Monophthongization Of Oral Falling Diphthongs In The Writing Of Children In Initial School Years

Abstract

The occurrence of monophthongization in falling diphthongs in the oral speech is a well-known fact. Some studious have been dedicated in observing how this phenomenon can appear in the writing, and this paper is according to them. Therefore the main aim of this paper is to carry out a field research that refers to the occurrence of monophthongization in falling diphthongs in the writing of students in initial years of Elementary School. The diphthongs [aj] and [ej] are the objects of this analysis, as in words “caixa" and "queijo" ("box" and "cheese") that can be written as "caxa" and "quejo", respectively, for instance. Forty-two students had participated in this field research, and they study in the 3rd, 4th and 5th years of a municipal school in the city of Bagé(RS - Brazil). The data were collected through pictures that represent words that contain the studied diphthongs. The pictures were showed to the students, and they should write the names of the represented objects. The results have indicated that the rate of monophthongization in the writing is low, and the diphthong [aj] presents a little less glide deletion than the diphthong [ej]. Furthermore, about the linguistic conditioners, it was possible to observe that the tap favors the occurrence of monophthongization. About the extralinguistic conditioners, it was verified that girls lightly favors the monophthongization, and an unexpected result was obtained in relation with the educational level of the informants, once the 4th year presented the highest rates of glide deletion. This study highlights the importance of teachers from initial grades to have the necessary linguistic knowledge to carry out a well-founded pedagogic intervention in cases in which the writing reveals patterns of variation that occur in the speech, as pointed by Mollica (2000).