A LATERAL PÓS-VOCÁLICA /L/ NOS DADOS DO PROJETO ALIB: CONFRONTO ENTRE OS ESTADOS DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL E DA BAHIA

Abstract

The research investigates the variable realization of the lateral consonant at the end of the syllable, with the objective of proving the thesis that there is a different behavior between the speakers of Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia regarding the use of /l/ in syllabic coda, confronting these two representative areas of the South and Northeast regions of Brazil, which make up the network of points of the Linguistic Atlas of Brazil Project (ALiB Project). The postvocalic lateral consonant /l/ is identified as a dependent variable in this study, which can present different realizations in Brazilian Portuguese, such as [w], [ɫ], [ø] or [h], verified in po[w]vora, po[ɫ]vora, po[ø]vora, or po[ɦ]vora for “pólvora”; a[w]moço, a[ɫ]moço, a[ɦ]moço for “almoço”; sa[w] and sa[ɫ] for “sal”. The analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Pluridimensional Dialectology (THUN, 2005; CARDOSO, 2010), Variationist Sociolinguistics (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]; LABOV, 2008 [1972]) and Phonetics and Phonology structuralists (CAMARA JR., 2011 [1970]; SILVA, 2009), assuming that the behavior of the /l/ at the end of syllable can be influenced by both linguistic and extralinguistic factors, which can favor or inhibit the use of one or the other variant in the areas of Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia. The work is justified due to the lack of dialectological and sociolinguistic studies regarding the differences in the use of the lateral in syllable end between Brazilian areas, whether state or regional, from systematizable data that equally contemplate the investigated localities. In this sense, it is questioned whether the variable picture in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia presents linguistic differentiation between the two areas regarding the realization of the lateral at the end of the syllable, with extralinguistic and/or linguistic information that can be associated to the realization of the phenomenon and the socio-history of the areas of Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia. It starts from the hypothesis that the variable frame of /l/ at the end of syllable can be explained by the identification of extralinguistic and linguistic factors imbricated in the realization of the consonant. To address these issues, the research confronts the variants of post-vocalic /l/ in both areas. The results are associated with socio-historical aspects and correlated with the results of other research. The 148 informants of the survey are distributed equally by sex and age, in a total of four subjects per location in the interior of the states, according to the methodology used by the ALiB Project in data collection. The investigation of the dependent variable covers localities in the interior of the states, given that the data from the AliB Project referring to the variation of the postvocalic lateral in Brazilian capitals have already been analyzed in the study by Pinho and Margotti (2010). The composition of the corpus is made from the sound records of the ALiB Project, having obtained 3.262 occurrences of the postvocalic lateral, 1.400 of which were from Rio Grande do Sul, and 1.862 from Bahia. The data are submitted to statistical analysis of the computer program Goldvarb X (SANKOFF; TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005). The results point to the widespread use of semivocalization in both areas, with greater progress in Bahia, and to the conservation of the velarized variant in Rio Grande do Sul.