8.1.1 Following phonological context

First, the greatest effect is presented by the following phonological context, with a relative magnitude of its effect at 28. This finding is consistent with previous studies of UP and across dialects of BP. Carvalho (1998) and Bisol (1991) found that the following environment applies the strongest effect with a 50 and 53 of relative magnitude respectively.

Vowels and liquids (laterals were collapsed with vibrants in a final run) exert the highest effect on favoring the palatalization rule with a .66, and .65 probability, respectively. This finding provides evidence to suggest that palatalization of /ti/, /di/ is more likely to occur when followed by another vowel or glide, forming a diphthong, and a lateral or a vibrant. In BP, laterals in syllable-final position are usually realized as a velar glide [w], which forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel (Azevedo, 2005: 49). Hence, it appears that diphthongs create a favorable linguistic constraint promoting palatalization of dental stops in this environment. On the other hand, stops at (.62), and nasals at (.59) favor the palatalization rule, whereas a following pause or zero phonological context (.43) and sibilants (.38) disfavor it.

Table 11 shows that in the 1995 data the following context separates nasals (including the palatal nasal) from other consonants (including stops) and distinguishes laterals from vibrants, with pause, vowels, and sibilants treated separately. The two types of following environments contributing to exert the most notable effect on palatalization of /ti/, /di/ are nasals favoring palatalization of dental stops (.63) and sibilants disfavoring it (.13). One of the most significant aspects resides in the behavior of a following sibilant. Carvalho (1998) reports a low .13 probability, which indicates an inhibitor effect on the application of the palatalization rule.

The next question to ask is how consistent the findings are in both data sets. With that question in mind, I compare the linguistic factors selected as significant in both studies. I will start with following phonological context selected as significant in both samples. Figure 2 compares both data sets.

As Figure 2 shows, while in the 1995 data, vowels exert a rather neutral effect on the application of the palatalization rule (.50), in the current study they exert the strongest effect (.66). However, in another variety of Portuguese, namely Portuguese Gaucho, vowels show a neutral effect. In Bisol’s study vowels show (.55) for the bilingual and a disfavoring (.40) for the metropolitan speakers.

Laterals and vibrants, collapsed into a single factor group in the present study as liquids, proved to be a strong linguistic factor favoring palatalization (.65), while Carvalho (1998) found that laterals (.48) and vibrants (.47) disfavor it. However, the present study results are consistent with Bisol’s (1991) analysis. Bisol’s (1991) study shows that laterals exert the most significant effect on the application of the palatalization rule (.73) for the bilingual and (.79) for the metropolitan group. Although in Bisol’s analysis vibrants were coded as a separate factor group, vibrants exhibit an irregular behavior due to their low number of occurrence in the data (1991: 110).

A following nasal shows evidence of exerting the strongest effect in Carvalho’s analysis (.63), while in the 2007 study nasals show a slightly lower effect, at (.59). In the present analysis, palatal nasals were collapsed with the bilabial and alveolar nasals in a final run to better account for the data. Although collapsed into a single factor group, nasal consonants exert a slightly favoring effect of the application of the palatalization rule.

Carvalho argues that the effect of a following nasal favoring palatalization could be explained as “a result of a high frequency of palatal nasals in the corpus, which because of regressive assimilation, triggered anticipation of the point of articulation of [ɲ], instigated by the environment of [i]” (1998: 174). In Bisol’s (1991) study, palatal nasals (.60 and .76) for the bilingual and metropolitan group respectively, exert a strong effect on rule application. It is worth noting that the difference in probabilities between the bilingual group in Bisol’s study (.60) and the current study (.59) is negligible.

As Figure 2 shows, and consistent with previous research, a following /s/ promotes dental realizations of /ti/, /di/ in UP. The 1995 and 2007 samples exhibit a very low probability for the sibilant (.13 and .43) respectively. These results are also comparable cross-dialectally. Bisol’s study reports very low factor weights (.20 and .05) for the bilingual and metropolitan groups, respectively, signaling the tendency of a sibilant to hinder the application of the palatalization rule (Bisol, 1991: 111). On the other hand, in the 2007 data, following pause strongly disfavors palatalization of dental stops (.43), while in the 1995 sample, following pause exerts a rather neutral effect of rule application (.52).

The present study shows that stops favor palatalization (.62), while in the 1995 data stops were collapsed with other consonants, providing a combined factor weight of .53. This fact obviously obscures the individual potential role of stops constraining the linguistic variable under investigation in this environment, hence impeding statistical comparisons as well.

