pronounced [la-fje-ta-pa-tɾo-na-le]), others have attended to the elevated production of the prescribed sibilant (i.e., retention) as well as to the appearance of [s] where it is unwarranted (i.e., insertion, as in the pronunciation of Jaqueline as [dʒas-ke-lĩŋ]). Variationist sociolinguistic and sociophonetic analyses have revealed the latter phenomena to be conditioned by phonological factors and by gender and education. The present study seeks to contribute additional insight to our understanding of the latter types of sibilant production—termed hablar fisno—with an examination of how [s]-maintenance and [s]-intrusion are sanctioned in everyday interaction and in public discourse. The work draws on observations of the incidence of coda-[s] in the soundscape and visual landscape of Dominican Republic and on its representation and evaluation on social media and press outlets in national and diasporic communities.