I speak like the guys on TV: Palatalization and the urbanization of Uruguayan Portuguese Ana Maria Carvalho University of Arizona ABSTRACT This article investigates the sociolinguistic distribution of palatalization in Uru- guayan Portuguese (UP), based on data collected in a bilingual town on the Uruguayan–Brazilian border. It shows that palatalization of 0di 00 ti 0 has entered UP as a result of recent urbanization, which has allowed greater reception of and sensitivity to urban Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Following the tradition of variation- ist studies, this study identifies internal and external variables that determine the distribution of palatalization in the community, and argues that the groups that acquire BP do so as a reflection of an urban orientation, different from the border cultural and linguistic tradition. Qualitative data support the idea that this process is indirectly accelerated by exposure to Brazilian television, which provides a linguis- tic model for the groups that seek one. This is a new interpretation, in that previous studies have claimed that UP, as an oral minority language, is monostylistic dialect with no linguistic model. Uruguayan Portuguese (UP) is a rural and stigmatized variety spoken in several bilingual and diglossic communities along the Uruguayan–Brazilian border since colonial times. It has coexisted with Spanish, the national language 1 and the one preferred by groups of higher socioeconomic status, despite educational policies and language planning aimed at promoting Spanish monolingualism over the last two centuries. Lack of schooling in Portuguese and little access to written models led previous studies to conclude that UP is a monostylistic, rural, and heavily mixed dialect with no standard model (Behares, 1984b; Elizaincín, 1992). How- ever, the present study suggests that recent urbanization of border communities has allowed greater reception of and sensitivity to urban Brazilian Portuguese (BP), the variety spoken in the neighboring country, which has caused local UP to be pulled in the direction of the more prestigious variety. This tendency can be seen through the incorporation of new phonological variants in the speech of certain groups, which, by borrowing from urban BP, lead a linguistic change from extremely stigmatized varieties of UP to urban varieties, which are close to an ideal standard. Urbanization of UP, thus, entails a movement away from its rural and hybrid origin, toward an assimilation of linguistic features that are stereo- Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the 2001 American Association of Applied Linguistics and 2002 NWAVE meetings. Language Variation and Change, 16 (2004), 127–151. Printed in the U.S.A. © 2004 Cambridge University Press 0954-3945004 $9.50 DOI: 10.10170S0954394504162030 127