Variação linguística na fala rural: uma análise de dois municípios da Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This work aims to contribute to the understanding of linguistic variation on rural speech from two places in the microregion of Juiz de Fora, which is located in Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. This research has as theoretical and methodological support the Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1972, 1982, 1994, 2001), contributions of studies on Social Networks (MILROY, 1980, 1987, 2004; MILROY & MILROY, 1985; BORTONI-RICARDO 1985, 2011) and Rural Sociology (ABRAMOVAY, 2000; WANDERLEY, 1994, 1998, 2009). Assuming the hypothesis that the existing descriptions on rural speaking do not realize the complexity of the nowadays rural areas sociolinguistic design, this research analyzes ten phenomena from rural speech listed by Amaral (1920) and Castillo (2010), and contrasts them with data obtained through 24 sociolinguistically oriented interviews, with 12 informants from the countryside of Oliveira Fortes -MG city, and 12 informants from the countryside from Belmiro Braga - MG city. Thus, variations were observed with respect to: i) diphthongation on tonic vowels followed by sibilant at the end of words; ii) loss of the unstressed initial vowel; iii) loss of the distinction between diphthongs and vowels in palatal context; iv) loss of nasality and monotongation on the final nasal diphthongs; v) exchange of [l] by [r] into consonant groups; vi) iodization on the palatal /λ/; vii) loss of the consonant [d] when preceded by nasal vowel; viii) loss of [l] in the third person personal pronoun; ix) simplification on nominal agreement; and x) simplification on verbal agreement. Between the results, it was found that the two locations present typically rural variants at higher percentages than urban variants listed in previous studies, but the discrepancy in the percentages of conservative variants between Belmiro Braga - MG and Oliveira Fortes - MG (46.3% and 75.5%, respectively) indicates a continuum of rurality between rural areas, which can be measured by the frequency of gradual and discontinuous features. Among the residents of rural areas, there are also rurality gradations. It is also verified that the social variables (intensity, complexity and distance from the urban environment, social networks configuration, sense of belonging, education, occupation, socioeconomic stratum, sex, age, and access to the media) are correlated on the rural speech design, in its discontinuities and gradations. Thus, it is argued that the countryside is a heterogeneous linguistic territory in which the sociolinguistic research must to be fomented so that the linguistic diversity present in Brazilian rural areas is respected and valued, but above all known.