Prosodically-Conditioned Variation: Rhotics in Brazilian Veneto

The objective of this chapter is to examine rhotic variation in Brazilian Veneto (BV), an understudied heritage variety of Veneto spoken in several areas of Brazil. BV has been described as having a single rhotic phoneme, which is typically realized as a trill or tap (although other variants, such as a fricativized trill and an intermediate rhotic between the trill and the tap, have also been identified; see Frosi & Mioranza, 1983; Guzzo, 2022). It is unclear, however, which factors condition rhotic variation in BV. This chapter investigates the hypothesis that such variation is conditioned by prosodic structure; that is, more salient (i.e., longer) rhotics should surface in strong prosodic positions (e.g., stressed and/or word-initial syllables). In other words, strong prosodic positions should favor trills over taps, or any possible rhotic form with a longer duration relative to a tap.