Variação linguística numa zona rural portuguesa: estudo dialetológico

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to a more detailed Knowlegde of certain linguistic features subject to change in the popular dialects of the geographic area of the municipality of Fundão (Portugal), in the light of the contributions of Variationist Sociolinguistics and Linguistics Geography. Favoring thus a sociolinguistic approach, we intend to describe a variety of contemporary European Portuguese: the falar (dialect) or variety of Beira Baixa, and in particular, of the Municipality of Fundão. It is therefore our goal to explain the circumstances under which certain phonemes are spontaneously produced, to assess the frequency of pre-selected linguistic variables and to detect their distribution according to different social groups. Through the forty-three interviews applied, we shall characterize the following phenomena: the monophthongization of the diphthong ei, the palatalization of /u/ into [y}; the conditioned palatalization of /a/ into [Ɛ], the palatalization of /o/ from the monophthongization of the old diphthong [ow} into [ø]; the labialization of the vowel /e/ into [æ].