Portuguese spoken in São Paulo State: Urban life lexies

Abstract

This study unveils insights into the spatial and social distribution of Portuguese lexical forms, or lexies, pertaining to urban life in the interior of São Paulo State. These lexies were collected through oral responses from eighty participants, elicited by nine questions addressing variants for terms such as ‘traffic lights’, ‘speed bump’, ‘sidewalk’, ‘curb’, ‘traffic circle’, ‘plot of land’, ‘city bus’, ‘intercity bus’, and ‘a small grocery store where one can also drink liquor at a counter’. The analysis examines whether these lexies establish themselves as predominant norms, indicated by both consistent spatial distribution and a relative frequency exceeding 50% across the localities surveyed. Out of the nine cases studied, eight meet this criterion, with the following overall relative frequencies: ‘semáforo’ 53%; ‘lombada’ 96%; ‘calçada’ 94%; ‘guia’ 84%; ‘rotatória’ 74%; ‘terreno (baldio)’ 79%; ‘ônibus’ (in the sense of ‘city bus’) 71%; ‘ônibus’ (in the sense of ‘intercity bus’) 51%. The ninth variant, ‘bar,’ nearly meets this standard as well, with a relative frequency of 41% just falling short of the minimum threshold.

Keywords

• caipira dialect
• geolinguistics
• lexicon
• pluridimensional dialectology
• são paulo state portuguese