LEXICAL VARIATION IN DATA FROM THE ALIB PROJECT (STATE CAPITALS): AMULETS IN FOCUS

Abstract

The article presented here is a section of the investigations carried out within the Postgraduate Program in Language and Culture (PPGLinC) at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), initiated in 2024. It integrates a study on lexical variation linked to the Projeto Atlas Linguístico do Brasil (ALiB). The purpose is to discuss some of the partial results of the ongoing research conducted by Jesus (2025), funded by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), aiming to identify and describe the lexical variation in the thematic field religion and beliefs, based on current research projects (Ribeiro, 2018–2025). The research involves the analysis of responses provided by 200 informants from 25 state capitals in Brazil, all part of the ALiB Project’s network of survey points. For this purpose, question 150 of the Questionário Semântico-Lexical of the Project is taken as a reference, formulated as follows: “Como chamam o objeto que algumas pessoas usam para dar sorte ou afastar males?” (Comitê Nacional do Projeto ALiB, 2001, p. 33). The study is based on the theoretical and methodological principles of Lexicology, Dialectology, and Pluridimensional Geolinguistics, focusing on the study of spatial and lexical variation. The methodology adopted follows that prescribed by the Projeto ALiB, with adaptations made by Ribeiro (2012) for describing the lexicon from the perspective of visualizing dialectal areas in Brazil.The corpus analysis allowed for the identification of certain aspects of lexical diversity present in Brazilian Portuguese and revealed distinct linguistic behaviors noticeable in the speech of interviewees from the analyzed capitals. The study showed that “amuleto/amuleto da sorte” predominates in Brazilian capitals, demonstrating its status as a lexical norm. At the same time, the research captured other linguistic realities by recording additional variants, namely: “talismã”, “patuá”, “protetor/meu protetor”, “guia/guia da sorte”, and “breve”. The results were presented in tables and linguistic maps, followed by analyses.