Estrutura e Significado: Implicações Fenomenológicas e Políticas do Sotaque Regional Brasileiro

Abstract . The present work takes into account the Portuguese diaspora in Brazil, with reference to the evolution of the colonizing language and its current manifestations. The social phenomenology of Alfred Schutz was utilized in order to explore the problematic of cultural power between regions of the society, in terms of linguistic practices and their interregional variations. First, we will focus on some central phonetic traits of the Portuguese language in Brazil, highlighting certain forms of speech that distinguish, in a general way, Northern speech from Southern speech. These phonetic traits not only distinguish the two linguistic patterns, but also establish their cultural identity and status (dominant or minority) in the larger society. As such, they override both the phonetic variations within the regions, and the linguistic overlap between them. This makes it possible to elaborate a binary linguistic typology for these areas in terms of two general categories, Greater North and Greater South , which should benefit the analysis of power relations between these two broad cultural areas of the country. The social-phenomenology approach is used as theoretical support in order to enhance, from a different standpoint, our understanding of the question of cultural, and specifically linguistic, dominance/subordination between regions of a society, by focusing on the predominance of particular speech forms, and the adaptation and submission of the non-dominant group to these forms. Finally, we will briefly refer to how this symbolic dimension of social life has concrete consequences, either as advantages or disadvantages, for the lives of people, both in the context of informal interaction, and in institutional and professional relations. Sumario . O presente trabalho considera a diaspora portuguesa no Brasil com referencia ao desenvolvimento da lingua colonizadora e suas manifestacoes atuais. Recorremos a fenomenologia social de Alfred Schutz para explorar a problematica de poder cultural entre as regioes do pais, no contexto das praticas linguisticas e suas variacoes interregionais. Primeiramente, serao postos em relevo alguns aspectos foneticos centrais do idioma portugues no Brasil, destacando certas formas de falar que separam de modo geral a fala do Norte da fala do Sul. Esses tracos foneticos nao so distinguem as duas falas, mas tambem estabelecem sua identidade e status cultural (dominante ou minoritario), dentro da sociedade total. Como tal, sobrepoem-se tanto as subdivisoes foneticas internas dessas regioes, como tambem aos intercruzamentos linguisticos entre as mesmas. Dai, podermos elaborar uma tipologia linguistica binaria dessas areas em termos de duas categorias gerais, Grande Norte e Grande Sul , a qual devera beneficiar a analise das relacoes de poder entre essas duas grandes areas culturais do pais. O enfoque fenomenologico e utilizado nesta analise como amparo teorico, afim de ampliar, de um ponto de vista diferente, nosso entendimento da questao de dominância/subordinacao cultural, e especificamente linguistica, entre as regioes de uma sociedade, focalizando a predominância de formas particulares de falar, e a adaptacao e submissao do grupo minoritario a estas formas. Por fim, salientamos em tracos breves como esse nivel simbolico da vida social tem repercussoes concretas, traduzindo-se em vantagens ou desvantagens para as pessoas, tanto no contexto de interacao informal como nas relacoes institucionais e profissionais.