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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 903

Part of Session 139: Variation and Change in São Paulo (Other abstracts in this session)

Paraibanos in São Paulo: Where /r/ they?

Authors: Mendes, Ronald
Submitted by: Mendes, Ronald (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

Migrant speakers present a challenge for sociolinguistic research on the Portuguese spoken in São Paulo, Brazil. Even when such speakers are longtime residents, they may sound different from those born and raised in the city who identify themselves as “paulistanos”.

This paper analyzes the speech of 10 “paraibanos” (from the state of Paraíba in Northeastern Brazil), focusing on coda /r/, a linguistic variable salient in identifying regional and social dialects in Brazil (Brandão 2008, Callou et al. 1996). We analyze coda /r/ qualitatively and quantitatively in the speech of these ten migrants, comparing them with the results of perceptual and production studies of native paulistanos (Mendes 2009; Mendes,  in press; Mendes & Oushiro, in press).

In São Paulo, coda /r/ is most frequently pronounced as an alveolar tap, though it occurs as a retroflex about 25% of the time (Mendes, in press). In general, the latter variant is negatively perceived as caipira (country-like) by paulistanos who wish to be identified as cosmopolitan. As for the paraibanos, the retroflex variant is absent in their original dialect, where a third variant, the velar fricative [x], is most frequent. This variant is also negatively evaluated in São Paulo, being perceived as either carioca (from Rio de Janeiro) or associated with Northeastern Brazil.

The paraibanos in this sample appear to retain some usage of the velar fricative, which indicates that their accommodation (Bell 2001) to the paulistano standard is not categorical. However, they make some use of the retroflex as well as the more predictable alveolar tap, which may indicate that retroflex /r/ is more strongly constitutive of São Paulo speech than prototypical paulistanos would like to believe, or may be gaining in prestige. Moreover, the analysis presented in this paper shows possible pathways for the future inclusion of migrants from other areas in Brazil in the sociolinguistic study of São Paulo. 

References:

BRANDÃO, S. F. (2008) Variação em coda silábica na fala popular fluminense. Revista da ABRALIN, v. 7, n. 1, p.177-189.

CALLOU, D. M. I.; MORAES, J.; LEITE, Y. (1996)Variação e diferenciação dialetal: a pronúncia do /r/ no português do Brasil. In: KOCH, Ingedore (Org.). Gramática do português falado. Campinas: UNICAMP, 1996. v. 6, p. 465-493.

Mendes, R. B. (2009) Who sounds /r/-ful? The pronunciation of /r/ in São Paulo Portuguese. Paper presented at NWAV 38.

MENDES, R. B. (in press). A pronúncia retroflexa do /-r/ na fala paulistana. In: HORA, D. da e E. V. Negrão (Orgs.). Estudos da Linguagem - Casamento entre Ideias e Perspectivas. João Pessoa: Ideia Editora Universitária.

MENDES, R. B. & OUSHIRO, L. (in press) Percepções Sociolinguísticas sobre as Variantes Tepe e Retroflexa na Cidade de São Paulo. In: HORA, D. da e E. V. Negrão (Orgs.). Estudos da Linguagem - Casamento entre Ideias e Perspectivas. João Pessoa: Ideia Editora Universitária.