Portuguese Phonology Information

The phonology of Portuguese can vary considerably between dialects, in extreme cases leading to difficulties in intelligibility. This article focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard. