Prosodic Phrasing in Argentinean Spanish: Buenos Aires and Neuquén

This paper deals with prosodic phrasing in two varieties of Argentinean Spanish: porteño (Buenos Aires) and the dialect of Neuquén (Northern Patagonia). Based on recordings of 50 speakers from both places uttering 1000 SVO declaratives (which are syntactically and prosodically branching), we show that several similarities exist between the two varieties with respect to phrasing decisions and boundary cues. Porteño is often described as more closely resembling Italian than other Spanish dialects in terms of pitch accent realization. As for phrasing, porteño seems to follow the Spanish model – however, to a lesser extent than the Patagonian variety.