Calling vocatives duration in Libolo Portuguese

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims to study two types of distinct vocatives in absolute position in Portuguese of Libolo (Angola), a barely studied African variety of Portuguese: the initial call and the insistent call. The results reveal that: (i) long postonic syllables characterize the two types of calls; (ii) there is greater variability in the duration of the postonic syllable of insistent calls; (iii) the duration is a robust correlate that distinguishes these two types of vocatives; and (iv) insistent calls are longer, both concerning the total duration of the utterance and in relation to the duration of each syllable (that is, there is an additive effect). These results are supported by statistical analyses. It was proved that the difference in duration between initial and insistent calls in Libolo Portuguese is statistically significant. Furthermore, Bayesian analyses not only conferred greater reliability on the results of the initial analyses, since it is a small dataset, but also provided a greater understanding of the relationship between the two types of vocatives, regarding the greater variability of results of the insistent call.