Social change and/s/variation in Concepción, Chile and Lima, Peru

This study compares/s/variation in the Spanish of Concepcion, Chile, and Lima, Peru in the context of sociolectal and dialect contact. Results for the Chilean data stand in stark contrast to previous studies in Chile, revealing an overwhelming tendency for elision in all social groups and providing support for the hypothesis that in Chile sociolectal leveling is occurring. In contrast, in Lima, where Andean migrants encounter overt discrimination and where virtually exclusive use of [s] indexes Andean speech, there is an increase in/s/weakening across the second and third generations of migrants, whose production approximates coastal norms. Thus, in contrast to Chile,/s/reduction in Lima continues to serve as a marker of dialectally and sociolectally salient differences.