Repair strategies and the different dialect variants of the /R/ in coda in two cities in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Purpose: to verify the use of repair strategies and the use of the variants of the archiphoneme /R/ in medial and fi nal coda in two Rio Grande do Sul cities, in Brazil. Methods: Speech data were collected from 60 children in Santa Maria and from 52 children from Sobradinho. The ages were 2:6 to 5:0 and 3:2 to 5:4, respectively. The dependent variables considered were: tap, retrofl ex, multiple vibrant, semivocalization, segment omission, syllable omission, assimilation, metathesis, epenthesis, and compensatory lengthening. The considered intervening variables were: age, sex, tonicity, preceding and following syllable context, number of syllables, grammatical class, and word and syllable position. The statistical program VARBRUL was used, with signifi cance level of 5%. Results: While in Santa Maria there was preponderance of the repair strategy segment omission, in Sobradinho the semivocalization was predominant, in medial coda as in fi nal coda. Besides, the environments which infl uenced the occurrence of these repair strategies act differently in each city and in each variant. Conclusion: it was possible to evidence differences related to the use of repair strategies in each city, as well as to the environments which are favorable for the occurrence of these strategies.