Onde (ainda [j])há o fenómeno? Contributo para o estudo da inserção de glide entre vogais centrais

Abstract

We investigate glide insertion to break a hiatus between central vowels (V1_V2) in four regions of the Northern variety of European Portuguese (two urban and two rural), three discourse modalities and two age groups. We show that the process is optional and is bound by the intonational phrase domain in all regions. Both prosodic and sociolinguistic factors affect the frequency of occurrence of the phenomenon in variable ways among regions. Globally, insertion is more frequent when V2 bears higher levels of prominence and when V1 belongs to a clitic. Regions further north tend to insert more and (semi-)spontaneous tasks favor insertion. Age does not correlate with the frequency of insertion. We discuss the implications of these findings for the understanding of the synchronic status of the phenomenon.