PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL VARIATION OF CONSONANTAL AND VOCALIC SEGMENTS IN THE TIKUNA LANGUAGEVARIACIÓN FONÉTICO

Abstract

The present research investigates the phonetic-phonological variation of the Tikuna language in two indigenous communities located in Alto Solimões, seeking to understand how different linguistic realizations manifest among speakers and which factors may influence such occurrences. The study is grounded in the assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics, particularly in the contributions of Labov, Mollica, and Braga, as well as in phonetic-phonological studies developed by Silva and in research focused on the description of the Tikuna language. A qualitative and descriptive approach was adopted, based on the analysis of linguistic data collected from indigenous academics originating from the Tikuna communities of Feijoal and Betânia. The corpus consisted of linguistic productions recorded in a field research context, subsequently submitted to phonetic and phonological analysis. The results evidenced the occurrence of systematic variations involving vowel and consonant segments, including processes of substitution, suppression, and syllabic reorganization. The differences observed in the speech of the Tikuna indigenous academics reveal that the Tikuna language exhibits variation patterns conditioned by linguistic and sociocultural factors, confirming its dynamic and heterogeneous nature. It is concluded that the identified variants constitute legitimate manifestations of the internal linguistic diversity of the Tikuna language and contribute to the expansion of knowledge about its phonetic-phonological structure, reinforcing the importance of documentation, description, and appreciation of Brazilian indigenous languages.