Prominence augmentation and maximization of contrast via glide epenthesis in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of positional prominence and the functional goals of maximizing contrasts on glide insertion and deletion phenomena in vowel sequences of Brazilian Portuguese, for example, the epenthesis as hiatus resolution, “frear – fre[j]ar” (‘to break’)/ “voa” – “vo[w]a” (‘fly’ 3p.sg.) and the reduction of diphthongs to a single vowel, “cadeira – cade[ ]ra” (‘chair’)/ “roupa” – “ro[ ]pa” (‘cloth’). Based on an acceptability judgment test in which participants should evaluate the different pronunciations of real and nonce words as “natural” or “unnatural” and on a mixed-effects logistic regression model, it was attested that the epenthesis in hiatus was preferred in stressed or initial V1 positions and deletion of glides in diphthongs was less preferred in monosyllables, all positions of high psycholinguistic and/or phonetic prominence in which the non-insertion or deletion of the glide would result in a lack of sonority demanded by those positions. Regarding contrast, diphthongs with greater dispersion in the F2 dimension are more resistant to deletion while less contrastive diphthongs are more reduced because they are also less perceptive. Although it is widely argued that epenthesis occurs in the onset of V2 due to the ONSET restriction (all syllables must have onsets), it is argued that the glide is attached to the V1 as a result of the demand for high sonority in the position of stressed V1 which is not satisfied by the mid-high vowel [e o], in addition to the fact that the glide has features similar to the preceding vowel (V1). It is concluded that positional prominence and the degree of contrast influence the insertion and deletion phenomena of glides in Brazilian Portuguese.