ANÁLISE DOS SONS RÓTICOS NO MUNICÍPIO DE CRUZ MACHADO, PARANÁ

Abstract

Polish immigration had a significant impact on the ethnic and cultural formation of Paraná. Over the generations, some Polish communities have kept their heritage alive, preserving traditions, customs, and language (NIEWIADOMSKI, 2019). In this paper, we present the results of a variationist analysis (LABOV, 2008 [1972]) of the distinct sounds of "r", known as rhotic variants, produced by members of a community of Polish descendants, residents of the city of Cruz Machado, in the interior of Paraná. Using the Goldvarb (2001) software, speech data from twelve participants were analyzed, divided into two groups by age range: from 25 to 50 years old and over 50 years old, ethnicity: Polish, Ukrainian, hybrid, and equally distributed between female and male sex. The total of 2,100 rhotics analyzed revealed the predominance of the tap variant. The study demonstrated that the tap variant predominates with 54% of occurrences, with the syllabic environment, especially in the medial onset, being the main conditioning factor for its production. It was observed that men and individuals with lower levels of education tend to use tap more. In addition, the research indicated that descendants of Poles produce tap more frequently compared to those of hybrid descent, a result consistent with the variationist theoretical perspective that highlights the importance of ethnicity for linguistic variation.