Apagamento das vogais átonas finais [ɪ] e [ʊ] em áreas da Bahia e de Minas Gerais: aspectos históricos, geossociolinguísticos e acústicos

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the deletion of the unstressed vowels [ɪ] and [ʊ] in the final paroxytone words through speech analysis, from four communities, two of which are located in the central part of Bahia – Bom Jesus da Lapa and Macaúbas – and two others located in the Jequitinhonha Valley in Minas Gerais – Almenara and Itaobim. The objective of the research is to present a geossociolinguistic and acoustic analysis identifying the conditioning factors of deletion processes. The analysis was made in the light of the theoretical-methodological of the Contemporary Multi-dimensional Dialectology and of the Quantitative Sociolinguistics (Labov (2008 [1972]), making it a phonetic-phonological study correlating linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that may affect occurrences. Data were submitted to quantitative and qualitative analysis. We used the statistical program Goldvarb 2001 to obtain the relative and percentage weights. We have developed tables and charts in the exposition of these rates, as well as representing some results in linguistic maps. From the acoustic point of view, the Praat mode of analysis was used in order to observe whether the phrasal accent would or would not favor deletion. In the quantative analysis, we used a corpus formed by 6.901 occurrences, including the presence and absence of unstressed final vowel. Among these, 5.288 were of the vowel [] (77%) and 1.613 of the vowel [] (23%). The analyzed sample consists of 32 surveys: eight in each locality, conducted by the researcher herself. As linguistic variables, considered as prevocalic consonant (grouped as to the mode and the articulation zone), the preceding vowel of the syllable, dimension of the word and the size of the next phonetic context. The extralinguistic variables we considered relate to the sex, age, type of questionnaire and the geographical location of informants. The data revealed that the fricatives and nasal prevocalic consonants favor the deletion of the vowel [] and stop consonants and lateral consonants favor the vowel []. The size of the word seemed to be relevant with polysyllables words favoring the rule for the vowel [] and trisyllable to the [] vowel. The phonetic context followed by a consonant revealed favoring the deletion for both [] as to [].There is evidence that a change is taking place in certain locations with older speakers erasing more unstressed final vowels. The deletion occurs mostly in a less monitored speech. There are indications that Itaobim, in Minas Gerais, is the area in which speakers perform more deletions of both the vowel [] and [] vowel. There is evidence of a higher incidence of the deletion of vowels at the peak of the ascending melodic curve of each phonological phrase. This data ware compared with that of Portugal, by consulting the ALEPG (The Linguistic-Ethnographic Atlas of Portugal and of Galiza) database. The data of Bom Jesus da Lapa, Macaúbas, Almenara and Itaobim shows the deletion of the final vowels in Brazilian dialectal variation and they suggest that this deletion is related to what is observed in Portugal, brought by the colonizers.