DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17404705
title: COACAN: Corpus del español académico de Canarias
title: Corpus of Academic Spanish of the Canary Islands

description: COACAN: Corpus del español académico de Canarias (Corpus of Academic Canarian Spanish) is a digital linguistic corpus that documents and analyzes varieties of Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands, specifically within the university academic context.

The corpus focuses on spontaneous speech from Canarian university students, capturing both dialectal features of Canarian Spanish and academic/colloquial registers used in higher education settings.

DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY----------------------------

Data collection was conducted using HablaCanariaBot, a Telegram bot specifically designed for linguistic research. This automated system enabled:

• Collection of spontaneous speech samples in natural, familiar environments• Participant anonymization• High-quality audio recordings• Automatic synchronized transcriptions (SRT format)• Detailed sociolinguistic metadata collection

The bot presented questions designed to elicit specific Canarian Spanish linguistic phenomena, including locative adverbs, existential "haber" usage, possessives, and other characteristic dialectal features.

CORPUS STRUCTURE----------------

COACAN comprises two main subcorpora:

1. INDIVIDUAL CORPUS   - Format: Individual responses to directed questions   - Participants: 79 unique users   - Transcriptions: 635 recordings   - Content: Short monologues and direct responses

2. PAIRS CORPUS   - Format: Conversations between participant pairs   - Participants: 79 pairs (158 people)   - Transcriptions: 835 recordings   - Content: Spontaneous dialogues and guided conversations

PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS---------------------------

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE:• Age: 18-25 years (university students)• Origin: Canary Islands (primarily Tenerife)• Education: University degree level• Institution: University of La Laguna (primarily)• Fields: Applied Linguistics, Education, other disciplines

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION:• Main province: Santa Cruz de Tenerife• Most represented municipalities: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de   Tenerife, La Orotava, and other Tenerife and Gran Canaria locations

INCLUSION CRITERIA:• Native Canarian Spanish speakers• Childhood and youth residence in the Canaries• Informed consent for research participation

DATA FORMAT AND STRUCTURE--------------------------

PARTICIPANT METADATA:• Demographics: age, gender, origin• Academic information: university, major, year of study• Geographic data: birthplace, upbringing, residence

TRANSCRIPTION DATA:• Unique question identifier• Question text• Target linguistic phenomenon• Original audio file (.ogg)• Synchronized transcription (SRT format)• Audio duration and recording timestamp

TECHNICAL FORMAT:• Structure: Hierarchical JSON• Encoding: UTF-8• Audio: OGG Vorbis format• Transcriptions: SRT format with timestamps

CORPUS STATISTICS-----------------

• Total participants: 237 unique individuals• Total transcriptions: 1,470 recordings• Total duration: Approximately 4.2 hours of audio• Transcribed words: Over 25,000 tokens• Geographic coverage: Primarily Tenerife, with representation from other islands• Age range: 18-25 years (average: ~22 years)

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS----------------------

• Informed consent from all participants• Complete data anonymization• GDPR compliance• Academic research use only• Controlled access for authorized researchers

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS------------------------

QUALITY CONTROL:• Manually reviewed transcriptions• Metadata quality control• Temporal coherence validation• Anonymization verification

ACCESSIBILITY:• Standard JSON format for maximum compatibility• Complete data structure documentation• Analysis scripts included• Processing tools available

RECOMMENDED CITATION--------------------

When using the COACAN corpus in research, please cite as:

COACAN: Corpus of Academic Canarian Spanish. Collected via HablaCanariaBot. University of La Laguna, 2024-2025.

CONTACT INFORMATION-------------------

For inquiries about the COACAN corpus, additional data access, or research collaborations, contact:

Johnatan E. BonillaHumboldt-Universität zu Berlinj.bonilla@hu-berlin.de

================================================================================Document generated: 2025Corpus version: 1.0Last updated: October 2025