Reduction of the nasal diphthong in the word ‘não’ and the initial position of the intonational syntagma

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the different oral productions of the adverb não ‘no’ in two Brazilian Portuguese varieties. On the initial boundary of the intonational phrase, the nasal diphthong of the negation adverb can be reduced, which may lead to a phonological cliticization process. This process can be explained through phonological restrictions, as well the acoustic correlates of accent in Portuguese. The statistical, perceptive and auditory results indicate different phonological status for both functional words on the first position of the intonational phrase.