Descrição fonético-fonológica do Nheengatu falado no Médio Rio Amazonas

Abstract

This work aims to study and describe the Nheengatu spoken variant in Middle Amazon River. It is limited to the phonological and phonetic aspect. Phonetic and phonological study aims to understand how this system is organized and how has communication function. For this, we used the input of descriptive linguistics, which proposes to make detailed and comprehensive statements about the expression systems of specific languages (Gleason (1978). We also used, as theoretical basis, the work of Gleason (1978), Katamba (1989), Cagliari (2002) e Pike (1943 e 1947) with regard to phonetic and phonological descriptions of this language and Kenstowicz’ postulates (1994) for analyzing the syllabic structure. Within linguistic theory, this description permitted a comparison between both the languages of the Tupi stok, in this case Nheengatu and Sateré-Mawé, as between two variants of this language, Middle Amazon River and Rio Negro River. The study of this Nheengatu’s variant intends to contribute to the knowledge of Brazilian indigenous languages, especially Amazonian languages, which were important to the culture and identity of the peoples of the region.