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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 299

Part of Session 163: Variation and change in the city of Rio de Janeiro (Other abstracts in this session)

Variation and change in Brazilian Portuguese: two communities in contrast

Authors: Callou, Dinah Maria Isensee (1); Serra, Carolina Ribeiro (2)
Submitted by: Callou, Dinah Maria Isensee (UFRJ, Brazil)

The analysis focuses on two linguistic processes in Brazilian Portuguese: R-deletion in final coda position (viaja[f]‘to travel’) and the ongoing replacement of the morphological simple future by the periphrastic future (cantarei ‘I will/shall sing’ ~ vou cantar = ‘I am going to sing’).

The data are extracted from four samples of two urban centers of Brazil, Salvador (Northeastern region) and Rio de Janeiro (Southeastern region), recorded in two different periods of time, for a short term real time study (Labov, 1994). The analysis makes use of sociolinguistic methodology (Labov, 2004) and the theory of prosodic hierarchy (Selkirk, 1984).

Our hypothesis is that we must deal with a range of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors in seeking explanations for phonetic and morphosyntactic variable phenomena and it is necessary to consider the socio-history of the speech community, its demographic characteristics and the identifying power of the dialect in order to explain the trajectory of the linguistic processes.

The results for both phenomena reveal age-group differentiation, show structural and social constraints, but the processes are evolving along different paths. As regards R-deletion, we conclude that, besides linguistic (morphological class - verb -- cantar ‘to sing’, versus non-verb --  mar ‘sea’; melhor ‘better’) and extralinguistic variables (age group and region), the prosodic structure also plays a role in the process. As regards the periphrastic future, there is a certain stability in Rio de Janeiro (89% à 95%), from the 70’s to the 90’s, and Salvador shows a significant increase of use of the periphrastic form, from the 70’s to the 90’s (65% à 99%).

It is possible to observe that both processes do not affect the two varieties equally, maybe due to the socio-history of each city. In the 70’s, there was still a dialectal difference, but in the following two decades there was a convergence of usage. On the one hand, Rio de Janeiro, the former capital of the country and the second largest city of Brazil, with more than six million inhabitants, presents, in the 70’s, a literate population of more than three millions (around 77%), a very significant rate in the national scenario. Salvador, on the other hand, displays an estimated literate population of about 60%, at the same period, and reaches 70%, in the 90’s.  For the past 30 years, the city has shown a pattern of constant internal and external migration: its resident population doubles from one million to two million inhabitants and the migrant population almost triples.

As remarked by Weinreich (1963) and others, mutually intelligible dialects do have an effect on one another in contact situations and very often, when two speakers of different varieties of the same language which are completely mutually intelligible come into contact and converse, items (and uses, by extension) may be transferred from one of the varieties to the other.

 

LABOV, W. 1994. Principles of linguistic change. Internal factors. Cambridge,  Blackwell.

SELKIRK, E. 1984. Phonology and syntax: the relation between sound and structure. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

WEINREICH, U. 1963. Languages in contact: findings and problems. The Hague: Mouton.