Atitudes linguísticas em contraste: um estudo com falantes do Seridó Oriental paraibano

Abstract

The aim of this research was to understand the manifestations of linguistic attitudes of Paraibans from the Eastern Seridó micro-region. In light of the assumptions of the Theory of Linguistic Variation and Change (Weinreich, Labov and Herzog, 2006 [1968]; Labov, 2008 [1972]), in dialog with theoretical considerations that deal with linguistic attitudes (Allport, 1935; Lambert and Lambert, 1966; Fernández, 1998; Trudgill, 2003; Rodrigues, Assmar and Jablonski, 2009; Kaufmann, 2011), a qualitative and descriptive study was carried out. Given the lack of research that covers this microregion, the corpus was built through a direct approach, with audio-recorded interviews, involving 20 (twenty) participants from the Eastern Seridó of Paraíba, specifically from five cities (Baraúna, Cubati, Picuí, São Vicente do Seridó, and Tenório), which are communities with little social visibility. The participants were stratified according to territorial zone (urban and rural) and educational level (ranging from no formal education to complete secondary or higher education). The results revealed a complex and often paradoxical relationship between the participants' own speech and the speech of their community. Most participants expressed a positive attitude when the focus was on the geographic region, origins, and Northeastern/Paraiban identity. However, they also showed a negative tendency toward strictly linguistic traits or when comparing their variety to others with greater social prestige. Additionally, all participants recognized the existence of linguistic prejudice at the national level against the Paraiban way of speaking, which may be significantly shaping internal attitudes within the speech community itself, as some interviewees reported having experienced discrimination even within their own state and region. Regarding extralinguistic variables, the data suggest that these may influence how participants perceive themselves and their linguistic Variety, however, these patterns did not appear uniformly across categories, as having a higher education or living in urban areas did not guarantee entirely positive evaluations of one’s own speech. Therefore, the results demonstrate the coexistence of positive and negative attitudes that vary depending on the linguistic feature being evaluated. Thus, a complex set of factors and social dynamics operate in shaping linguistic attitudes.