Rhotics in final syllable coda of infinitive verb forms in “Caipira” Portuguese spoken in São Paulo state

Abstract

Within the framework of Pluridimensional Dialectology (RADTKE; THUN, 1996; THUN, 2000, 2005 etc.), this study presents both a record and an analysis of variants in final syllable coda of the infinitive ending followed by a break, as they are currently spoken in the Médio Tietê region, the birthplace of São Paulo state's "Caipira" culture. The data were collected by Figueiredo Jr. (2019) in ten localities in the region: Santana de Parnaíba, Pirapora do Bom Jesus, Araçariguama, São Roque, Sorocaba, Itu, Porto Feliz, Tietê, Capivari, and Piracicaba. The methodological instrument applied is the Phonetic- Phonological Questionnaire made by "Atlas Linguístico do Brasil" (COMITÊ NACIONAL DO PROJETO ALiB, 2001). Eighty informants partook in the research, evenly women and men, young (18–36) and old (≥ 55) individuals, and with low and high education. The variants collected are: retroflex approximant ([ɻ]), alveolar tap ([ɾ]), phonetic zero ([Ø]), and alveolar trill ([r]). The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and pluridimensional dialectological cartography, from which a set of relevant conclusions is drawn. One of them is that the retroflex approximant occurs as the most frequent variant from a broad perspective and, from a correlational viewpoint, another one is that, according to evidence, the external factor influencing the prevalence of the retroflex approximant is not diastratic, nor diasexual, nor diatopic, but rather diagenerational.