Portuguese Dialects Research Articles

Autorreferência generalizadora com a pessoa, uma pessoa e outros nomes humanos referencialmente vagos

This article analyzes data extracted from the Syntax-oriented Corpus of Portuguese Dialects (CORDIAL-SIN) and Corpus Africa with the aim of demonstrating that the arbitrary/indefinite expressions uma pessoa and a pessoa convey first-person-based genericity, that is, what Moltmann (2010) calls ‘generalizing detached self-reference’. Differences in contextual adequacy between uma pessoa and a pessoa are then discussed using intuitive data. It is suggested that such distributional differences are a consequence of the greater interpretative flexibility of a pessoa (which allows an inclusive or exclusive reading) relative to uma pessoa(which only allows an inclusive reading). Finally, the geolinguistic distribution of uma pessoaand a pessoa in the Portuguese territory is compared to the geolinguistic patterns found for other expressions with human general nouns that also seem to convey generalizing detached self-reference (i.e. homem, fulano, fulana, gajo, tipo, indivíduo, mulher).

Sistemas vocálicos tónicos portugueses do norte e do centro-sul: descrição acústica e tendências dialetais

Abstract Brissos (2014) and Brissos/Rodrigues (2016) draw on the data of the Acoustic Atlas of Portuguese Stressed Vowels (AVOC) to describe the stressed vowel systems of, respectively, central-southern and northwestern Portuguese dialects. This paper presents the AVOC data for northeastern Portugal, thus completing the picture for the country’s northern dialects. The vowel systems of the three areas are compared and systematized, and a synthetic depiction of the Portuguese cardinal dialectal areas (north vs. south) is put together. The importance of acoustic data for providing new, more accurate characterizations of Portuguese dialects is also evidenced.

Dialectal Variation in European Portuguese Central Vowel Perception

The present paper aims at providing empirical evidence for dialectal variation concerning the perception of the central vowel [ɐ] in European Portuguese (EP). More concretely, this study compares the perception of the contrast between [a] and [ɐ] by native speakers of two varieties of EP: 23 speakers of a northern Portuguese dialect (from the city of Braga) and 23 speakers of the Littoral Center variety of EP (from the city of Lisbon, defined as Standard European Portuguese (SEP)). Based on a discrimination test, the results show that the two groups of speakers differ with respect to the perception of the contrast between the two central vowels under investigation. The speakers of the northern variety differentiate less between the two central vowels compared to the speakers from Lisbon.

On clitic placement and gradience of strength of FP in Western Ibero-Romance

Abstract Old (Medieval and Classical) Spanish permitted finite enclisis and as such is classified as a strong-F language, as are many archaic varieties of Romance languages. Notable about Old Spanish is that, prior to the 1500s, interpolation arrangements were acceptable and rather common, as is still the case of Galician and some dialects of Portuguese. However, from the 1500s onward, interpolation in Old Spanish was no longer productive, much like modern Asturian. This is evidence that the “strong-weak” dichotomy of FP is insufficient to explain the situation of the languages. I argue that the strength of FP should be described as not only “weak” or “strong,” but instead on a gradient scale to distinguish languages that permit a range of possible clitic arrangements.

O falar raiano de Marvão - Valencia de Alcántara : uma variedade linguística em perigo

