Coda /r/, sexual orientation, and the performance of online identity in Spanish

Research has demonstrated that gender and socioeconomic status influence coda /r/ variation in Caribbean Spanish but has yet to investigate its interaction with sexuality. Employing a variationist approach, this study investigates the performance of gender and sexuality in Venezuelan Spanish via coda /r/ among 16 gay, lesbian, and heterosexual TikTok influencers. Findings from the acoustic and statistical analyses reveal that the interplay between gender, sexuality, and intrusive vowels influences coda /r/ duration. Gay men produce a heightened degree of coda /r/ articulation compared to lesbian women, and both groups pattern with their opposite-gender heterosexual counterparts. However, gender more acutely conditions the production of intrusive vowels than sexual orientation. These findings suggest that coda /r/ serves as a tool for queer individuals to negotiate their identities, highlighting the complex interaction between gender and sexuality in sociolinguistic variation.