Sociolinguistic evaluations on the use of ‘tu’ and ‘você’ in the Maranhão variety of Portuguese

Abstract

Based on the theoretical framework of Variationist Sociolinguistics (Weinreich, Labov, Herzog, 2006 [1968]; Labov, 2006 [1966]; 2008 [1972]), this article analyzes metacommentaries on Maranhão speech, aiming to access which sociolinguistic evaluations emerge from the speakers’ discourse regarding the discourse of overvaluation of Maranhão Portuguese, especially concerning the variable uses of the second-person pronouns “tu” and “você”. Initially, an analysis of audio recordings and transcripts of sociolinguistic interviews was conducted, which comprised two speech samples: ludovicense (Santos, 2015) and bacabalense (Lopes, 2019). The results of this analysis showed that ludovicenses, compared to bacabalenses, were much more productive in presenting metacommentaries about their way of speaking and somewhat demonstrated the belief that Maranhão people, especially ludovicenses, speak the best Portuguese in Brazil. To complement the bacabalense sample and compare it with the ludovicense sample, it was proposed to construct a sample of sociolinguistic evaluations from bacabalenses. Analyses of these latest interviews revealed that, when more directly prompted about the discourse of overvaluation of Maranhão Portuguese, bacabalenses show a positive evaluation of this discourse, as do ludovicenses. Finally, by comparing the sociolinguistic evaluations of ludovicenses and bacabalenses, this work contributes to the expansion of the sociolinguistic description of Maranhão Portuguese, especially in terms of discussing how Maranhão people evaluate their own variety.
Keywords: Sociolinguistic Evaluation. Second-Person Pronouns. Tu and Você. Bacabal. São Luís.