Comparative study of proper names in the Archaic, European and Brazilian Portuguese: phonological investigations

• Grant number: 17/08360-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): July 10, 2017
• Effective date (End): January 04, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Gladis Massini-Cagliari
• Grantee: Natália Zaninetti Macedo
• Supervisor: Maria Francisca Merckx de Bivar Branco Xavier
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/08197-3 - From the onomastic clues: a comparative study of Archaic and Brazilian Portuguese phonology, BP.DR

Abstract

This research aims to collect and to study proper names in European Portuguese and Archaic Portuguese and to compare them with the data collected in Brazilian Portuguese by Macedo (2015). Proper names of foreign origin will be analyzed in order to highlight the processes of (non) phonological adaptation to this system, as well as the similarities and differences among them. It is intended to investigate Portuguese native speakers' phonological identity which, according to Massini-Cagliari (2011a, 88-89), is revealed in the pronunciation of truly or supposedly foreign names: Portuguese native speakers, as well as the native speakers of whichever language, demonstrate an intuitive knowledge of their "linguistic identity" in rhythmic terms and perfectly operate with and on it. For the analysis of phonological adaptation processes in Archaic Portuguese, proper names extracted from the Cantigas de Santa Maria and secular songs will be collected and analyzed. The Computerized Corpus of Medieval Portuguese (CIPM), which resulted in the organization of the Dicionário de Nomes Comuns e de Nomes Próprios [Dictionary of Common Names and Proper Names] by Xavier et al (2001), will also be consulted. For the study of Portugal anthroponymic system - which has very specific norms, very different from Brazilian official norms -, Portuguese proper names will be collected and their pronunciation will be recorded, in order to find evidences of eventual (non) phonological adaptations to the language system. The collected data will be analyzed according to nonlinear phonological theories (Selkirk, 1981, 1984; Hogg and McCully, 1987; Hayes, 1995; Clements and Hume, 1995; Bisol, 1996; Cagliari, 1997, 1999, Freitas and Santos, 2001 and Massini-Cagliari, 1999, 2005, 2015).