Ingliding as stylistic practice in Porto Alegre (RS)

Abstract

This paper analyzes ingliding ([ɛ]~[ɛɐ], [ɔ]~[ɔɐ]) in the Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Porto Alegre (RS) in order to examine both the variation pattern as well as the styles and social meanings associated with the variants of the process. To achieve this goal, two samples were analyzed quantitatively (variable rule analysis of the speech data, Cf. Labov (2008[1972)) and qualitatively (stylistic practices analysis, considering the speakers' declared practices). In this work, style is treated as a practice of persona construction (ECKERT, 2005(ECKERT, , 2012, a notion related to lifestyle, a set of tastes, beliefs and practices typical of a certain class or class fraction (BOURDIEU, 2015(BOURDIEU, [1979(BOURDIEU, /1982). The results show that ingliding is favored by open-mid vowels and disfavored by labial and dorsal following segments. The centring diphthong, which arises from the nuclear vowel itself in the prominent segments of the intonational phrase, seems to occur in elements of longer intrinsic duration. Inglided vowels are mainly produced by men and people in an intermediate age group, those who have a higher level of education and those in a higher socioeconomic stratum. These findings, interpreted in light of Bourdieu's social theory, suggest that ingliding can be a stylistic practice that provides symbolic profit to people in the post-modern paradigm of the youth movement that occurred in the Bom Fim neighborhood in the 1980s, who can index freedom, innovation, youth and transgression to the centring diphthong. There are currently at least two lifestyles of which ingliding is a part in the city of Porto Alegre. These styles, though in different ways, are associated with cool and laid-back meanings, such that the centring diphthong can construct personae opposed to a formal, uptight or snobby elite. The freedom associated with ingliding embodies a lifestyle that is marked by relaxation.