Mid pretonic vowels in the speech of southeast region: a geo-sociolinguistic overview

Abstract

We aim to trace a geo-sociolinguistic overview of the behavior of pretonic mid vowels in the speech of the Southeast Region, based on variationist sociolinguistic studies carried out in communities of the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We present and discuss the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that affect the processes of raising, maintenance and lowering in each speech community. We demonstrate that, in the speech of the Region, in which the mid-high variants predominate, it is evident the relevance of the nature of the subsequent vowel for the implementation of the vowel harmony process, in the case of raising or lowering. From the diatopic point of view, we observe diverging aspects that demonstrate the increased complexity of Minas Gerais and, probably, of Espírito Santo areas compared to the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo ones, which presupposes the existence of different linguistic areas, particularly in relation to the first of the mentioned states.