PALATALIZATION OF /L/: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL FACTORS

Abstract

This study deals with the variation of /l/ in pre-vowel position in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), more specifically the palatalization that occurs before high anterior segments, when following this phoneme. The data come from the Linguistic Atlas project of Pará (ALiPA). In this article, only the role of social factors will be analyzed. In order to foster the refinement of the performance analysis of these factors, results for the groups matching of selected factors will also be presented. The findings will be discussed taking into account the principles of the Variationist Sociolinguistics, the information registered during the data collecting process in the studied community as well as the findings of other sociolinguistics studies carried out in Brazil. The data show that the palatalization of /l/ in the city where the research took place, is in quite advanced stage and becomes a trend in Itaituba-PA, unlike what Oliveira (2010) found in several localities in Brazil, especially for the Northeast and South of the country. Results also point to the important role of education on the variation in study.

Keywords

• Change
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Palatalization