Acoustic aspects of the phonetic and phonological existence of long and nasal vowels in the Paiter (Suruí) language (Mondé family, Tupian stock)

contributions to its description and writing

Abstract

This article describes acoustic-experimental aspects that corroborate studies proposing the existence of long oral and nasal phonological vowels in the Paitér language (Suruí) (Mondé family, Tupí stock), through a comparative acoustic analysis of these vowels. The methodology includes acoustic analysis techniques of data provided by a native speaker of this language, focusing on the identification of distinctive vowel characteristics, considering formant values, the presence of antiformants, and variations in temporal duration. Furthermore, this work offers some considerations on the Paitér writing system, evaluating how the phonological and phonetic distinctions of the language are reflected in the current orthography. This study is based on descriptive and experimental linguistics theory, anchored in works related to the topic, including those dedicated to the Paitér language (Bontkes 1978, 1988a, 1988b; Bontkes and Bontkes 2009 [1978]; Meer (1982)), on the acoustic characteristics of the vowels of this language (Couto 2016, 2024), and works on general acoustic theory (Ladefoged 1975, 1981, 2001; Barbosa and Madureira 2015), in addition to the work of Rodrigues (2002) on indigenous languages. The results highlight specific patterns of vowel duration and quality, as well as striking differences between nasal and oral vowels, essential for understanding the phonological system of this language, and which ratify previous work carried out in segmental-articulatory analysis. The analysis of orthography also reveals challenges and opportunities for standardization, with important implications. for initiatives to strengthen and teach the Paitér indigenous language. This work is a significant contribution to the documentation and description of the Paitér language.