Sociolinguistic perception of /t/ and /d/ palatalization adjacent to diphthong in Rio Grande do Norte state

Abstract

This paper aims to delimit the social meaning of alveolar and palatal forms of /t, d/ in the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), considering the linguistic context of unstressed sylable contiguous to diphthong, in which these forms compete (CRISTÓFARO-SILVA et al., 2012; ANANIAS; CUNHA, 2022). Assuming the theoretical and methodological perspectives of sociolinguistics (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]; LABOV, 2008 [1972]), a sample was organized with participation of 76 higher education judges, which evaluated sound stimuli in an on-line questionnaire hosted on Google Forms. We report the inspection of responses to scales of 8 attributes, distributed in categories of competence, personal integrity, social attractiveness and geographic association. The analysis was performed with cumulative link mixed models, using the ordinal package (CHRISTENSEN, 2019), on the R platform (R CORE TEAM, 2022). In general, the results indicate more positive attitudes associated with the palatal form in the regressive context, possibly motivated by the opacity of the phonological rule that triggers the process. In the context of progressive assimilation, on the other hand, the palatal form is associated with more negative atitudes and perceived as indicator of less competence, less upstanding, less socially attractive and more rural individuals.