Os níveis sociolingüísticos

Abstract

The author shows that it is reasonable to postulate three levels for the Portuguese spoken in Londrina from a sociolinguistic point of view. The results are, however, applicable to Portuguese in general, as well as to the languages of most speech communities. As in some trends of sociology that recognize three levels in the social structure, we can postulate the sociolinguistic levels A, B and C, roughly equivalent to "upper", "middle", and "lower" classes. Level A corresponds to the linguistic ideal of a speech community; it is what is worth imitating - literary and written language in general and highly formal speech. Level C its he extreme opposite. It is the speech of urban lower classes and of the inhabitants of rural areas. Consequently it is a stigmatized variety of speech. Level B is halfway between both levels. Of all three it is the least marked sociologically. Some applications of the above distinctions are suggested, as for instance to the problem of "right/wrong", to the mother language teaching, to the definition of the "linguistic norm", and to the explication of diatopic and diastratic variations. Finally a short analysis of Londrina Portuguese is presented along the lines of the above principles.