Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1971 A Phonological Analysis of a Brazilian Portuguese Interior Dialect. Giles Lother Istre Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Istre, Giles Lother, "A Phonological Analysis of a Brazilian Portuguese Interior Dialect." (1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1994. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1994 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 71-29,375 ISTRE, Giles Lother, 1927- A PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE INTERIOR DIALECT. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, linguistics University Microfilms, A XEROX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1971 GILES LOTHER ISTRE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED A Phonological Analysis of a Brazilian Portuguese Interior Dialect A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy in The Program in Linguistics by Giles Lother Istre B.A., Southwestern Louisiana Institute. 1955 M.A*f Louisiana State University. 1 9 6 6 May, 1971 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There were several persons who were instrumental in furnishing invaluable assistence at each stage of the develop­ ment of this work. The writer wishes to express his deepest gratitude to Dr. Luiz Pola Baptists. Mr. Waldemar Rodrigues. Mr. Antonio NIonian Toledo. Mr. Anaro de Oliveira Monteiro. and Father Tarclaio de Castro Moura of S5o Luie do Paraitinga for their kind reception amd help* to Mr. Antonio Marussig and Helcio Marcoosi of the Instituto Tecnolfigica de Aeronfiu- tica in Sao Jose dos Campos for their helpful suggestions in the making of the questionnaire* and to Pedro Bento Clara, Jose Francisco de Sousa, and Vicente A. da Silva, gente da terra, for their patient recordings. Abragos, amigos. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Pag* LIST OF FIGURES ..................................... Til LIST OF PLATES ........ ........................ ... PART I* THE LAND AND THE MAN Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TYPE AND PURPOSE OF S T U D Y ............... 1 LOCATION OF A R E A ....................... 3 RECONNAISSANCE TRIPS . ................ 6 CHOICE OF STUDY A R E A ................... 7 II. THE PARAITINGA VALLEY CROSS SECTION OF THE GENERAL A R E A ....... 9 HISTORY ................................. 12 III. Sfo LUfs DO PARAITINGA HISTORY................................. 25 GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE ...................... 31 SXO LUis DO PARAITINGA T O D A Y ........... 32 THE FESTIVALS OF sXo L U t S ............... 40 The Holy Week . ........................ 43 Feasts of the Winter Solstice........ .. • 47 The Feast of the Holy Ghost•••••••• 51 Foundation Day of S3o Lula•••••*•« 61 iii IV. THE CAIPIRA DEFINITION ................................. 66 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...................... 6 9 CAIPIRA LIFE . * . ........................ 77 Habitation • •••■••» .............. 76 Alimentation............ 80 Labor .................. 81 H e a l t h .................................. 8 9 Education................................. 92 R e l i g i o n .............. 93 Other Aspects of L i f e .................... 99 THE AGRICULTURAL C Y C L E .................... 103 CONCLUSION ................................. 106 PART II. THE LANGUAGE V. THE BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE PHONOLOGICAL GRAMMAR INTRODUCTION ............................... 107 PRELIMINARY P R O B L E M S ...................... 109 N a s a l i t y ................................. 110 The /r/ phoneme........................... 112 Interconsonantal inserted /i/ ............ 115 THE PHONOLOGICAL G R A M M A R .................. 117 Phonological structure rules ............ 118 Phonological transformation rules • * • * . 121 DIALECTAL PHONOLOGICAL GRAMMARS............ 122 The Rio de Janeiro PT r u l e s .............. 122 iv The S3o Paulo PT r u l e s .................... 123 THE DICTIONARY .............................. 124 CONCLUSION .................................. 127 VI. PRELIMINARY PREPARATION TOWARD THE STUDY OP THE CAIPIRA DIALECT INTRODUCTION ................................ 126 THE INFORMANT................................ 129 Formal Informants .................. 131 Informal informants • .................... 132 THE QUESTIONAIRE............................ 132 VII. THE C O R P U S .................................... 149 VIII. THE CAIPIRA PHONOLOGICAL GRAMMAR INTRODUCTION................................ 234 THE CAIPIRA PT R U L E S ........................ 