The position of vowels at the highest position in the hierarchy requires some comment. As mentioned above, the present study examines palatalization of dental stops before /i/, where unstressed mid vowel /e/ raised to a high vowel [i] and the palatal glide /j/ are taken into account. The use of high vowels in place of mid vowels results from a phenomenon known as vowel raising (Mattoso Câmara, 1953; Bisol, 1989).¹ Vowel raising is pervasive, and its use is variable in colloquial Portuguese language, and seemingly at play in UP as well, as data results suggest. However, the variable use of high vowels in place of mid-vowels will not be examined in the present study.²

The point of articulation of the palatal nasal provides a favorable environment for palatalization. The extensive use of the suffix -nho, -nha in UP must be taken into account. The frequent use of diminutives in BP has already been reported (Giangola, 2001). The author points out that both young and adult Brazilians are given to the use of diminutives. The use of diminutives appears to be more frequent in conversational speech, expressing many subtle shades in meaning. Diminutives are formed by the application of suffixes. This type of productive suffixal derivation “is employed in order to indicate a greater or lesser degree, dimension, or intensity of a derivative noun or adjective with respect to the corresponding simple form” (Mattoso Câmara, 1972: 199). As Mattoso Câmara further argues, the principal diminutive suffix in Portuguese is -inh(o, a), which is considered to be unrestricted in use (e.g., casinha ´little house´, gatinho ´little cat´). Carvalho (1998: 174) also reports a high frequency of words with the diminutive suffix -nho in her data. It can be argued that UP speakers have incorporated the productive diminutive suffix in their speech. However, the semantic and pragmatic functions of diminutives in UP remained to be examined.

As shown by previous studies, sibilants have an inhibitory effect on palatalization of /ti/, /di/. The 2007 results show the unfavorable role of the sibilant, restricting the palatal realization of dental stops in UP. Carvalho (1998) and Bisol (1991) report similar findings. Carvalho’s results show a strong inhibiting effect applied by the sibilant, with a probability weight as low as .13 (1998: 174). Bisol reports (.20 and .05) for the bilingual and metropolitan groups respectively, signaling the tendency of a sibilant to hinder the application of the palatalization rule (1991: 111). The behavior of a following sibilant, at the bottom of the hierarchy in both varieties, suggests that across dialects the underlying grammar producing the surface form is basically the same, at least for this linguistic factor. If two varieties share the same constraint rankings, it is an indication of the similarity of their grammars (Tagliamonte, 2006: 241).

8.1.2 Preceding phonological context

Consistent with previous studies, it was found that the effect of the preceding phonological environment was not nearly as strong as that of the following segment. This factor group exerts the second highest magnitude of effect in the analysis, obtaining a range of 14. While in the present study and in Bisol’s analysis the presence of a preceding segment proved to be statistically significant, in the 1995 sample, this factor group was eliminated in the final statistical run.

As in the following phonological context, vowels exert the most significant effect on applying the palatalization rule in this environment, with a probability of (.53). It must be noted that this is a rather neutral effect. This result is consistent across dialects as well. In fact, in Bisol’s analysis, vowels show an identical factor weight (.53) for the bilingual participants. Preceding nasal consonants apply also a rather neutral effect of rule application at (.53). In Bisol’s analysis, nasals present a slightly higher effect, at (.59) for the bilingual group.

In the present investigation, it was found that a preceding pause exerts a neutral effect of rule application (.51). This finding is consistent cross-dialectally. In fact, Bisol’s analysis reports that pause lacks statistical significance in this environment. On the other hand, liquids (laterals and vibrants) disfavor palatalization of dental stops (at .39). In line with previous research, the disfavoring role of the sibilant shows a similar pattern in UP and in BP. Bisol reports a low probability (.24) for bilingual speakers, while in the present analysis sibilants show a disfavoring role (.39). Bisol (1991) proposes a phonetically-based explanation to account for the blocking force of the sibilant in the application of the palatalization rule.

There is a physically definable connection between the stop [t,d] and the fricative [s,z] which motivates the retention of the alveolar. It is the neutral behavior of the full alveolars [s,z] which opposes the raising and fronting of the body of the tongue necessary for the articulation of the palatal, thus eliminating the physical effort involved in the articulation of the affricates [ʧ,ʤ] (1991: 113).