EnglishThe linguistic border in Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara does not correspond to the geopolitical border between Portugal and Spain. This is explained by the fact that a Portuguese linguistic variety used in the Northeast part of Alentejo expanded to Spain and characterizes a large region in Valencia de Alcantara. The variety of Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara belongs to the Southern Centre Portuguese dialects (Beira Baixa and Alto Alentejo), and therefore shares their main characteristics. However, it differs from the varieties spoken in the surrounding villages due to some particularities at both phonetical-phonological and lexical-semantic levels. As this linguistic variety is vulnerable in Portugal and it is seriously endangered in the Spanish territory, it is urgent to implement some measures to reverse the situation and contribute to its revitalization. This paper aims to describe the linguistic situation of the region, to present the main phonetical-phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic features of this border dialect, and to show some possible strategies to reverse the disappearance trend that the variety of Marvao/Valencia de Alcantara is facing.The linguistic border in Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara does not correspond to the geopolitical border between Portugal and Spain. This is explained by the fact that a Portuguese linguistic variety used in the Northeast part of Alentejo expanded to Spain and characterizes a large region in Valencia de Alcantara. The variety of Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara belongs to the Southern Centre Portuguese dialects (Beira Baixa and Alto Alentejo), and therefore shares their main characteristics. However, it differs from the varieties spoken in the surrounding villages due to some particularities at both phonetical-phonological and lexical-semantic levels. As this linguistic variety is vulnerable in Portugal and it is seriously endangered in the Spanish territory, it is urgent to implement some measures to reverse the situation and contribute to its revitalization. This paper aims to describe the linguistic situation of the region, to present the main phonetical-phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic features of this border dialect, and to show some possible strategies to reverse the disappearance trend that the variety of Marvao/Valencia de Alcantara is facing. portuguesNa regiao de Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara, a fronteira linguistica nao corresponde a geopolitica, dai que uma variedade do Portugues usada no Nordeste do Alentejo se tenha expandido para Espanha e caracterizado uma zona consideravel do territorio de Valencia de Alcantara. Integrado nos dialetos portugueses centro-meridionais, na variedade da Beira Baixa e Alto Alentejo, partilha a maior parte das suas caracteristicas, todavia, demarca-se dos falares dos concelhos circundantes por algumas particularidades nos dominios fonetico-fonologico e lexico-semântico. Como esta variedade linguistica se encontra vulneravel em territorio portugues e esta seriamente em perigo em territorio espanhol, e urgente que se deem passos concretos com vista a sua revitalizacao. O presente artigo pretende dar a conhecer o panorama linguistico da regiao, apresentar as principais caracteristicas fonetico-fonologicas, morfossintaticas e lexico-semânticas deste falar raiano, bem como apontar alguns caminhos para inverter a tendencia de desaparecimento.

The status of unstressed lax-mid vowels in northern dialect of Brazilian Portuguese

his study experimentally analyses the claim that northern dialects of Brazilian Portuguese show a pattern of reduction via laxing. With an experiment of sentence reading that resulted in a corpus of 4800 tokens, the analysis showed that it is possible to predict the surfacing of tense-mid vowels. In the data, they either result from [+ATR] harmony or coarticulation. Lax-mid vowels, however, cannot be fully predicted as the result of harmony. It is also shown that the quality of unstressed lax-mid vowels is not different from their stressed counterpart, a further evidence that reduction via laxing in fact, exists.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O STATUS DAS VOGAIS MÉDIAS BAIXAS NÃO-ESTRESSADAS NO DIALETO NORTISTA DO PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIROEste estudo analisa experimentalmente a hipótese de que dialetos nordestinos do Português Brasileiro apresentam um padrão de redução que favorece a produção de médias-baixas. Com um experimento de leitura de palavras em frase veículo que resultou em um corpus de 4800 produções, a análise mostra que é possível prever a emergência de vogais médias-altas. Nos dados analisados, essas vogais são resultado de harmonia de [+ATR] ou coarticulação. Médias-baixas, entretanto, não se restrigem a contextos de harmonia. Também se mostra que a qualidade das vogais medias-baixas quando na posição pretônica, não difere de quanto em posição tônica, outra evidência de que o padrão de neutralização favorecendo médias-baixas, de fato, existe.---Original em inglês.

Front rounded vowels in Azorean Portuguese: A reappraisal

The first part of this article investigates the distribution and emergence of front rounded vowels (FRV) in the Portuguese dialect spoken on the Azorean island of Sao Miguel in light of data taken from the Ethnolinguistic Atlas of the Azores (ALEAc). The analysis confirms previous findings about the distribution of FRV. Additionally, the ALEAc shows that this phenomenon spreads beyond the well-known contexts of stressed positions. FRV also occur in unstressed syllables and the mid-front rounded vowel [o] alternates with its diphthongised counterparts [oj] and [ow]. This alternation calls for a reflection about the historical and articulatory background of [o] in Portuguese dialects. The extensive use of FRV opens up further research perspectives in terms of the sociolinguistic significance of the phenomenon. The second part of this article focuses on the sociohistorical background of the emergence of FRV in Portuguese dialects. The concept of the feature pool provides a framework for the processes of feature selection in a situation of linguistic contacts such as those preceding the settlement period of the Azores and subsequent contact on the islands. A combination of three different concepts of markedness helps understand why a highly unusual feature like FRV emerged and persists until today.

