Border Portuguese in Jaguarão (BR) and Rio Branco (UY): a survey of descriptive linguistic studies

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to map linguistic studies on the varieties of Portuguese spoken in the cities of Jaguarão (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and Rio Branco (Cerro Largo, Uruguay). We hypothesize that there are very few papers on linguistic data from this region, especially on Uruguayan Portuguese and comparative studies. The survey revealed the existence of papers on Portuguese spoken in Jaguarão (BR) or in Rio Branco (UY), with regards to their phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic aspects. There are no investigations on morphology, semantics or pragmatics, nor investigations that compare both varieties. There are only two papers on diachrony, even though these localities have been populated since the end of the XVIII century. In the field of phonetics and phonology, prominence is given to the description of the vowel system while morphosyntax studies deal with personal pronouns. Studies on Rio Branco Portuguese reveal a complex and heterogeneous scenario in comparison with other Uruguayan Portuguese varieties. Furthermore, studies on perception, linguistic attitudes, linguistic landscape and language policies reveal the complexity of the linguistic activities developed by border inhabitants. These results corroborate project proposals that don’t regard the BR - UY border as an homogeneous object – such as the creation of a linguistic database with spoken data from Jaguarão and Rio Branco, with the purpose of registering and preserving Portuguese spoken as a first language by brazilians and as a heritage or contact language by uruguayans. Such project will be a privileged source for registering, studying and describing Portuguese.