As vogais médias pretônicas na fala coariense: um estudo geossociolinguístico

Abstract

This study of a dialectological nature addresses the phonetic-phonological variation of the pretonic mid vowels /e, o/ in the speech of residents of the Urban Zone (city of Coari) and the Rural Zone (Costa do Juçara), who belong to the municipality of Coari, located in the Microregion of Rio Negro-Solimões (AM). In this research we sought to: analyze and describe, based on the theoretical-methodological assumptions of Pluridimensional Dialectology (1998), the phonetic realizations of the pretonic mid vowels /e/ and /o/. In addition, we also sought to: develop phonetic charts for the visualization and analysis of pretonic variants of /e, o/ in the cartographic space; establish local usage standards based on frequency and regular distribution; carry out a study, taking into account the change in real time, when comparing the data from Azevedo (2013), who collected data from his research in 2011, with the results of this current research; verify extralinguistic factors, such as diazonal (Urban Zone versus Rural Zone), diagenerational (young population versus intermediate-aged population versus older population), diasexual (man versus woman) and diachronic (year 2011 versus 2023), which may be influencing the occurrence of phonetic variants of /e, o/. The parameters of the dialectological research used were: the selection of two points of inquiry, the creation and application of a phonetic-phonological questionnaire (containing 125 questions), the choice of informants (12 at each point of inquiry), and the elaboration of phonetic letters, using the geoprocessing and georeferencing software QGIS, version 3.30. As a result of the research, 16 phonetic charts were created; the locality’s usage rules were established; the results of this research were compared, considering a study of change in real time, with those of Azevedo (2013); and the dimensions or extralinguistic factors that are influencing the occurrence of phonetic variants of /e, o/ in the pretonic position were verified According to these dimensions and parameters of dialectological research, three phenomena were studied, namely: the maintenance, lowering and raising of these two phonetic phonological variables. The results show that the front vowel /e/ was realized phonetically as [], [], [], [], [] and [], while the back vowel was realized phonetically as [] [], [õ], [], [] and []. Thus, the current picture of tripartite pretonic vowels remains, with [], [], [] and [], [], [] considered the most expressive. Keywords: Dialectology. Phonetic-phonological variation. Pretonic middle vowels.