The rhotics of the Salvador, Bahia variety of Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

Abstract Brazilian Portuguese has two rhotic phonemes: the alveolar flap /ɾ/ and another variable phoneme. This phoneme has been cited as velar, uvular, and glottal fricatives, as well as alveolar trills and approximants. Variability of surface forms occurs both within and across varieties. This phoneme occurs in simple onsets, codas, and intervocalically. Deletion of the phoneme is common, particularly in word-final position. The goal of this project is to explore the variation in rhotic production in Salvador, particularly with regards to substrate influence. Ten participants read predetermined stimuli of isolated tokens and sentences, with a total of 1409 instances of the phoneme. The findings indicate that the range of possible surface forms is more variable than previously cited, including palatal and uvular fricatives among others. We suggest that the degree of variability of rhotic production in Salvador may be due to past contact between Africans and Portuguese in the city.