Nick Henriksen, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, recently published an article titled “Beyond distinción: Media, identity, and the strategic use of /s/ and /θ/ in Andalusian Spanish” in the Journal of Sociolinguistics. This article was coauthored with Lucas Rubin, an alum of the University of Michigan (BA, BFA 2023), who is now pursuing a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics at Ohio State University.
Abstract: Third-wave sociolinguistics emphasizes speakers’ agentive roles in leveraging linguistic variation to construct and reinforce social identities. The present study examines how speakers of Andalusian Spanish navigate sociolinguistic variables, with a particular focus on mediatized contexts. We analyze variation between the /s/ and /θ/ phonemes in the speech of Joaquín Sánchez Rodríguez, a prominent Andalusian athlete and media figure. Drawing on 66 YouTube videos across formal and informal settings, we analyze how Joaquín navigates between the three reference systems associated with /s/~/θ/ usage (distinción, ceceo, seseo). We show that linguistic “scripts” privileging distinción create conditions for identity work through marked features like ceceo and seseo. Rather than merely imposing constraints, however, these scripts paradoxically augment the indexical potential of marked variants, fostering a dynamic interplay between agency and structure in public discourse. Finally, this study challenges claims that social meaning primarily attaches to phonetic elements rather than phonological relations.