The analysis of languages in contact: A case study through a variationist lens

This article discusses the contributions made by variationist sociolinguistics to the study of languages in contact. After summarizing the development of this subfield and its theoretical and methodological implications, 3 rd p.sg. subject pronoun expression is examined in Portuguese and Spanish in contact in Northern Uruguay. Based on comparative sociolinguistics, the results show that this variable use among bilinguals does not converge into a single system. Lastly, it calls for more studies in Portuguese dialects in contact with other languages that follow the framework of variationist sociolinguistics.

The Variation of Post-Vowel –S in the Portuguese Dialect of Rio de Janeiro

A cidade do Rio de Janeiro é conhecida por sua beleza exuberante e sua cultura única. Pelo menos entre os brasileiros, a cidade também se destaca por suas características dialetais, das quais a realização alveopalatal do –s pós-vocálico é provavelmente a mais notável. No dialeto carioca, –s pós-vocálico é geralmente pronunciado como os sons alveopalatais [ʃ] e [ʒ], diferente das pronúncias alveolares [s] e [z], mais comuns em alguns outros dialetos do português brasileiro. Em vista disso, o objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar a variação de –s pós-vocálico no referido dialeto para saber quais são os fatores linguísticos e sociais mais relevantes para a ocorrência desse fenômeno de variação. Seguindo os princípios da sociolinguística variacionista, foi analisada a influência de duas variáveis linguísticas – idade e gênero – e duas variáveis não-linguísticas – contexto sonoro seguinte e tipo silábico. Depois da análise dos dados com o VABRUL, constatou-se que tipo silábico e idade foram os grupos de fatores com influência mais significativa para a ocorrência de [ʃ] e [ʒ]. Contexto sonoro seguinte e gênero foram descartados como insignificantes.

An Optimality-Theoretic Analysis of Codas in Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese allows only /s, N, l, r/ syllable finally, and of these, only /s/ is realized faithfully (as well as /r/ for some speakers). In order to avoid unacceptable codas, dialects of Brazilian Portuguese employ such strategies as epenthesis, nasal absorption, debucalization, and gliding. The current analysis argues that codas in Brazilian Portuguese become progressively more acceptable according to their sonority, with more sonorous codas suffering less drastic changes in form and syllable structure. Dovetailing principles of optimality theory and sonority sequencing, the current analysis results in a succinct, cohesive account of Brazilian Portuguese codas.

Nasalização em português brasileiro: uma (re)visão autossegmental

We propose to make a brief review on nasalization phenomena studies in Portuguese, aiming the phonological process of nasal harmonization that occurs in the variety of Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Vitoria da Conquista-BA and region, a phenomenon hitherto not described for any Portuguese dialect. To do so, we consider as fundamental, D’Angelis (2002) analysis, which incorporates relevant concepts presented by Trubetzkoy, from the Prague School, and some points of Camara Jr. propose. We also propose to update the discussion with the approaches along the lines of auto segmental phonology, incorporating some insights of Piggott (1992), discussing with other analyzes for nasalization phenomena in other languages, especially Guarani (language of Tupi-Guarani Linguistic Family), as proposed by Costa (2010), which deals with the phonological processes involving nasality and nasal harmony in Brazilian indigenous languages , in order to verify if the researches on nasality phenomena in other languages can shed some light on the processes that occur in Portuguese.

Isoglossas portuguesas nos materiais do Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica

Luis F. Lindley Cintra established a classification of Portuguese dialects (Nova proposta de classificacao dos dialectos galego-portugueses, 1964–1971) that has become a well-known reference in Portuguese studies. This dialectal analysis was based on his personal experience as a field researcher for the Atlas Linguistico de la Peninsula Iberica (ALPI) during the 1950s. However, a close examination of the maps contained in the only published volume of the ALPI (1962) reveals some discrepancies with Cintra’s linguistic classification, and these differences are confirmed by the unpublished materials of the Atlas Linguistico-Etnografico de Portugal e da Galiza (ALEPG). Therefore, it is imperative to assess the internal consistency of the Nova proposta. With this aim in mind, this paper undertakes a quantitative analysis of almost 50.000 forms extracted from the unpublished materials of the ALPI in order to examine the geographic distribution and frequency of use of the five phenomena used by Cintra to establish his proposal. The utilization of a sizable corpus and quantitative cartography provides a more dynamic picture of the dissemination of linguistic change and the vitality of dialectal features. This analysis reveals several inconsistencies in Cintra’s proposal, due to the limitations of traditional dialectology and an opaque data selection.

