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Chapter 1. Stressed vowels of European Portuguese in spontaneous speech

  • Anabela Rato , Celeste Rodrigues and Patrícia Varanda
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Studies on Variation in Portuguese
This chapter is in the book Studies on Variation in Portuguese

Abstract

We analyzed speech data of two corpora collected with a 15–17-year gap in Braga, Portugal, to study the acoustic features of European Portuguese (EP) vowels in spontaneous speech, and to understand whether the vowels produced in this northern dialect are acoustically distinct from those of the standard variety, and if diachronic changes occurred in vowel quality. The results revealed that vowels in the speech of Braga are more open, the front vowels are more centralized, and the back vowels are less back than in the Lisbon variety, suggesting the existence of phonetic contrasts in these regional varieties of EP. Differences in vowel quality between the two speech corpora were also found; however, they may not suggest diachronic change, but rather the effect of a methodological factor in data collection.

Abstract

We analyzed speech data of two corpora collected with a 15–17-year gap in Braga, Portugal, to study the acoustic features of European Portuguese (EP) vowels in spontaneous speech, and to understand whether the vowels produced in this northern dialect are acoustically distinct from those of the standard variety, and if diachronic changes occurred in vowel quality. The results revealed that vowels in the speech of Braga are more open, the front vowels are more centralized, and the back vowels are less back than in the Lisbon variety, suggesting the existence of phonetic contrasts in these regional varieties of EP. Differences in vowel quality between the two speech corpora were also found; however, they may not suggest diachronic change, but rather the effect of a methodological factor in data collection.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. The study of variation in Portuguese 1
  4. Part 1. Variation within national varieties of Portuguese
  5. Chapter 1. Stressed vowels of European Portuguese in spontaneous speech 23
  6. Chapter 2. Glide insertion to break a hiatus across words in European Portuguese 49
  7. Chapter 3. Building a prosodic profile of European Portuguese varieties 81
  8. Chapter 4. The yes-no question contour in Brazilian Portuguese 111
  9. Chapter 5. “ Vocês tenham cuidado, sois educadas para isso” 135
  10. Chapter 6. Variable use of strong preterites 153
  11. Chapter 7. Conditions on variation in pre-nominal possessives in European Portuguese 177
  12. Chapter 8. Clitic climbing in the speech of Braga and Lisbon 199
  13. Chapter 9. Linguistic and social embedding of variable concord with 1st plural nós ‘we’ in Brazilian Portuguese 219
  14. Chapter 10. Analyzing a parametric change in Brazilian Portuguese 233
  15. Part 2. Variation across national varieties of Portuguese
  16. Chapter 11. Agreement in Portuguese 257
  17. Chapter 12. The Portuguese inflected infinitive across varieties 279
  18. Chapter 13. Dative variation in the Portuguese of São Tomé 301
  19. Chapter 14. Simple past with pluperfect interpretation 321
  20. Proper-name index 341
  21. Subject index 343
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.14.01rat

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. The study of variation in Portuguese 1
  4. Part 1. Variation within national varieties of Portuguese
  5. Chapter 1. Stressed vowels of European Portuguese in spontaneous speech 23
  6. Chapter 2. Glide insertion to break a hiatus across words in European Portuguese 49
  7. Chapter 3. Building a prosodic profile of European Portuguese varieties 81
  8. Chapter 4. The yes-no question contour in Brazilian Portuguese 111
  9. Chapter 5. “ Vocês tenham cuidado, sois educadas para isso” 135
  10. Chapter 6. Variable use of strong preterites 153
  11. Chapter 7. Conditions on variation in pre-nominal possessives in European Portuguese 177
  12. Chapter 8. Clitic climbing in the speech of Braga and Lisbon 199
  13. Chapter 9. Linguistic and social embedding of variable concord with 1st plural nós ‘we’ in Brazilian Portuguese 219
  14. Chapter 10. Analyzing a parametric change in Brazilian Portuguese 233
  15. Part 2. Variation across national varieties of Portuguese
  16. Chapter 11. Agreement in Portuguese 257
  17. Chapter 12. The Portuguese inflected infinitive across varieties 279
  18. Chapter 13. Dative variation in the Portuguese of São Tomé 301
  19. Chapter 14. Simple past with pluperfect interpretation 321
  20. Proper-name index 341
  21. Subject index 343
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