Estudo da variável (ni) em Manaus: variação fonológica em paroxítonas terminadas em nia e nio

Abstract

The study of the variable (n ) in paroxitone ending in -nia and -nio in Manaus is thesubject of the thesis elaborated in the Linguistic Studies Post-Graduation Program atthe Federal University of Minas Gerais, concentrated in the area of Theoretical andDescriptive Linguistics. This study aims to describe the processes of phonologicalvariation that occur in the context of this variable. The research brings a clipping workthat deals with the Amazon subspeech and addresses traits of phonological variationin Amazonas, highlighting those that refer to the variable under study in Manaus. Ithighlights the research of Cruz (2004), which recorded the [n] variants and [] for theword Antonio in Barcelos, Parintins, Tefé and Benjamin Constant, all municipalities ofAmazonas. It also highlights the research of Campos (2008), which recorded the []variant for the word Anthonio in Borba municipality in southern Amazonas. Theresearch carried out in Manaus is developed from the perspective of linguistic analysisproposed by Labov (1972), also known as quantitative sociolinguistics, for operatingwith numbers and statistical treatment of the data. As well as from the perspective ofSociophonetics described by Thomas (2011). Data collection was conducted throughrecorded interviews, directed to so that the responses of the speakers wouldcorrespond to the word list previously drawn up with 20 paroxitone words. In total, 58speakers were interviewed in Manaus, subdivided according to the following socialfactors: gender, age and education. Data analysis started with the acoustic analysison PRAAT through formant measurements, following the assumptions from Ladefoged(2001) and Thomas (2011). Acoustic analysis showed five variants for the variable (n ):the nasal alveolar followed by / /, the total palatalization of nj, the secondarypalatalization of /n/, the deletion and vocalization of /n/. The quantitative analysis wasperformed through the Programs R and Goldvarb 2001. The influence of the followinglinguistic factors are also investigates: previous vowel, noun category - proper orcommon - final vowel, number of syllables and word frequency. The extralinguisticfactors investigated were: sex, age and school level. Phonological and syllabicalmotivations were also under investigation. Finally, the results had been prepared underthe light of three theoretical and methodological bases: the theory of linguistic changeand variation, standard generative phonology and the syllable model of nonlinearphonology. Among the results, it was registered in the group of non alveolar variants,the production of 13% of non-nasal variants and 3% of palatal variants. And, the factorsof gender/sex and noun category were considered insignificant in the variable processin Manaus, and the syllabical motivation is pointed as the ruler of the phonologicalprocesses.