O fenômeno da monotongação no Português falado da comunidade Kalunga Vão de Almas - GO

Abstract

This study addresses the occurrence of Monotongation in Portuguese spoken in the Kalunga Community Vão de Almas (GO), considering the perspectives of sociolinguistics and acoustic phonetics. The objectives of this research are to analyze the effects of the frequency of duration of monotongation in words that present decreasing diphthongs, through an acoustic approach. In addition, the phenomenon of monotongation in the context of spoken Portuguese is investigated, describing the linguistic factors that influence the monotongation of diphthongs. The research also proposes to discuss the relationship between preserved and monotongated diphthongs, using acoustic analysis as support. From a theoretical point of view, this study is based on the works of Labov (1998), Cabreira (1996) and Haupt (2011), which address linguistic phenomena through the Labovian model and the Theory of Exemplars, respectively. The justification for this research lies in the scarcity of studies and records on Portuguese spoken in the Northeast Goiano region, especially in the Kalunga communities. This work contributes to the understanding of the various forms of use of Portuguese by speakers from different regions and communities in Brazil. The acoustic analysis, in which monotongation was verified, was carried out from data collected through recordings and phonetic transcriptions, verified by Praat and phonologically, based on the Theory of Exemplars, resulting in the presentation of the monotongos. Twelve participants, six men and six women, with different levels of education, were involved in the data collection that included spontaneous speech and reading of images through a sociolinguistic interview. The results point to the existence of monophthongization, due to the deletion of the semivowel oral decreasing diphthongs [aj], [ej] and [ow], associated with the frequency of duration of the diphthongs in the words, regardless of the participants' level of education. The analysis revealed that the monophthongization of [ej] was the most frequent, presenting higher percentages in spontaneous speeches and image readings. Furthermore, an influence of the linguistic factor was observed in words with unstressed and stressed syllables in the occurrence of monophthongization, therefore, the social factors ‘gender’ and ‘age group’ showed a relationship with the deletion of the semivowels [j] and [w] in the oral diphthongs [aj], [ej] and [ow]. The research highlights that expanding data and controlling linked contexts can enrich the explanatory capacity of the analysis