CAUSATIVE AND PERCEPTION CONSTRUCTIONS IN EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE: THE DIALECTAL DATA

ThThis paper deals with the infinitival complements of the causative and perception verbs in European Portuguese (EP) dialects. It is based on the corpus CORDIAL - SIN ( Syntax - Oriented Corpus o f Portuguese Dialects – cf. http://www.clul.ul.pt/en/researcher/225 - description - cordial - sin - syntax - oriented - corpus - of - portuguese - dialects) and its main goal is to describe these constructions and contrast them with the ones described for the standard EP. O n one hand, the constructions identified in the standard variety, such as 1) Inflected Infinitive, 2) Exceptional Case Marking (ECM), 3) Faire - Inf and 4) Gerundial Infinitive (only for perception verbs), can be found in Portuguese dialects ; b y contrast, ot her (dialectal) non identified constructions occur in the dialectal corpus. Additionally , it is also our aim to map these different constructions in an attempt to detect some geolinguistic variation to identify syntactic areas. In what concerns the standa rd variety of EP, the ECM construction seems to be more common. This trend however is not confirmed by this dialectal data. Surprisingly, ECM constructions (as well as the Inflected Infinitive ones) do not show up very often and are not spread over the who le territory. Given the small amount of available data, namely for ECM construction, a parallelism between some EP varieties and other Romance languages can be suggested. In fact, it seems that this construction is not accessible in some EP varieties like it happens in the other Romance languages. In contrast, the Faire-Inf construction, which is the most frequent construction in the corpus and it is spread over the continental territory, is not found on the

PREDICATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH GERUNDS IN EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE DIALECTS

This study analyzes dialectal data collected from CORDIAL - SIN, an annotated corpus of Portuguese dialects, and addresses predicative constructions with gerunds: a non - standard construction found in some European Portuguese dialects, which is equivalent to the standard Portuguese structure where a preposition followed by an infinitive is used. I show that this non - standard construction is geographically confined to the south of Portugal and some insular dialects. This type of geographic distribution has been identified in previous works on dialect syntax, and my data now brings additional evidence to support the hypothesis that it seems to correspond to a basic division of Portuguese dialects. This geographic distribution highlights that predicative gerunds a re, along with progressive gerunds with estar ‘to be’, a clear example of syntactic alternation in European Portuguese between gerunds and prepositional infinitives.

O problema da diversidade dialectal do Centro-Sul português: informação perceptiva versus informação acústica

O presente artigo parte dos dados acústicos de Brissos (2014) sobre o Centro-Sul português e divide-se em dois planos: a) sistematização da informação que a literatura tem fornecido sobre ou de interesse para o problema da diversidade dialectal do Centro-Sul português, numa correspondência geográfica linear com a área estudada por Brissos (2014); b) confrontação dessa informação, que é de base perceptiva, com os resultados de Brissos (2014). Os resultados perceptivos dos estudos de caso (estudos que incidem sobre falares ou localidades espe­cíficos) concordam com os dados acústicos de Brissos na informação fundamental; permitem por isso sugerir a revisão das ideias que os estudos de classificação dia­lectal nos têm deixado sobre o Centro-Sul português. Essa sugestão é eficaz porque parte de duas metodo­logias diferentes (a da dialectologia perceptiva / tradi­cional e a da dialectologia acústica). São metodologias de que a dialectologia actual não deve abdicar; deve ser abandonada a exclusividade da dialectologia percepti­va e ser utilizada, no estudo da fonética dialectal, uma perspectiva de complementaridade entre informação perceptiva e informação acústica.

