In many varieties of Spanish, syllable- and word-final /s/ is subject to a process of reduction from sibilance [s] through aspiration [h] to deletion. Sociolinguistic studies have traditionally used a three-way classification scheme on the basis of impressionistic coding; however, in the last decade, instrumental acoustic measurements have been favored. The present study examines several potential acoustic correlates of Spanish /s/ variants, including the often-used center of gravity, in their ability to faithfully represent the original perceptually-based observation of variation. The results indicate that many measurements can capture the contrast between sibilance [s] and aspiration [h]; however, fewer measurements (center of gravity after high-pass filter, skewness after high-pass filter, intensity without high-pass filter, zero crossing rate after high-pass filter, mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient 1 without high-pass filter) are also capable of detecting the contrast between aspiration [h] and deletion without making a priori assumptions about the appearance of non-zero variants. We propose that a combination of these measurements using Principal Component Analysis, which extracts the commonalities in the measurements, better represents the [s] > [h] > 0 cline than any one measurement by itself. We discuss the need for stricter evaluations of acoustic correlates of sociophonetic categories, especially regarding consonantal variation.

在许多西班牙语变体中，音节和词尾 /s/ 经历了从齿音 [s] 通过送气 [h] 到删除的过程。社会语言学研究传统上使用基于印象编码的三向分类方案；然而，在过去十年中，仪器声学测量受到青睐。本研究检查了西班牙语 /s/ 变体的几种潜在声学相关性，包括经常使用的重心，它们能够忠实地代表原始的基于感知的变化观察。结果表明，许多测量可以捕捉齿音 [s] 和吸气 [h] 之间的对比；然而，更少的测量（高通滤波器后的重心，高通滤波器后的偏度，没有高通滤波器的强度，高通滤波器后的零交叉率，没有高通滤波器的梅尔频率倒谱系数 1）也能够检测吸入 [h] 和删除之间的对比，而无需对非零变体的出现做出先验假设。我们建议使用主成分分析对这些测量进行组合，该分析提取测量中的共性，比任何单独的测量更好地代表 [s] > [h] > 0 斜线。我们讨论了对社会语音类别的声学相关性进行更严格评估的必要性，特别是在辅音变化方面。mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient 1 without high-pass filter) 也能够检测吸入 [h] 和删除之间的对比，而无需对非零变体的出现做出先验假设。我们建议使用主成分分析对这些测量进行组合，该分析提取测量中的共性，比任何单独的测量更好地代表 [s] > [h] > 0 斜线。我们讨论了对社会语音类别的声学相关性进行更严格评估的必要性，特别是在辅音变化方面。mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient 1 without high-pass filter) 也能够检测吸入 [h] 和删除之间的对比，而无需对非零变体的出现做出先验假设。我们建议使用主成分分析对这些测量进行组合，该分析提取测量中的共性，比任何单独的测量更好地代表 [s] > [h] > 0 斜线。我们讨论了对社会语音类别的声学相关性进行更严格评估的必要性，特别是在辅音变化方面。