¿A quién le importa?

On the subject of La Terremoto, here is another piece she covered. In this instance, unlike the song in the previous entry, she doesn't change the lyrics; they're kept intact, she simply sings the song in her own peculiar style. We will examine three versions of the song: the original recording by the Spanish singer Alaska1 in the 80's; the cover in 2002  by Thalia from Mexico; and the current remake by the ever-so Andalusian La Terremoto. The first two on the list don't require any special attention, as each speaks and sings with what would be considered a standard pronunciation from their respective countries: Alaska, with a Central Spanish accent, and Thalia, with a Central Mexican one. The only differences between these two are the expected regional differences across the continental divide; these will be pointed out briefly after each version. However, La Terremoto's speech patterns will be dissected more carefully, to a degree.

Alaska

Here, we hear the usual Northern-Central Spanish /s/ of an apical quality, and, certainly, the presence of the phoneme /θ/. Additionally, we find /x/ rendered as [χ]: elijo > [e'liχo]. This feature then brings the actual pronunciation of /ɣ/ to [ʁ], especially before back vowels. Thus, we hear: haga, diga > ['aʁa], ['ðiʁa]; this is common in some Northern Spanish accents.

Thalia
The Central Mexican accent is sometimes said to be the closest, linguistically, to the Northern-Central Spanish accents. While almost across the board in Latin America and the Caribbean, post-vocal /s/ is subject to being pronounced as an aspirate ([h]), in Central Mexico, /s/ is always stable, and not subject to any weakening or deletion. It shares this feature with the Central and Northern Spanish accents; it must be said, though, that at present time, the change of post-vocal /s/ > [h], in closed syllables particularly, is quite alive, and extending to regions where historically it didn't exist; certainly, this is a subject that would require more in-depth research.
In Thalia's speech, we then hear the expected seseo, a laminal /s/ different from that of Alaska's, and /x/ rendered as [x] and /ɣ/ as [ɣ]. Worth mentioning is that the song, written by a Spaniard, contains leísmo: mi vida les agobia ... mis circunstancias les insultan. When the Mexican Thalia covered the song, she maintained the original lyrics, and did not change the les to los, even though los would be more commonly used in Mexico, and the rest of Latin America. I have paid close attention to the use of leísmo in other popular songs written by Spaniards, and when sung by Latin Americans, the leísmo is maintained in all cases.


La Terremoto de Alcorcón

On this video, we see Thalia's image, although the audio is all La Terremoto's voice. As discussed in my previous entry, the first thing that stands out, in contrast with the last two videos, is the realization of /s/ post-vocally as [h], a change that alters the quality of vowels in proximity (the most obvious ones being /e/ > [ɛ] and /a/ > [æ̞]). Continuing from the last post about La Terremoto, the following is a summary of her accent, with some examples directly from this song:
  • /x/ > [h]: gente ['hẽnte], elijo [e'liho]
  • /l/ in closed syllables > [r]: el dedo [er 'ðeðo], espaldas [ɛh'parðæ̞h]; there is some oscillation here sometimes on the song itself, but also in speech, in general. For instance, at 0:50 in the video, La Terremoto pronounces el que yo as [erke'jo]; this would be the expected pronunciation for her, with the change /el/ > [er]. However, at 0:51, she sings, again, the same three words, except this time, /l/ is retained: el que yo [elke'jo]. Later in the song, at 2:05, she sings the exact same lines again, and in both occurrences of el que yo, we find the anticipated change /l/ > [r].
  • Orthographic <h> derived from a historical <f> is often pronounced [h] in Southern Spain, and some parts of Latin America. This is a remnant pronunciation of Latin written <f> which became [h], then silent afterwards. In all instances of haga in the song, we encounter the pronunciation ['haɣa] (and not the more usual ['aɣa]); haga coming from an earlier faga (ultimately derived from Latin FACIAT). Outside of the song, this [h] can be also heard in other words, such as hambre ['hɑ̃mbɾe] (from Vulgar Latin *FAME(N)), and, one instance popularly heard in Mexico: hijo (from an earlier fijo, ultimately from Latin FILIU(S)) rendered as ['xixo], pronounced this way when used in a series of expressions to show anger or dismay towards someone, as in ['xixo] de su p*** madre. We also find this alteration in the standard word joder, which went through the same intermediary changes, coming from an earlier foder (compare to Fr. foutre; Pt. foder; It. fottere; Rom. a fute; all from Latin FUTUERE); except that in this case, the version with [h] (later [x]) became standard.
  • asín [a'sĩŋ] used instead of así. This can be considered an archaism, along with asina, both of which the RAE currently labels vulgar (and indeed, these forms are socially marked and non-standard). Easy to see the connection with the modern Portuguese form, assim.
Most of these pronunciation features are shared with the other Southern Spanish accents, as discussed on this entry, for instance, about Bebe from Extremadura, and on this post, which describes La Mala's Andalusian accent.

Below is a phonetic transcription of the La Terremoto's rendition of ¿A quién le importa?:

La gente me señala
[la'hẽnte mesẽ'ɲalɑ̃ŋ]
Me apunta con el dedo
[m ̆ea'pũŋtɑ̃ŋ kõŋer'ðeðo]
Susurra a mis espaldas
[su'sura: misɛh'parðæ̞h]
Y a mí, me importa un bledo. 
[ja'mi me ĩm'porta ũm'bleðo]
¿Qué más me da? Si soy distinta a ellos.
[ke mæ̞h me'ða, si soj ðih'tĩnta: ejɔh]
No soy de nadie, no tengo dueño
[no soj ðe'naðie, no tẽngo ðwẽɲo]

Yo sé que me critican
[ʝo'se ke me kɾi'tikɑ̃ŋ]
Me consta que me odian
[me 'kõŋsta ke me'oðiɑ̃ŋ]
La envidia les corroe
[la ẽŋ'βiðia lesko'roe] 
Mi vida les agobia
[mi 'βiða lesa'ɣoβia]
¿Por qué será? Yo no tengo la culpa
[por'ke se'ɾa, ʝo no tẽŋgo la'curpa]
Mis circunstancias les insultan.
[mih sirkuh'tɑ̃ŋsjæ̞h lɛhĩŋ'surtɑ̃ŋ]

Mi destino es el que yo decido
[mi ðɛh'tino eserke'ʝo ðe'siðo]
El que yo elijo para mí.
[elke'ʝo e'liho paɾa mi]
Y, ¿a quién le importa lo que yo haga?
[ja kjẽŋ le ĩm'porta lo ke jo'haɣa]
¿A quién le importa lo que yo diga?
[ja kjẽŋ le ĩm'porta lo ke jo'ðiɣa]
Yo soy así, y así seguiré, nunca cambiaré.
[ʝo soy a'sĩŋ, ja'sĩŋ seɣi'ɾe, 'nũŋka kɑ̃mbja'ɾe]

Quizás la culpa es mía por no seguir la norma
[ki'sæ̞h la'kurpa ɛhmi.a por no se'ɣil la 'norma]
Ya es demasiado tarde para cambiar ahora.
[ʝa ɛhdema'sjaðo 'tarðe paɾa kɑ̃m'biaɾ aoɾa]
Me mantendré firme en mis convicciones
[me mɑ̃ntẽn'dɾe 'firmẽŋ mih kõŋβi'sjonɛh]
Reforzaré mis posiciones.
[reforsa'ɾe mih posi'sjonɛh]

1. Actually, she was born in Mexico to a Spanish father, and later moved to Spain at the age of 10, where she grew up. For all purposes relating to her accent, nonetheless, she is a Spaniard.

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