Equatorial Guinea Spanish non-continuant /d/

Abstract In Equatorial Guinea, the only sub-Saharan African nation in which Spanish is widely spoken, prevocalic /d/ frequently receives a short occlusive articulation that approximates [ɾ]. A similar pronunciation occurs in some contemporary Afro-descendant populations in Latin America, and Afro-Hispanic literary stereotypes also include the /d/ > [ɾ] shift. Based on an acoustic analysis of naturalistic speech, this study proposes that non-continuant realizations of /d/ are part of a cluster of traits that include an alveolar realization of /t/ and /d/, partial neutralization of /ɾ/-/r/, and prominent svarabhakti vowels. A combination of incomplete L2 acquisition, L1 carryovers, and structural re-alignment emerges as the most likely account of Equatorial Guinean /d/ > [ɾ], which may partially extend to other Afro-Hispanic speech communities.