On Vocalic* Variations in Portuguese Dialects

Abstract

Under the rubric of standard Weinrich (1954, p. 396) includes, among other notions, those of ‘socially acceptable’ or ‘average’ or ‘typical’. For Portuguese linguists the main criterion for a model to represent standard language has always been the speech modality of the cultured or urban people. There is no agreement, however, over whether the speech of Lisbon or that of Coimbra should set the norm. In an article reviewing the position of early Portuguese linguists regarding the interpretation of what is the Portuguese padrão (standard), Boléo (1946) expresses that Gonçalves Viana (1892) and José Pedro Machado (1940) shared the conviction that it is the speech of the cultured parlance of Lisbon that is considered as the standard, as opposed to that of Coimbra, which was the choice of Oliveira Guimarães (1927) as well as Boléo (1946, p. 11-12).