Banca de DEFESA: GABRIEL FERREIRA BARROS

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GABRIEL FERREIRA BARROS
DATE: 24/09/2025
TIME: 15:00
LOCAL: Híbrido- Sala de Reuniões do IL / Online
TITLE:

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF THE ARUTANI LANGUAGE: AN ARTICULATORY, ACOUSTIC, AND PHONOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE IDIOLECT OF THE LAST SPEAKER IN BRAZIL

KEY WORDS:

Arutani; phonetics; phonology; Juanita Martinez; safeguarding; linguistic diversity; acoustic phonetics; phonemics.

PAGES: 243
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Lingüística
SUMMARY:

Arutani is an isolate language with only one living speaker in Brazil. In this study, we describe and analyze the phonetics and phonology of the Arutani spoken by Juanita Martinez, with the aim of documenting and safeguarding this variety of the language. Beyond its scientific and linguistic contribution, this research is also motivated by strong political concerns, such as raising awareness about Brazil’s linguistic diversity and the risk of silencing and extinction faced by languages like Arutani. For the description and analysis, we used data from the Arutani Dictionary (available in Chacon et al., 2020). From this dictionary, we relied on both its audio recordings and written records of the language, as well as some phonetic transcriptions. We employed a wide range of tools from acoustic phonetics, both practical and theoretical, in order to provide the most accurate and well-grounded description possible of the language’s phones. We analyzed and described the oral vowels (both stressed and unstressed), nasal and nasalized vowels, glides (due to their phonetic similarity to vowels), and vowel hiatuses in the language. In addition, we were able to present how stress manifests acoustically in Juanita’s speech. Following that, we conducted a study of the consonantal segments, analyzing and describing the plosives, plosives with secondary articulation, nasals, fricatives, and a single case of a tap. Based on the complete phonetic inventory, we then proceeded to the phonological and phonemic analysis. To do this, we grouped the phones into vowels and consonants and performed contrasts between phonetically similar sounds (PSS) in identical and analogous environments to identify phonemes and allophones. Subsequently, we defined the phonological status of glides within the system of the language, presented the characteristics of vowel nasality, and described stress from a metrical perspective. Finally, we analyzed syllable structure, Arutani’s phonotactics, and phenomena that arise in these contexts, such as heterosyllabic consonants and the ambisyllabicity of certain phonemes.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - MAGNUN ROCHEL MADRUGA - UFMG
Interna - 1556057 - FLAVIA DE CASTRO ALVES
Interno - 1084918 - RONALDO MANGUEIRA LIMA JUNIOR
Presidente - 2153208 - THIAGO COSTA CHACON