phonetic map of Brazil

[gusl]

Someone has come up with the following map:


I am trying to draw a linguistic map of Brazil based on phonological features (i.e. want to draw lines like the pronunciation of the "r" in Britain), but I also want to draw lexical lines (like the bucket-pail line in America). The most salient variations in Brazilian Portuguese are the following:

Phonetic Variations
s -> [sh] in Rio and Recife but [s] elsewhere. "casca": [kashka] vs [kaska]
s before t -> [sh] in most of the Northeast. "casca"[kaska], "bosta"[boshta]
ti, di -> [tshi], [dzhi] (like in Japanese) in most of Brazil, with exceptions in the Northeast and the South. "bom dia, tia": [bõ dzhía, tshía] vs [bõ día, tía]
intervocalic rr -> [h] in most of Brazil, except in the South, where it's [r] or [rr] (not sure). Where it becomes [h], it usually goes to -> [] (null) when at the end of a word (e.g. all verbs), with exceptions in some places if the next word begins with a vowel.
e, o at the end of a word -> [i], [u] except in the South e.g. "violino": [violínu] vs [violíno]
e, o in early syllables of late-accent words -> [i], [u] in some places in the Northeast. e.g. "violino": [viulínu] vs [violínu]
Nasalization of vowels preceding a nasal consonant: in most of Brazil, "banana"[bãnãna]. Some places in the South, including perhaps Mineiro and Fluminense dialects, would say [banãna]
inho, inha -> [i~o, i~a] in most of Brazil but [i~] in Mineiro.
[u~a] in most of Brazil vs [uma] in São Paulo
em at the end of a word -> [e~i~] in most of Brazil. "também"->[també~i~]
In São Paulo, this is taken further: "entender"[enteindér]
In Rio, schwas are often inserted after the vowel in the accented syllable. This feature of their speech is considered rather ridiculous by most Brazilians, and it's target of many jokes and impressions of Rio surfer dudes.

Lexical Variations:
macaxeira vs aipim
biscoito vs bolacha
farol vs sinal de trânsito
uma tapa vs um tapa

Variations in Intonation and Rhythm:
Northeasterns supposedly talk in a singing tone, especially when asking a question.

Variations in Grammar:
tu quer (Northeast), tu queres (Maranhão, Rio Grande do Sul)

Variations in Word Choice:
The polite forms "o senhor", "a senhora" may be the only respectful address of older people in some regions.

Comments

[thepublicguy.livejournal.com]

You're lucky you only have linguistics divisions in your country, as far as I can tell. I have linguistic divisions in my immediate family.

My idiot of an older brother insists on speaking with a northern accent even though everyone else speaks with a southern accent. We spent four years in the north when he was between the ages of 14 and 18 and he says this was his formative period. A brother who's one year younger than him has no trace of the accent. Even my mum who lived in the north till she was 20 or so has no trace.

For him, it's a political statement that makes him feel as if he's in touch with his working class roots and socialist values. (Explanation: a southern accents is usually posh although there are downmarket variants.)

To me his accent is just an affectation. The kind of thing I'd expect from someone with a major-league anxiety disorder who wants to fit in with people he identifies with, regardless of how odd it seems to those who grew up with him.

As you can tell, I'm not a dispassionate observer.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

My sister sometimes affects a blend of pretentious Rio-Mineiro-Southern accents, especially when talking on the phone. I hate, hate, hate it, and I cringe when I hear it.

Yet, I'm not so sure that there is a fine line between affectation and "genuine" accent. This is probably much more the case when we're talking about second languages (as English is for me). Right now I comfortably speak with a convincing "East Coast" American accent (so say the Californians I've met). But I can also sound less American while being "true to myself". I think I could speak your Southern England accent convincingly if I lived there for a year (I already lived in London for 4 years, you see... my first fluent English accent (i.e. not counting English lessons before living there) was a blend between my Northeast Brazilian accent, the Londoners I spoke with and the American spoken at school). 6 years later, I have apparently gotten rid of all traces of my Brazilian accent when speaking English (with very occasional incidents of a mispronunciation... though my grammatical "accent" surfaces a little more often) but now I'm speaking American.