A Perceptual Approach of the Rhotics in the Speech of Italian Descendants

Abstract

This study presents a perceptual analysis of strong r sounds in initial and medial syllabic onset, produced by Italian descendants from the city of Rio do Sul-SC, in the Alto Vale do Itajaí region. From the perspective of Sociophonetics, previous research results (Author, Year) showed a great variety and gradation of some of the productions of these sounds. Productions of tepe ([ɾ]) were found in the context of strong r, in addition to the variants: vibrant, vibrant and spirantized tepes, approximant and fricative. In view of these results, two perception experiments were carried out, with the aim of verifying how listeners from inside and outside the researched community perceived the stimuli, especially those referring to strong r. Results showed that the fricative variant produced in the studied region was not perceived as a typical BP fricative. Using results obtained from a temporal analysis of the data (Author, year), we saw that, although the average duration of the vibrating sound with two beats (62.17ms) is longer than the average duration of the tepe (26.61ms) in the context of strong r, this was not enough for listeners outside the researched community to perceive this vibrant as strong r. However, for listeners of Italian descent in the city researched, this vibrant two-beat sound was perceived as strong r, evidencing a heterogeneous perception between these groups, most likely due to their repertoire of linguistic references.