The unifying goal of my research is to elucidate how linguistic and social factors govern the linguistic choices speakers make when they talk, particularly in situations of language contact, and how these choices contribute to the construction of a particular sociocultural identity. I adopt both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how social indices are attached to linguistic forms, focusing on phenomena of morpho-phonological and phonetic variation.
​
​
Asturian Spanish​
​
My current research analyzes phenomena observed in Asturian Spanish, a contact variety spoken in the urban areas of the northwestern Spanish region of Asturias - mainly in the city of Gijón. My work examines:
​​
​
​
-
The production and perception of Asturian raised-vowel morphemes.
-
The connection between the variable use of Asturian and Spanish features, the rural migration to urban areas during the industrialization period, and the creation of place-based identity.
-
The symbolic value of highly salient Asturian features as markers of interactional stance.
-
The correlation between fine-grained phonetic detail and the indexing of complex local identities.
-
The effect of visual social priming on the perception of Asturian Spanish vocalic productions.
Publications
Due to copyright restrictions, I can only post links to some articles. However, if you do not have access, I'd be happy to send you a copy. Email me at: sonia.barnes@marquette.edu.​
Sociolinguistic variation of final back vowels in urban Asturian Spanish.
The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish
Manuel Díaz-Campos (Ed.) Philadelphia: Routledge
Sonia Barnes (2021)
The unstressed vowel system of Asturian Spanish: Language contact and phonetic contrast in word-final position.
Spanish phonetics and phonology in contact: Studies from Africa, the Americas and Spain. Rajiv G. Rao (Ed.) Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 364-382
Sonia Barnes (2020)
The role of social cues in the perception of final vowel contrasts in Asturian Spanish.
Recent Advances in the Study of Spanish Sociophonetic Perception, Whitney Chappell (Ed.) Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co, 16–38.
​
Sonia Barnes​ (2019)
.png)
Variable vowel metaphony in Asturian: An acoustic analysis
Phonetica, 76: 31-54.
​
Sonia Barnes (2019)
Copula variation in Asturian Spanish and the multidimensionality of stancetaking in interaction
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 22:1. 29-54.
​
Reprinted in Innovations in variationist sociolinguistics, Erez Levon and Natalie Schilling (Eds.)
​
Sonia Barnes (2018)
Negotiating local identity: rural migration and sociolinguistic perception in urban Asturias
Lengua y Migración/Language and Migration, 8:2. 45-77.
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
Variable final back vowels in urban Asturian Spanish
Spanish in Context, 13:1. 1-28
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
Perceptual salience and social categorization of contact features in Asturian Spanish
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8:2. 213-241.
​
Sonia Barnes (2015)
Haya vs. haiga: An analysis of the variation observed in Mexican Spanish using a mixed effects model
Selected Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, Ana M. Carvalho and Sara Beaudrie (Eds.), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 32-40.
​
Mary Johnson, Sonia Barnes (2013)
¿Qué dijistes?: A Variationist Reanalysis of Non-Standard -s on Second Singular Preterit Verb Forms in Spanish
Selected Proceedings of the 2010 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Kimberly Geeslin and Manuel Díaz-Campos (Eds.), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 38-47.
​
Sonia Barnes (2012)
Invited talks
Photo credit: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana
El papel de la prominencia sociolingüística en el uso variable de rasgos del asturiano
Invited speaker at the XL Xornaes Internacionales d’Estudiu. Academia de Llingua Asturiana. Oviedo, Spain
​
Sonia Barnes (2022)
Variación lingüística en español de Asturias y posicionamento en la interacción
Talk given at the seminar series Análise do discurso, ideoloxías lingüísticas e contacto de linguas, Instituto da Lingua Galega.
​
Sonia Barnes (2021)
Linguistic discrimination and the importance of advancing linguistic justice in our institutions
Workshop given at the summit Advancing Equity in Our Colleges and Universities, WISCAPE, Alverno College, Milwaukee, WI.
​
Sonia Barnes (2020)
Awareness and salience in language contact: The case of Asturian Spanish
Keynote given at the 7th Lusophone and Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
​
Sonia Barnes (2019)
Un análisis acústico de la metafonía asturiana
Invited speaker at the XXXVI Xornaes Internacionales d’Estudiu. Academia de Llingua Asturiana. Oviedo, Spain
​
Sonia Barnes (2017)
An introduction to quantitative linguistic analysis in R.
Workshop given at The Ohio State Congress of Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Columbus, OH
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
An introduction to R for the analysis of linguistic data.
Workshop given at the University of Texas - Austin, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Austin, TX
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
Stance, style and use of “ye” in Asturian Spanish.
Invited talk given at the University of Texas - Austin, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Austin, TX
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
An introduction to R for the analysis of linguistic data.
Workshop given at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Madison, WI,
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
Cognitive salience and the social meaning of contact variants in urban Asturian Spanish
Invited talk given at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Madison, WI,
​
Sonia Barnes (2016)
Interactional stance, sociolinguistic style and the use of contact features in Asturian Spanish.
Invited talk given at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Linguistics Department, Milwaukee, WI
​
Sonia Barnes (2015)