A elevação das vogais médias átonas finais no português falado por descendentes de imigrantes poloneses em Vista Alegre do Prata-RS

Abstract

This work is the result of a research conducted on the variable rule of final unstressed mid vowel heightening in Portuguese spoken by Brazilian descendants of Polish immigrants in Vista Alegre do Prata, a town located in the northeastern region of Rio Grande do Sul. Based on the theoretical and methodological foundations given by Variational Sociolinguistics, 24 personal experience interviews with informants from the community were carried out, from where we collected the sample. The statistical analysis of data has shown us that the rule we focused on has a modest recurrence in the community, being the /o/ heightening more frequent than the /e/ heightening. The following linguistic variables were relevant to /o/ heightening: Syllable Type, Previous Context, Stressed Vowel Context, Following Context, Unstressed Vowel Location in the Word, and the extralinguistic variables Age, Job and Schooling. The statistical analysis revealed that the relevant linguistic variables for final unstressed /e/ heightening are Grammatical Class, Previous Context, Unstressed Vowel Location in the Word, Stressed Vowel Context, and the social variables Schooling and Gender.