Um estudo sobre a aquisição fonológica das consoantes palatais no português brasileiro

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the behavior of palatal consonants in the phonological acquisition of Brazilian children. Diachronic studies indicate that Portuguese palatal consonants were introduced into the system as a result of processes that occurred during the evolution from Latin to Portuguese, as a result of the phenomenon of palatalization. For Neuschrank and Matzenauer (2012), in segmental terms, the palatal forms /ʎ, ɲ/ have a complex structure because they present two articulations in their feature geometries: a primary consonant articulation identified by the dot feature under the PC node, and a secondary joint identified by the dot line under the PV node. Considering the complexity of these consonants, this dissertation seeks to understand the processes involved in the acquisition of palatal sounds in children's speech. To compose the research corpus, speech acquisition data from Brazilian children from Pelotas and Porto Alegre from AQUIFONO (PUCRS/UFPEL) were analyzed. The specific objectives of the study are: (i) to describe and analyze early speech data with a focus on BP palatal consonants; (ii) describe and analyze the strategies observed in the acquisition of Portuguese palatals by Brazilian children; (iii) discuss the acquisition data in light of results on palatals in diachrony and in the acquisition of writing. The results show that acquisition occurs in the following order: /ɲ<ʃ<ʒ<ʎ/, corroborating findings from previous research on the acquisition of palatals. Among the strategies observed, there was a predominance of phonetic zeros for the /ɲ/ segment and the production of alveolar counterparts, above 50%, for the other palatal ones.