On the origins of the values of unstressed non-final /e/ in European and Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show that the raising of unstressed /e/ within a word is a very early feature of Portuguese, dating from the 13th century. In fact it can be shown that, independent of the assimilatory vocalic conditions mentioned by Herculano de Carvalho (1962), there was an early tendency for /e/ to rise in a large number of lexemes, with the articulatory proximity of certain consonantal phonemes playing an important part in the social acceptance or rejection of this elevation and of its integration into the standard variety. In addition to this tendency, there is evidence from the early 14th century of reduction of unstressed /e/ to [ɨ] (possibly according to the evolution [e] > [i] > [ɨ]), similar to what happens in contemporary European Portuguese. The chronology of this phenomenon, which is often said to be in the 18th century, according to Carvalho and Teyssier (1980), therefore needs to be put back by about four centuries.

Keywords

• atonic vocalism
• vocalic harmonization
• atonic vocalism in European Portuguese
• atonic vocalism in Brazilian Portuguese
• Portuguese historical phonology