Prosodic phrasing in Portuguese: similarities and differences across African and Brazilian varieties

similarities and differences across African and Brazilian varieties

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the prosodic phrasing of neutral declarative sentences in subject-verb-object word order (SVO sentences) into intonational phrases (Is) in Brazilian varieties of Portuguese as spoken in Salvador (Bahia) and Florianópolis (Santa Catarina) and in African varieties of Portuguese as spoken in São Tomé (Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe) and Libolo (Angola). The purpose of this study is the investigation of similarities and differences across these varieties regarding the prosodic phrasing. The results showed that (SVO)I is the preferential prosodic phrasing pattern in all Portuguese varieties. Different prosodic phrasing patterns are also found for Brazilian varieties of Portuguese, although with low frequency and considering branchingness and extension of the subject and object. As for African varieties, other prosodic phrasing patterns are only found when spontaneous or semi-spontaneous speech data are considered. These results contribute to the knowledge of a topic that deserves to be more explored for Brazilian and African varieties of Portuguese and to a greater understanding of the general prosodic characteristics of Portuguese and of those that distinguish their different varieties.