Variação linguística e humor na construção do caipira goiano

Abstract

Sociolinguistics studies language in its real use, taking into account the relationships between linguistic structure and the social and cultural aspects of its production. Considering this perspective, the present research analyzes the caipira speech, already characterized by Amaral (1920), focusing on the state of Goiás, in the rural/urban poles of the urbanization continuum proposed by Bortoni-Ricardo (2021). To this end, data will be used from the storyteller Geraldinho, an icon of Goiás culture, and the comedian duo Nilton Pinto and Tom Carvalho, also well-known in the state of Goiás. The research is based on the foundations of the Theory of Linguistic Variation and Change (Labov, 2008), particularly regarding the definition of stereotype (Labov, 1972; Bagno, 2007), as well as studies on linguistic variation and humor (Facin & Spessatto, 2007; Possenti, 2018). In order to investigate the construction of humor in the speech of the Goiás rustic, the study explores the role of the media in the dissemination of regional culture, focusing on three linguistic phenomena present in the analyzed narratives: depalatalization (velha ~ veia), the dropping of the occlusive in gerunds (mulher ~ muié), and non-standard nominal agreement. From this perspective, the data were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed, with the support of Netnography (Kozinets, 2014), used for corpus analysis of social media. This method was chosen due to the accessibility of videos featuring Geraldo Policiano Nogueira (now deceased) and the stories narrated by Nilton Pinto and Tom Carvalho, both from the interior of Goiás, who ended their performances in 2023. The selected sample consists of eight videos—four stories by Geraldinho and four by Nilton Pinto and Tom Carvalho—retrieved from the YouTube channels Frutos da Terra and Nilton Pinto e Tom Carvalho Oficial. The analyses revealed that, although the three variation phenomena occur in both Geraldinho’s stories and those of Nilton Pinto and Tom Carvalho, differences were observed regarding the potential intentionality behind their use. Despite the comedian duo being originally from Goiás, their speech does not appear to be as naturalized as Geraldinho’s, which is typically rustic. This fact may indicate that the linguistic variables characterizing caipira speech are deliberately used in the comedic context. From this, it can be inferred that the use of these variables reflects the spread of humor stereotyped by the media, based on the figure of the Goiás rustic.