Fonologia histórica do latim ao português (sécs. I-III d.C.): vocalismo, aquisição e epistemologia

Abstract

This article outlines a proposed reanalysis of how the feature of vowel length was lost in Latin, assuming the following hypotheses: i) the loss of vowel length began during the Punic Wars; ii) this change had as one of its radiating sources the North and part of the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula; iii) this change was the result of processes of acquisition of Latin as a second language by conquered peoples and was transmitted to succeeding generations who carried it to completion. This last hypothesis is the main focus. The approach used is linked to the view of complementarity between the study of Sociolinguistics and Generativism which its first theoretical proponent, Tarallo (1987), calls Parametric Sociolinguistics. This article, extending the theory to the level of the object, examines the socio-historical processes involved in the expansion of Latin from the perspective of the generative paradigm of language acquisition. This paradigm assumes the prior existence of a biological-cerebral component which provides an innate Universal Grammar by means of which a child begins to acquire a language. The study is therefore relevant to both theoretical linguistics and Romance linguistics.