Processes of dialect accommodation in the speech of Northeastern migrants living in the state of São Paulo

• Grant number: 16/04960-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: August 01, 2016 - July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
• Principal Investigator: Livia Oushiro
• Grantee: Livia Oushiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims at analyzing, in the speech of Northeastern migrants living in the São Paulo and Campinas metropolitan regions, which linguistic and social factors correlate with dialect accommodation. This topic concerns language theory in regard to the stability of adult speech -- a presupposition that is rarely questioned. In addition, the analysis of migrants' speech can broaden the scope of the Theory of Language Variation and Change, since dialect contact is part of the everyday life of millions of city dwellers. The topic of dialect accommodation still lacks generalizations and raises theoretical and methodological issues: the great number of independent variables which may influence migrants' speech (e.g., time of residence in the new community, degree of contact with the original dialect, attitudes towards the dialects in contact); the great variability among individuals; how to measure accommodation; and the possibility that different sociolinguistic variables are not bound to the same processes. To address these questions, this study will systematically analyze five sociolinguistic variables -- the realization of mid-vowels in pretonic position, coda /r/, palatalization of /ti/ and /di/, nominal agreement and morphology of the imperative mood -- in the speech of 36 Northeastern migrants living in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, aimed at raising hypotheses, and will collect 40 new recordings with Northeastern migrants living in the Campinas Metropolitan Region. The expected results will contribute to a broader description of São Paulo Portuguese, to the understanding of the role of multiple independent variables in dialect contact, to the dissemination of new methods and tools of sociolinguistic analyses, as well as to the establishment of a new center of sociolinguistic studies. (AU)