European Portuguese dialectal features: a comparison with Cintra’s proposal

This article examines the distribution of the five linguistic features that were used by Luis F. Lindley Cintra (1971) to establish his widely accepted classification of Portuguese dialects. The main objective of this study is to assess the internal consistency of Cintra’s proposal and its validity in modern Portuguese. The network of this analysis has 143 points in European Continental Portuguese and uses unpublished materials from the Atlas Linguístico-Etnográfico de Portugal e da Galiza. In order to produce a more accurate account, a new methodological approach is proposed: the utilization of a sizable corpus (194 questions and 20486 answers) and quantitative cartography yields a more dynamic picture of the dissemination of linguistic change and the vitality of dialectal features. The results of this analysis reveal several inconsistencies in Cintra’s proposal that are not due to diachronic developments but to the limitations of traditional dialectology and opaque data selection. This article demonstrates that certain dialectal features are present, even today, in a wider area than has usually been attributed to them in dialectological literature. The maps obtained in this study also show the main areas of occurrence for each phenomenon; thus, it is possible to track the routes of linguistic change and to infer future developments.

New insights into Portuguese central-southern dialects: understanding their present and past forms through acoustic data from stressed vowels

This paper presents new acoustic data on Portuguese central-southern dialects, namely on the stressed vowels of the area. The data show important cues for the history of those dialects, as it can be seen that they are much more similar to one another than is traditionally assumed. Acoustic data on Portuguese central-southern dialects are proven to be of significance, hence, acoustic data on Portuguese dialects are increasingly needed in order to allow for better dialectological characterizations of Portuguese since those characterizations have been based only on auditory data until now.

O falar de Marvão: contributos para o seu estudo

This article is a synthesis of the ongoing research about the border dialect of Marvao, a district in the north-west of Alentejo which borders Valencia de Alcântara in Extremadura, Spain. Firstly it presents a brief characterization of the territory in study; secondly it shows how the dialect of Marvao fits in the overwiew of Portuguese dialects and it presents its main features under the phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical viewpoints. Although this dialect presents many of the characteristics identified by the linguistics of the 20th century on this dialectical region, it is distinguished due to some particularities which make it different from other dialects of the border districts.

The syntax of naming constructions in European Portuguese dialects: variation and change

This paper discusses the syntax of naming constructions with the verb chamar ‘to call’. We show that in some varieties of European Portuguese the verb chamar displays an alternation in the expression of the named entity, which is manifested by the presence/omission of the preposition a in sentences like Nos chamamos (a) isso cruzeta ‘lit. We call (to) this hanger’. We will look at this phenomenon from an areal, historical and theoretical perspective, trying to relate the intricate patterns observed. We will show that the alternation with the verb chamar is attested in the course of the diachrony of Portuguese, but it is synchronically confined to two restricted geographical areas: the archipelago of the Azores and the northern region of the Portuguese continental territory. As for the theoretical analysis, we claim that both the variants involve a small clause complement structure, with the named entity in the subject position. The a that precedes the subject of the small clause is taken to be a kind of ‘dummy’ preposition that showed up as a strategy to resolve syntactic ambiguity in sentences exhibiting the verb chamar with the personal pronoun se (which were ambiguous between an impersonal and an anticausative reading).

Context tree selection and linguistic rhythm retrieval from written texts

The starting point of this article is the question “How to retrieve fingerprints of rhythm in written texts?” We address this problem in the case of Brazilian and European Portuguese. These two dialects of Modern Portuguese share the same lexicon and most of the sentences they produce are superficially identical. Yet they are conjectured, on linguistic grounds, to implement different rhythms. We show that this linguistic question can be formulated as a problem of model selection in the class of variable length Markov chains. To carry on this approach, we compare texts from European and Brazilian Portuguese. These texts are previously encoded according to some basic rhythmic features of the sentences which can be automatically retrieved. This is an entirely new approach from the linguistic point of view. Our statistical contribution is the introduction of the smallest maximizer criterion which is a constant free procedure for model selection. As a by-product, this provides a solution for the problem of optimal choice of the penalty constant when using the BIC to select a variable length Markov chain. Besides proving the consistency of the smallest maximizer criterion when the sample size diverges, we also make a simulation study comparing our approach with both the standard BIC selection and the Peres–Shields order estimation. Applied to the linguistic sample constituted for our case study, the smallest maximizer criterion assigns different context-tree models to the two dialects of Portuguese. The features of the selected models are compatible with current conjectures discussed in the linguistic literature.