Final unstressed mid-vowels in Brazilian Portuguese of the 19th century

Abstract

This paper investigated the Brazilian Portuguese final unstressed mid-vowels heightening based on the principles and methodologies of the Sociohistorical Linguistics (Romaine 2009) and according to the principles of the Uniformitarian Principle (Whitney 1867 / Labov 1994 / Labov 2008 / Joseph / Janda 2003). To the development of the analysis, it was used two kinds of empirical data: direct evidence (metalinguistic and didactic books) and indirect evidence (letters from Coleção Varela). The results of the analysis demonstrated that the heightening of the final unstressed vowels /e/ and /o/ occurred in Brazilian Portuguese in the 19th century.

Keywords

• heightening
• final unstressed mid-vowels
• brazilian portuguese of the 19th century