Raising of the Final Atonic Vowel /o/ in Irati, Paraná

Abstract

This research (with the support of CNPq, Process number: 443809/2014-3), based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1994, 2008), sought to investigate the raising process of the mid vowel /o/ in final posttonic position in the Portuguese spoken by descendants of Slavic immigrants (Ukrainian and Polish) in the rural area of Irati, a city located in the South Central region of Paraná. Twenty-four sociolinguistic interviews (with a minimum of 40 minutes speech each) were analyzed. All of them belong to the database of the VARLINFE project (Variação Linguística de Fala Eslava, or Linguistic Variation of the Slavic Speech), and were stratified according to gender, two age ranges (26 to 49 and 50 years of age or older) and three levels of education (Elementary school, Middle school and High school). In total, seven linguistic variables and four social variables were listed and tested. The data were submitted to the GoldVarbX program statistical treatment and have indicated that the studied vowel presents a low raising rate.

Keywords

• vowel raising
• Slavic ethnicity
• VARLINFE Project