FROM FAVELA TO THE BAIXADA: THE VARIATION OF CODA (S) AND THE CONTINUUM OF URBAN NORM IN RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

This study investigates coda (s) variation in the Rio de Janeiro speech community, based on two new speech samples: FavRio, composed of residents from urban favelas, and Baixada-RJ, formed by speakers from the Baixada Fluminense region. The aim is to examine both linguistic and social constraints on the realization of alveopalatal, posterior, alveolar, and absence variants, as well as to analyze how these communities are positioned within the urban norm continuum. Grounded in Variationist Sociolinguistics (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]) and Usage-based Models (BYBEE, 2016; PIERREHUMBERT, 2003, 2016; CRISTÓFARO-SILVA; GOMES, 2017, 2020), the analysis shows that structural factors — such as following context, stress, and coda position — alongside social variables, such as sex and schooling, significantly influence the production of the posterior variant. Findings indicate that, although from peripheral territories, FavRio and Baixada-RJ speakers do not align with the patterns of socially excluded adolescents (EJLA sample) but rather converge with middle-class speakers (Census 2000 sample) and socially integrated adolescents (Fiocruz sample). Moreover, the study reveals that the centrality of the alveopalatal or posterior variant in the representation of specific lexical items varies according to speakers’ degree of social insertion, reflecting different ways of organizing linguistic knowledge. These results support the hypothesis of an urban norm continuum in the Rio de Janeiro speech community, in which social insertion and access to prestigious institutions influence both production and lexical representation.