Redução vocálica em português europeu: Um processo em declínio? Variedades europeias e não europeias do português em rota de aproximação

Abstract

The main phonetic-phonological feature that marks the boundary between European and non-European varieties of Portuguese is unstressed vowel reduction. In this study, we shall analyse some evidence suggesting that this phonologial process is undergoing some lack of productivity: neologisms and pseudowords processed as neologisms do not undergo vowel reduction so systematically as older forms do. These data will be analysed as a clue of the decline of vowel reduction in the phonology of European Portuguese. This makes it possible to foresee the mitigation of phonetic/phonological distance between European and non-European varieties of Portuguese.