Presence vs absence of traces of rurality in the lexicon of Tocantins

Abstract

Up to the early 20th century, Brazil was preponderantly a rural country. These status has changed due to the new communication routes. Farmers have transferred themselves to the great urban centers in search of better opportunities. The process h as f requently i mpacted s ocial att itudes and, consequent ly, a different linguistic stance. In t he city milieu, the speaker encounters a new dialectical situation which is often marked by linguistic uprooting processes. A discussion ensues on the maintenance or loss of lexical markings, characterized as rural, on data collected in 12 sites in Tocantins, Brazil, from 96 informants stratified by gender, age and type of mobility, from the Topodynamic and Topostatic Linguistic Atlas of the State of Tocantins.