Nasal vowels in Brazilian Portuguese: preliminary considerations in a revisit

Abstract

This articles proposes a reflection about the nasal vowel phenomenon in Brazilian Portuguese by analyzing the

biphonemic proposal and acoustic phonetic production features to propose a representation which is able to capture

its variability. Although nasal vowels have formant patterns as regular as their oral counterparts, it remains difficult to estimate the precise limit between two phonemes or even two phases (biphasic proposal, an alternative to thebiphonemic proposal). In this way, the existence of a purely oral portion in the beginning of the vowel is called into question. Also discussed is the variable nature of the nasal murmur, usually present in syllabic contexts in which the nasal vowel precedes an obstruent, but absent when it precedes a fricative. It can be concluded that the variable nature of the nasal vowel is better explained by a dynamical perspective as the one proposed by Articulatory Phonology. Finally, a first approximation of the treatment of nasal vowels is proposed with the dynamical approach.