As vogais médias pretônicas em Minas Gerais e em São Paulo: o Rio Grande como fronteira linguística

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this paper is to describe the linguistic variation on the south and north of the Rio Grande, observing the behavior of pre-stressed mid-vowels. The methodology adopted was that of Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV (2008[1972]); WEINREICH, LABOV and HERZOG (2006[1968]). For data collection in the north of Rio Grande, it was interviewed 12 informants from Uberaba. For the southern region of Rio Grande, it was collected data in the municipalities of Igarapava, Franca and Ribeirão Preto, by selecting television interviews. To deal with the phenomena - we used the linguistic independent variables nature of the target vowel, height of the stressed vowel, distance between the target vowel and the stressed vowel, type of the lexical item; and the extralinguistic variables gender, education and age; beyond the geographic region to confront the south and north of Rio Grande. The sample of dada was analyzed using the GoldVarbX statistical program. The results showed that the low vowel /a/ in the stressed syllable does not favor the lowering of the pretonic (relative weight of 0.118), leaving this trigger in charge of another low-mid vowel. Considering, therefore, only the low-mid vowel data in stressed position in the two regions under study, it was found that, in the north of Rio Grande, the lowering is categorical, with a relative weight of 0.902; while in the south of Rio Grande the relative weight is only 0.015, revealing that the lowering of the pretonic vowel is not the choice of paulistas. It appears, therefore, that the river not only demarcates a geographical border, but also a linguistic line with regard to the speaker's choice between low-medium or high-medium vowel.

KEY-WORDS: Vowel harmony; Pre-stressed mid vowels; Linguistic variation, Rio Grande