12 Nov 2002

Thais Christofaro-Silva (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais)

This paper will consider three ongoing sound changes in tautosyllabic clusters in Brazilian Portuguese: the loss of the liquid, the change in the obstruent and the change in the liquid. The loss of the liquid yields a CV syllable (ou[tr]o > ou[t]o 'another one', exem[pl]o > exem[p]o 'example' (cf. CRISTOFARO-SILVA (2000)). The change in the obstruent involves the sequence of coronals [tl] when the alveolar stop is replaced by a velar stop (A[tl]etico > A[kl]etico 'Atletico club' (FREITAS (2001)). The change in the liquid occurs when a lateral is replaced by a tap ([pl]ano > [pr]ano 'plan' GOMES (1987)). Potential motivation for these sound changes will be addressed. Considering that in the vast majority of cases sound changes are said to be phonetically motivated the role of articulation will be considered (BROWMAN and GOLDSTEIN (1992); MOWREY & PAGLIUCA (1995)). Then auditory-perceptual properties will be addressed as the motivation for the sound changes under consideration (OHALA (1989, 1993)). Finally, the role of type frequency will be addressed as the motivation for the phenomena considered in this paper (BROWN (1999), BYBEE (2001), CRISTOFARO-SILVA & OLIVEIRA (2002)). It will be shown that all three cases involving ongoing sound changes in tautosyllabic clusters in BP may be understood as motivated by a lower type frequency moving towards a higher type frequency. This proposal---which also incorporates articulatory and perceptual properties---offers a more insightful analysis for the phenomena considered.

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