Variação e mudança no vocalismo átono quinhentista : práticas escriturais e juízos normativos

• Main Author: Maria Helena Paiva
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade do Porto 2009-01-01
• Series: Linguística : Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto
• Subjects: Variation and change; 16th century unstressed vowels; History of Portuguese; Computer processing
• Online Access: http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/7678.pdf

Following a recent study (Paiva 2008) of the 16th century unstressed vowels based on the descriptions of contemporary grammarians that confirmed the raising of unstressed <a>, I continue the research about the raising of the remaining unstressed vowels based on the computer processing of the metalinguistic texts of this period, which allowed the exhaustive examinations of the writings, in connection with the expressed value judgements. In order to achieve this, I describe the statu quo of the variation before the relatinisation, the consequences of this movement whether on the elimination of the previous schemata of variation or on the production of new ones; I delimit the change of <e>> <i>, interpret non usual writings with <e>, and infer that this kind of writing variation derived from the fact that <e> represents already [ ]. Regarding [o], the unidirectional drift that since the Middle Ages leads to [u] (and witch the relatinisation strengthens) is clearly documented and raises negative evaluation judgements that reveal undoubtedly the ongoing dynamics