As vogais médias pretônicas em Minas Gerais nos dados do ALiB

Abstract

This research, of a dialectological nature, investigates the lowering of pretonic mid vowels in Minas Gerais, based on data from the Project Atlas Linguístico do Brasil (ALiB). To investigate the pretonic mid-vowels in the speech of Minas Gerais (Cf. NASCENTES, 1953; Cf. ZÁGARI, 1998), we based this research on the theoretical-methodological models of Pluridimensional Dialectology (THUN, 1998, 2000; CARDOSO, 2010) and Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 2008 [1972]; FERNÁNDEZ, 1998). This investigation object is the use of the pretonic mid vowels /E/ and /O/ by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers from Minas Gerais in contexts in which we are considering as lowering of the vowel [e] and the vowel [o], such in p[ɛ]cado and c[ɔ]ração. According to the ALiB methodology, the corpus is built from a methodological tripod: a) Network of points (250 locations across all Brazilian regions, including 25 capitals); b) Application of questionnaires (phonetic-phonological (QFF), semantic-lexical (QSL), morphosyntactic (QMS), themes for semi-directed speeches, metalinguistic questions and text for reading); c) Number of informants (1,100 informants) stratified by sex (male/female), age group (18-30 years/50-65 years) and level of education (fundamental - in all locations/university - only in capitals). For this research were considered: the ALiB network of points with 23 locations distributed throughout Minas Gerais: Januária (127), Janaúba (128), Pedra Azul (129), Unaí (130), Montes Claros (131), Pirapora (132) , Teófilo Otoni (133), Diamantina (134), Uberlândia (135), Patos de Minas (136), Campina Verde (137), Belo Horizonte (138), Ipatinga (139), Passos (140), Formiga (141) , Ouro Preto (142), Viçosa (143), Lavras (144), São João del-Rei (145), Muriaé (146), Poços de Caldas (147), Juiz de Fora (148), Itajubá (149). We selected the phonetic-phonological (QFF) and semantic-lexical (QSL) questionnaires. For our purpose, 92 informants (4 informants per location), classified in social variables such as age (18 to 30 years/50 to 65 years) and sex/gender (male/female). The vowel data obtained were run in the Goldvarb X statistical program (SANKOFF; TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005) in order to analyze the frequency and relative weights of linguistic variables (stressed vowel, consonantal context, etc.), social (sex/gender and age) and diatopic (localities) in this area, which act in the realization of closed or open vowels. The results showed a frequency of 24.3% of the open front mid vowel [ɛ], in pretonic position, and 19.9% for the open back mid vowel [ɔ]. As for the variables considered were: the diatopic variable – locality; the linguistic variables – stressed and unstressed following vowel context, posterior and anterior consonant context, position of the pretonic vowel; social variables – age group and sex/gender; and the linguistic-discursive variable – questionnaires. As results, we noticed that in the speech of the informants from Minas Gerais, is prevalent the realization of high-medium pretonic vowels, but with a considerable presence of the low-medium variant, especially in the northern area of Minas Gerais. From the diatopical variation, we verified the division of Minas Gerais into two dialectal areas.