This work aims to analyse the variable behaviour of the pretonic mid-vowels in the variety of the Northwest of São Paulo State. These vowels are subject to the phonological phenomenon named "vowel raising", through which the mid-vowels /e/ and /o/ are pronounced, respectively, as [i] and [u], e.g. p[i]queno and c[u]sturando. As a theoretical background, the Theory of Linguistic Variation and Change (Labov, 1991 [1972]) is followed. Through the utilisation of the statistical package GOLDVARB-X, it was observed, for instance, the selection of the "height of the vowel in the subsequent syllable" as the most relevant variable to the vowel raising of both /e/ and /o/, with high relative weights concerning the high vowels. This result evinces a substantial actuation of the vowel harmony to the application of the phenomenon. Another relevant result is the small influence of the social variables to the application of vowel raising, which demonstrates that this phenomenon is related, primarily, to information of linguistic nature.
Linguistic Variation; Quantitative Sociolinguistics; Phonology; Pretonic Mid-vowels; Vowel Raising
