Ramo rê se rai dá certo: lenition of the fricative /v/ in the speech of Fortaleza-CE

Abstract

Based on the variationist sociolinguistics, we sought to understand the behavior of the variable of the fricative /v/ in the beginning of words, in the popular speech of Fortaleza, as in [v]ai (maintenance) ~ [h]ai (aspiration/reification). We analyzed which intralinguistic and/or extralinguistic factors cause lenition of the /v/ in the speech of the Cearense capital. For that, we analyzed the speech of 48 informants available in the NORPOFOR database. The stylistic analysis, with the help of Goldvarb X, pointed the maintenance of the /v/ occurs in 93,4% of the occurrences, while 6,6% presented the aspired variant. We also verified the relevant intralinguistic and extralinguistic variables ranging over the lenition of /v/ were, by relevance: word size (trissilable or bigger), age (speakers with 50 years or more), usage frequency (extremely usual terms and usual terms), tonicity (strong silables), education (0-4 years of education) and the subsequent phonological context ([õ], [?)], [a], [?], [u] e [?]).