Bisol furthermore argues that this mutual attraction, caused by the features that the stops [t,d] and the fricatives [s,z] have in common - [-high] in distinctive feature theory - represents a mere process of minimization of articulatory effect that tends to prevent the assimilation of the high vowel that causes palatalization (1991: 113).

8.1.3 Tonicity of the syllable

The last linguistic group to be selected as significant is tonicity of the syllable with a relative magnitude of 10. In Carvalhos’s study, tonicity of the syllable was the second most significant linguistic factor group. As in previous studies (Carvalho, 1998; Bisol, 1991), the lesser effect is contributed by tonicity of the syllable. In the present study the range (10) is very similar to Carvalho’s (16) and Bisol’s (14) analysis of the bilingual participants. Figure 3 compares both data sets.

Multivariate analysis of the 2007 sample shows that post-tonic syllable stress favors palatalization (.54) while stressed (.46) and pre-tonic syllable stress (.44) disfavor application of the palatal rule. However, in the 1995 sample, results show that palatalization is more frequent in stressed syllables (.57) followed by pre-tonic (.54) and post-tonic stressed syllables (.41).

Figure 3 shows the probability of dental stops according to syllable stress across studies. The position of the post-tonic syllable at a higher point in the hierarchy in the 2007 study, however, requires some comment. Interestingly, the constraint hierarchy found in the present investigation - that is, the post-tonic, stressed and pre-tonic syllable - mirrors the constraint hierarchy of the bilingual group in Bisol’s (1991) study. In fact, Bisol reports that palatalization frequencies show an inverse behavior in the dialects of the settlement area, in which the more frequently occurring environment for rule application is the unstressed syllable (Table 12).

As Table 12 shows, metropolitan and border groups in Bisol’s study illustrate a pattern of favoring the stronger position in the decreasing order: stressed, pre-tonic and post-tonic syllable stress. As she furthermore argues, the palatalization of dental stops is a typical case of increase in phonetic properties which applies mainly in strong positions. However, the Italian group exhibits the same syllable stress pattern as the 2007 data - that is, post-tonic, stressed, and pre-tonic syllables. Bisol (1991) notes that this contradictory pattern is based on the principle of saliency, which states that “a less prominent innovation is more likely to be successful than a more prominent innovation” (Bisol, 1991: 118). Furthermore, she argues that since the affricate realization of dental stops is a new rule, which is not existent in the Italian or German language, palatalization is fulfilled in weak syllables first, where it is less salient, and gradually spreads to other contexts. It can be argued that Rivera speakers are incorporating the palatalization rule in less complex phonological environments, in syllables with less prosodic strength, that is, in weak syllables, or in post-tonic positions where it is less evident. In doing so, speakers are minimizing the external effect and conforming to community linguistic norms. An additional factor to be considered is language contact of UP with the Spanish language, that do not palatalize dental stops, thus, inhibiting the application of the palatalization rule.

In sum, as far as the linguistic constraints are concerned, the 2007 data are generally consistent with previous research both in UP and across varieties of BP. The most outstanding finding is the role of the sibilant in preventing the application of the palatal rule in both the following and preceding segments in UP and other varieties of BP. As Tagliamonte (2002: 731) argues, “the constraint hierarchy of factors provides a diagnostic for comparison.” She notes that not only rates of application of the rule or environmental constraints are critical in language change but the constraint hierarchy as well. Hence, there seems to be a language specific constraint preventing clusters where the following/preceding alveolar sibilant blocks the affricate pronunciation of dental stops before /i/. The position of /s/ at the bottom of the constraint hierarchy suggests that the underlying grammar producing the dental variant is basically the same in both UP and BP.

The present analysis highlights the fact that palatalization of dental stops is more likely to occur when followed by a vowel, glide or lateral (realized as a velar glide [w] in coda position). The preceding phonological constraint does not have nearly the effect that the following segment does. This finding patterns cross-dialectally but does not correlate with the 1995 sample. While vowels and nasals slightly favor palatalization of dental stops, liquids and sibilants disfavor it.

Tonicity of the syllable has shown to be the weakest factor group conditioning palatalization of /ti/, /di/ in UP. Multivariate results show that the more frequent environment for rule application is the unstressed syllable. The unexpected result could be analyzed as Rivera speakers’ preference for adopting the palatalization rule in less complex phonological environments to signal alliance with community linguistic norms. An additional factor to be considered is the potential influence of the Spanish language, where the affricate realization of dental stops is not operative, as a contributing factor favoring a less salient environment for rule application.

