A lateral pós-vocálica do português brasileiro em comunidades de falantes de língua de imigração polonesa no RS e no PR

Abstract

In this study, it is conducted a description of postvocalic lateral liquid consonant production in Brazilian Portuguese by bilingual speakers of Polish as an immigration language and Portuguese. The production of the /l/ segment was observed in rural communities in two municipalities: Araucária, in the state of Paraná (PR), and Dom Feliciano, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Through the analysis of these productions, an investigation was made into whether linguistic and extralinguistic aspects can influence how the segment is produced. Acoustic-articulatory parameters were adopted to characterization of /l/, capable of identifying different forms of consonant production, demonstrating that these different characterizations are part of a continuum (Narayanan; Alwan, 1997). Hence, the lateral can range from a vocalized characterization (more posterior), through velarized production (more velarized or less velarized), to alveolar production (more anterior). Acoustic aspects related to more anterior or more posterior productions of /l/ are manifested in the values of F1, F2, and the difference F2-F1. F1 is related to the height of the tongue body, being higher as the tongue body projects upward during segment realization; F2 is related to the direction of the tongue tip towards the dental/alveolar region of the tract and increases as the articulator projects forward. Thus, the greater the difference between F2 and F1 values in a production, the more anterior the segment (Sproat; Fujimura, 1993; Recasens, 2004; Brod, 2014). In addition to acoustic observation, the characteristics of /l/ productions were also described based on Gestual Phonology (Browman; Goldstein, 1986; 1989). Based on the theory, the gestural constitution of the segment was described, considering what Recasens (2016) postulate about the existence of a single complex gesture for /l/. The analyses of this study were based on data from 6 bilingual and 5 monolinguals informants, residents of the municipality of Araucária, compared with data from Dom Feliciano, previously presented by Rosinski (2019). The productions were collected from spontaneous and controlled speech using an image naming instrument. Controlled speech was captured in Portuguese and Polish, in the case of the bilingual group, following the method employed in Rosinski (2019). Recordings were made using the Zoom H4n recorder model, in the participants' homes, within the community. Acoustic analysis of the data revealed vocalized, velarized (more velarized and less velarized), and alveolar forms in the speech of the participants. In the bilingual group, more anterior productions were observed, following the hypothesis that /l/ produced by bilingual informants may assume characteristics of the segment in Polish, with an alveolar configuration (Swan, 2002; Gussmann, 2007). Within the classification gradient, the lateral was shown to be more anterior for the productions of the bilingual participants from RS compared to those from PR. Regarding the gestural configuration of the observed /l/ production forms, the segment was described as presenting a single complex tongue body gesture for velarized forms and a single complex tongue tip gesture for alveolar forms.