Os subfalares do Norte e o traçado das vogais médias pretônicas

Abstract

In this paper, the discussion is on Nascentes (1953) proposal of dialectal division into two sub-dialects of the North (the Amazonian and the Northeastern), based on open or closed timbres of the unstressed mid vowels, compared to current data, which is part of the corpus of the Project Atlas Linguístico do Brasil – ALiB (Brazilian Linguistic Atlas), in relation to the capitals. Analysis was performed using the answers to the Phonetic-Phonological and Semantic-Lexical Questionnaires applied to 120 respondents, eight per locality, distributed among six capitals of the North region and nine capitals of the Northeast, stratified with regard to age group, gender and schooling level, according to the methodology of the ALiB Project. The data was submitted to statistical analysis (Goldvarb 2001) and was presented in terms of percentage and relative weights. The results corroborate the division of the country into two large areas, as proposed by Nascentes, with the differences between the capitals of the North and Northeast, and similarities between the Baiano and Northeast sub-dialects. There are also factors that favor the maintenance of the close-mid vowel variants, both linguistically as well as socially, emphasizing among the latter, the age group I (individuals between the ages of 18 and 30), which is interpreted as an indication of change in the direction of the variants of more prestige in the Portuguese language of Brazil.