8.2.1 Age

First, the greatest effect is contributed by the factor age group, with a relative magnitude of 49. This is the strongest social constraint conditioning palatalization of stops in contemporary UP in Rivera. As expected and consistent with previous studies, the youngest speakers (15–29 years old) tend to prefer the palatal variant at (.70).

This finding mirrors previous studies of UP and different varieties of BP. In fact, 1995 data show that the youngest participants (15–29 years old) strongly favor the palatal variant at (.91). This pattern can also be found across dialects. In Bisol’s (1991) study, the youngest group, formed by speakers aged 25–35 years old, used the innovative variant more often, presenting a factor weight of .63. In the Antônio Prado study, Battisti and Hermans (2009) report that the palatal variant is favored by young people who live in the city’s urban area.

Figure 4 shows the distribution across ages in the 1995 and 2007 data. Clearly, younger speakers strongly favor the innovative variant of /ti/, /di/ in contemporary UP, while older speakers disfavor it. These findings are evidence that palatalization of dental stops is strongly conditioned by speakers’ age. As Labov (1972) argues, when the conservative variant has a proportionately higher ratio of occurrences among older speakers, and when the innovative variant finds higher ratio of preference among younger speakers, age stratification of this sort may be interpreted as an index of change, i.e., ‘change in apparent-time.’ However, the synchronic generational differences found in the present study point also to the possibility of age-grading, thus, for the time being, I will consider both interpretations.

As Figure 4 shows, there is a repeated age-gradient distribution among the groups. While in the 2007 sample young and young adults favor the innovative variant, older speakers disfavor it. The 1995 sample shows that while young people prefer the palatal variant, young adults and older speakers disfavor it. However, a cross-sectional analysis shows that the decreasing frequencies among the 1995 and 2007 Generation 1 group points out that the latter generation has adopted the innovative variant but at a slower pace than the former generation did.

On the other hand, the present study shows that speakers in the 2007 Generation 2 group (30–49 years old) tend to favor the innovative variant at (.62), while the 1995 data shows a different scenario: speakers in this age bracket tend to favor the dental variant showing a low probability (.29). This finding can be interpreted as a ‘sustained’ use of the palatal variant over time by this generation. That is, speakers in the 2007 Generation 2 group (30–49 years old) were 18 and 37 years old, respectively, twelve years earlier, which is the time depth of the study. Carvalho reports an almost categorical (.91) probability of use of the palatal variant among speakers in the 1995 Generation 1 group and (.29) for speakers in the Generation 2 group. The generational differences across studies indicate that the 1995 Generation 1 group (15–29 years old) started out at (.91) probability of rule application. These speakers have continued favoring the palatal variant but at a much slower pace as indicated by the decrease (.62) in the 2007 Generation 2 group.

In a direction that is similar to the findings of previous research; 2007 data show that Generation 3 speakers (50–70 years old) prefer the conservative variant at (.21). Older participants in the 1995 sample show a mere (.05) of preference for the palatal variant. Cross-dialectally, the same pattern can be found. Bisol (1991) reports that the older group, speakers aged 36–55 years old, favors the conservative pronunciation of dental stops, showing a probability of rule application of (.37).

Comparing across studies, speakers in the 2007 Generation 3 group (50–70 years old) were 38 and 58 years old, respectively, in 1995. The probability of palatalization for speakers in this age-cohort in 1995 falls between Generation 2 (.29) and Generation 3 (.05). These results indicate that for speakers in this age group, the dental variant is still the norm. However, these speakers, also, slightly favor the palatal variant at very sparse rates, reaching in 2007 an unfavorable (.21) of rule application.

It is worth noting that linguistic variables undergoing change might reach a point of relative stability. In fact, this is not an unusual finding. As Chambers (2002: 364) points out, “linguists long recognized that rates of change fluctuate, and that periods of relative stability can be followed by periods of considerable flux.” Carvalho’s (1998) results show strong rates of palatalization distributed across age groups ranging from 0.05 to 0.91. Thus, the time window³ captured in the 1995 data signaled a synchronic pattern of a vigorous change. However, a generation later, comparative data indicate that the linguistic change has come to a relative pause.

In line with previous research, Battisti and Hermans (2009: 235) report that palatalization of dental stops shows signs of stabilizing in the speech community of Antônio Prado due to strong social conditioning. The fact that apparent-time data from a neighboring state in Brazil shows an identical distribution further strengthens the results. This is a worthwhile finding since it indicates that UP in the speech community of Rivera is marching in line with southern BP varieties in response to regional changes.

