Description of phonetic-phonological variation in the fingerspelled letter “E” in Libras

Abstract

Libras is usually expressed by the hands, but also involves facial and body expressions, as well as the use of signing space. Manual productions can, in general, be of two types: lexical signs and fingerspelling. The latter refers to the manual spelling of words of written Portuguese using hand configurations, HC, which represent the letters of the alphabet. The use of fingerspelling and the consequent formation of fingerspelled signs result from contact with the Portuguese language. This article discusses the phonetic-phonological variation in the manual letter ‘E’, observed during the production of fingerspelling and fingerspelled signs. In these productions it was noticed the occurrence of some phonological processes such as assimilation. Preliminary results suggest two possible allophones for the manual letter “E”, whose realization is influenced by the neighboring segment of the manual letter. I propose that the two allophones of the manual letter “E” already identified are represented by symbols [E●] and [E○], a notation which in the future may be extended to other manual letters’ possible allophones.