Day 57: Ceceo and L

I'm adding this part to this blog a few days late in hopes of tricking L. ;) I know that girl reads my blog religiously and so I try not to say too much... but maybe this way I can say what I am thinking and she'll skip over the entry...? I bet she's too thorough for that, but it's worth a shot! Hee hee.

Today boasts the title of "Biggest Fight I've Had Since I Can Remember." I've had disputes, I've felt upset, I've gotten angry... but I haven't felt safe enough to just let go and talk back since high school. Sure, I only "let go" and "talked back" for a few minutes total, but I mentally held my ground. I was threatened, yeah, but it didn't bother me. Fights are a weird animal - they signal something is not right, but when you feel safe enough to be a little bitch about something, it shows a certain about of caring and trust. Such a combination is something I have not had the "luxury" of experiencing since Stephen. And boy, when we'd fight, we'd fight. Epic fights. And they'd always make me feel a little closer to him in some messed up teenage way. Now I'm starting to see why.

On the flip side, it's a weird thing to experience for the first time in six years as my perspective is completely different. I'm not fighting because I'm taking things personally - I'm fighting because all communication seems to have been thrown under a high speed train and I'm scrambling to get it back without being pushed onto the tracks, too. And what's more is that I can only keep up the verbal fight for a few minutes before I stop and need time to ponder about the true motives for the other's upset and what the best course of action is for me to take knowing this information and grasping it to the best of my ability.

I've been taught to see others as innocent, but sometimes that seems sort of inconsiderate? Is it mean to see somebody as innocent like a little kid and treat the situation accordingly? I'm not sure. But I know more about kids than I do people my own age, so I went for a middle road.

The thing I appreciate most about tithers with L is that I never lose who I am in them. This is something I haven't felt in ages, either. For once, the way I view and love myself is not on the line. I am free to continue my life after it is over, versus seeing everything as an imminent, swirling doom that I have somehow brought upon myself. Somehow, good 'ol old-fashioned tither techniques such as name calling and the use of "you" phrases are comforting, because at least I can see through them -- in a crazy Goya's Las Menina's play on perspective with mirrors. I can also listen better (and understand).

I'm not sure how to learn from this. I wish tithers with everybody were as safe feeling... even though I realize that sounds ridiculous. I'm not sure if it's something I can work on, or if it's totally dependent on the interactions of each pair of human beings.

Anyway, I'm sorry for using the poor word choice of "I seriously don't care." Even though it was completely taken out of context (I was talking about my food preference), I know how it came across and I would never ever ever want you to think that's what I meant. Because it isn't. It's no where close. <3


~*~


Email to my Spanish Phonology professor in regards to the mysteriousness of the Spanish ceceo (where words with "ci" "ce" and "z" are turned into the "th" sound, but "s" never is):

Hola!

Greetings from Spain!
I've been in Madrid all summer studying and have had a question on my mind this whole time just for you!! :)

I've noticed the ceceo (in fact, I now speak that way, otherwise people literally can't understand me! haha)... but I'm wondering about the historical reasoning behind it. Last I heard it was due to one of Spain's king's lisps... and so he declared that the whole country should have to speak like he did. However, this does not make sense as it only occurs with ci/ce/z and never s. Unless you know how to SPELL each word, it's impossible to know in spoken language which words require ceceo and which do not. Knowing that literacy was not a country-wide thing a few hundred years ago, I'm completely confused as to how this process remains so perfect that 's' never goes to 'th' but ce/ci/z always do without fail.

Help! :)
C

Quick response from my Spanish Phonology professor from UW-Madison:

Hi C,

Good to hear from you! I hope you're enjoying your time in Madrid. I'm sure you're having a blast and won't want to come back when the summer is up!

Your question is a good one and is quite complicated actually. The short version is that medieval Spanish and 8 sibilant (fricative/affricate) phonemes, from which the affricates lost a portion of their sounds and became fricatives. From there, the next phase of sound change was voiced fricatives merging with voiceless ones. One of remaining phonemes was dentoalveolar, which ended up being articulatorily very similar to /s/ (both corresponded with different graphemes, which had a huge influence on sound change, even though, as you said, everyone wasn't literate). In order to distance itself from /s/, the dentoalveolar moved forward and became interdental, thus we have the ceceo. Due to the norm that people began to speak with, largely based on spelling and scribes, the ceceo became entrenched as part of normal speech in the central and northern parts of Spain. Those that did not know how to spell basically assimilated with regional norms.


I could write for hours and hours on this topic because there are so many theories as to why this happened, but this is the most accepted version (in a nutshell). The thing about the king having a lisp is truly a myth. The reason that there is such a categorical distinction still is because historically, the /s/ and ceceo derived from two different sounds, which is why speakers in Spain naturally distinguish them.

Hope this makes sense! Take care!

Best,
Prof. Rao