NASALIDADE

Resumo: Este trabalho argumenta que vogais nasais são resultantes de nasalização por uma coda nasal em Shawã, família Pano. Embora esta afirmação seja comum para as línguas desta família linguística (cf. SHELL, 1975; LOOS, 1977), a argumentação aqui apresentada é nova, uma vez que o comportamento de epêntese é descrito como evidência para a presença de uma coda nasal na língua. Antes de expor os resultados acerca da nasalidade em posição de coda, apresenta-se o acento tônico na língua indígena. Para tanto, como suporte teórico para nossa pesquisa, buscou-se respaldo nas ideias de Hayes (1995), Clements e Hume (1995), Piggott (1992), Halle (2002) entre outros.

Palavras-chave: Nasalidade. Acento. Língua indígena. Língua Shawã.

Abstract: This paper argues that nasal vowels are the result of nasal nasal coda in Shawã, the Pano family. Although this statement is common to the languages of this linguistic family (SHELL, 1975; LOOS, 1977), the argument here is new, since the behavior of epenthesis is described as evidence for the presence of a nasal coda in the Shawã Language. Before presenting the results about nasality in coda position, we present the tonic accent in the indigenous language. For this, as theoretical support for our research, we used the ideas of Hayes (1995), Clements and Hume (1995), Piggott (1992), Halle (2002) among others.

Keywords: Nasality. Accent. Indigenous language. Shawã language

Problems identified in the study and analysis of the phonology of Brazilian Indian languages belonging to the Macro-Jê branch such as Kaingang, Maxakali, and Mebengokre led the author to confirm the accuracy of some intuitions on the part of Piggott (1992) and Rice (1993) on dealing with relations between nasality and sonorancy (D'Angelis 1998). The applicability of the approach to the distinct processes of nasality and nasalization in Portuguese was verified with surprising results that recover some intuitions of Trubetzkoy (1939) and contribute to reconfirm the Mattoso Câmara's (1953; 1970) considerations, but at the same time go beyond them. This article presents the result of this investigation and its conclusions that suggest the validity and the necessity of reexamining even the phonemic inventory of the Portuguese language, an issue not at all questioned in the teaching of phonology, to take into account the linguistic changes in the phonological system of that langua...