235 The caiplra / r / ............................ 235 The caiplra / I / ....................... 240 Tambgra.................................... 244 Interchange of /b/ and / v / ................ 245 Loss of /d/ *••••.•••••••••• 24? Loss of medial / a / ........................ 248 The caiplra /z/ and / o / .................... 249 Los8 of word-final /&/ 251 Prothetic /%/ and /s/ ••••••«•••• 253 V o c g ...................................... 254 The affrication of / £ / .................... 255 Change of /A/ to /jL/ .............. 258 v Regressive nasalisation .......... 26l Loss of final /n/ • «•«.....•.•• 2 6l The caipira vowels ................ • 2 6 3 The caipira unstressed v o w e l s ........ .. 2 6 3 Options for unstressed /!/ and /u/ • • • • 2 6 3 Unstressed /e/ and /o/ options • ••»•• 266 Loss of word-final /i/ and / u / ..... 2 6 7 Vowel apheresis.......................... 268 Vowel e p e n t h e s i s ........................ 2 6 9 Vowel syncope • *••*•••*•*••»• 271 Fronting of / o / .......................... 271 Environmental effects upon /a/ and /i/ • • 272 Lowered and lax / u / ...................... 272 /e/ before # or a nasal ........ 273 Lowering of / o / .......................... 273 Presence or absence of / J / .............. 274 Presence or absence of / y / ........ * • • 276 Transitional sounds ................ • • • 278 CONCLUSION ................................. 278 IX. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS........................ 279 INTRODUCTION ........ .............. 279 SYNTACTICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL NOTES ........ 282 FUTURE STUDY .............................. 284 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 286 APPENDIX ............................................. 292 Vi LIST OP FIGURES Figure Page 1. Regional Division of SSo Paulo ............... 4 2. Cross Section from Ubatuba to the Hantiqueiras 10 3* Portion of the Paraiba B a s i n ................. 13 4* Wood Mold for Making Taipa Walls ............. 37 5* Horseback Maneuvers of the Cavalhada ......... 62 vii LIST OF PLATES Plat* P«£« I. A Caiplra Family ............................. xi II* The Nanicipal Saat of SEo Lula do Faraitlnga • 15 III* Tho Mother Church of Slo Lula do Faraitinga * • 28 IV* The Main Square ••••••••*••••••• 35 V. Holiday Hoaea of the Coffee Lorda •*••••• 50 VI* ftoa&rio, Site of the Fir at Church in Sic Lula • 55 VII* Cooking Rice at the Caea d* Feata ....... 60 VIII. Vamu Cu*6, C e n t o ...................... • • • 65 IX* T8 L6co por ua Pedago de V a c a ................. 70 X* Fuaano no S o r ...............* .......... 75 XI* Joto Paulino, Maria Ang6, and F a n a ..... 293 Tiii ABSTRACT A phonological analysis was made of the speech of the interior rural folk— the caipira—"in the Municipality of S&o Paulo. Brazil. A participant in the westward expansion of coffee plantations during the nineteenth century, the munici­ pal seat has since become what could be called a "dead city,H in the terms used by a Brazilian writer, Monteiro Lobato, to describe those decadent towns which remained after the coffee planters abandoned the region at the end of that century. Cattle raisers too the place of the coffee planters, but the calplraa. who had been there before the invasion of coffee, continue to populate some of the more remote regions of the municipality. The speech of these people still show the substratal influence of earlier Indian languages. By devising a basic phonological grammar for the Por­ tuguese language, it was possible to present transformation rules which could relate the dialects of the language to a sound system common to all. In this way, the caipira dialect could be related not only to the language phonological grammar but to the other dialects as well, a method which could be a clue to comprehension between two dialects in short-term con­ tact. Each phone in the caipira phonological system was pre­ sented as the result of transformation rules applied to the basic language phonological system. The corpus which served ix as a basis for the study were recordings made in the munici­ pality, augmented by reports of dialect scholars and by writers who used dialect for literary effect. x Plate I* A Caipira Family xi PART I. THE MAN AND THE LAND CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Type and Purpose of Study As Portuguese has been classified by the U. S. Office of Education and the Center of Applied Linguistics as one of the "neglected languages** of the world, this study is prima­ rily designed to add to the knowledge of that language through the presentation of a phonemic analysis of the caipira