Já li conheço, mulé”: analyzeof the depalatalization of the palatal lateral

Abstract

The present work goalto investigate the depalatalization of the palatal lateral /λ/, as in words like ‘filho’, ‘julho’ and ‘mulher’ etc. in the Agreste, Sertão and Litoral of Alagoas. The exchange of a palatal phoneme by an alveolar is investigated as a result of not supporting the tip of the tongue correctly on the hard palate when producing the phoneme. In this research, the theoretical contribution of Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 2008 [1972]; WEINREICH, LABOV, HERZOG, 2006 and others) is used, which provides that each variational element within the language suffers from a social valuation that directs its realization. The research has 128interviews of spontaneous speech of informants stratified in sex, age, education and region. The analysis process is done with the aid of the following computer programs: Praat (acoustic analysis),R and Rstudio (statistical analysis). The linguistic variables (context/previous vowel, context/next vowel, number of syllables, grammatical class and tonicity) are correlated to social variables. The results indicate that the depalatalized variant apparently suffers ethnographic pressures and is proportionally favored by the proximity of the Litoral, while the Sertão inhibits it. This variant clearly carries negative social values, being avoided by women and more educated people. Linguistically, the depalatalized variant is conditioned by the previous context, the following context, tonicity and grammatical class.

Keywords

• variationist sociolinguistics
• phonetics and phonology
• alagoas