The heheo: is that even a thing? A sociolinguistic approach from Loja (Andalusia)

This sociolinguistic study focuses on a pretty unanalysed phonetic feature of the Andalusian dialect (Spanish) which can be found in the town of Loja (Andalusia): the heheo.

The heheo is the sporadic and lexically conditioned substitution of the /s/ and/or //

sounds by /h/ at the beginning of a word or syllable. It constitutes a phonetic feature of the Andalusian dialect (Spanish) that can be found usually among users of ceceo, another phonetic feature of the Andalusian dialect, the pronunciation of the /s/ sound as //  in familiar communicative situations. In spite of being widespread all-over Latin America and Southern Spain, this linguistic feature is characterised by its lack of linguistic prestige. In fact, the heheo suffers from such a strong stigmatization that it is hardly recognised among a wide range of the population.

This study can be of an interest to a diverse population: ranging from academics due to the terminological chaos around this phenomenon, to students of linguistics as this phenomenon actually constitutes a research gap. And of course, actual users of heheo, because of their low level of linguistic awareness concerning this stigmatized phenomenon.

During the development of this research, a detailed analysis was conducted on the sociolinguistic perception about this phonetic phenomenon. For this purpose, an online survey was designed and launched to a wide range of Spanish speakers from the town of Loja. Thanks to it, the three main research questions were answered: (1) What are the language attitudes towards the heheo in the town of Loja? (2) What is the level of linguistic awareness of the user of heheo? (3) Does a linguistic identity exist among the users of heheo?

(1) The language attitudes towards the heheo can be easily distinguished depending on whether the speaker is a user of the heheo or not, finding that this phenomenon is notably more stigmatized among speakers that do not use this phonetic feature. (2) A certain level of linguistic awareness exists among the users of heheo since actually they are aware of the use of this phonetic feature, although a majority of them do not know the specific term which describes it. (3) A certain level of linguistic identity exists  among the users of heheo as they strongly identify their accent with their cultural values and roots.

The main conclusion which this study draws is that the heheo is a transversal phenomenon that is not only used by "uneducated” speakers. Its stigmatization is only provoked by social classism and it is directly linked to the status of the Andalusian dialect, which is still stigmatized nowadays. After all, the only goal of this study is to provide new information about this research gap in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of the Andalusian dialect.

This individual article from the Proceedings is published here.