8.2.2 Socioeconomic group

Consistent with previous studies, the socioeconomic factor group does not have nearly as great an effect as the factor age group. The socioeconomic group demonstrates the second highest magnitude of effect in the analysis, obtaining a range of 37. This finding is consistent with previous studies of UP and across varieties of BP. Not only is this factor selected as significant but the constraint ranking mirrors that of the 1995 data.

Results show that participants in the higher socio-economic class bracket, mid-middle class, strongly favor the palatal variant (.76), whereas low-middle and working class speakers exhibit the same low probability of palatalization of dental stops (.39). It is worth noting that speakers in the low-middle and working class groups show the same tendency to use the innovative variant. This finding may indicate that palatalization of dental stops is moving along social spheres over time. Once more, these findings resemble 1995 data results. Mid-middle class speakers produced more palatalized variants (.81), whereas low-middle and working class speakers tended to favor the conservative pronunciation of dental stops at (.34 and .30), respectively.

As in previous research, palatalization of dental stops shows a clear social stratification. The wealthy and middle class inhabitants, who identify with Montevideo culture and distance themselves from UP speakers, favor palatalization of dental stops, whereas the poor and working class inhabitants, who identify with local border culture, disfavor it. Furthermore, these results are consistent across dialects of BP. Battisti and Hermans (2009) found that speakers living in the urban area give room to the innovative palatalized variants, while informants living in rural areas prefer the more conservative non-palatalized variant.

Figure 5 shows a clear pattern of social stratification in which the wealthiest speakers tend to prefer the incoming palatalized variant, while the low-middle and working class speakers favor the conservative form. The extralinguistic factor socio-economic status provides an unambiguous picture. The results of this analysis indicate that palatalization of dental stops in Rivera can be interpreted as a sociolinguistic marker since it seems to signal social class, due to the clear break among the social groups. A social marker refers to a linguistic feature whose usage marks or correlates with social characteristics or identity; in fact, Labov (1972: 220) argues that for a prestige marker, the higher a speaker’s socioeconomic status, the higher the frequency of use, whereas for stigmatized markers, the reverse is true. Statistical results point to the fact that palatalization of dental stops is a social marker in the speech community of Rivera.

8.2.3 Gender

The last extralinguistic factor group tested was gender. This social factor showed the lesser magnitude of effect in the analysis, obtaining a range of 24. Once again, the two sets of data show consistency. As expected, statistical results clearly reveal that women tend to produce more palatalized variants (.62) than men (.38). These results also pattern with the 1995 data, where women favored the innovative variant (.60) whereas men at (.39) showed a clear preference for the conservative realization of /ti/, /di/.

Figure 6 shows the findings in both studies. As seen above, the picture is unambiguous, showing that females are clearly ahead of men in using the innovative variant. Not only do genders pattern similarly across studies, they also exhibit almost identical probability of preference for the innovative variant. Noticeably, women lead men by a considerable margin in palatalization of dental stops. These results indicate that females are leading the adoption of the innovative variant in the speech community of Rivera.

The results of this analysis pattern across speech communities where sociolinguistic research has identified the important role of women in advancing language change. It is well known that women use fewer non-standard variants than men of the same social group. In fact, as Chambers (2002: 352) argues, the linguistic correlations with gender are consistent and partly predictable. Thus, unsurprisingly, women proved to be advancing the process of adoption of the palatal variant in contemporary UP in Rivera.

In sum, as far as the social factors are concerned, the 2007 data are generally consistent with previous research both in UP and across dialects of BP. As hypothesized, the factor group speakers’ age proved to exert the strongest social constraint conditioning palatalization of /ti/, /di/ in Rivera. Data results confirmed the hypothesis that younger speakers tend to favor the palatal variant. However, the hypothesized increase in the use of this variant over time among the younger speakers is not confirmed in the present investigation. Cross-sectional evidence indicates that palatalization of dental stops has reached a relatively stable mode at the level of the speech community. In line with previous research, stability is also found across varieties of BP. This finding signals that UP is marching alongside southern varieties of BP.

Socioeconomic status has been found to be a strong social constraint conditioning palatalization of dental stops. As multivariate analysis results indicate, mid-middle class speakers tend to use the innovative variant more often than low-middle and working class speakers. As predicted, women are ahead of men by a considerable margin in palatalization of dental stops. These results indicate that females are advancing the adoption of the innovative variant in the speech community of Rivera.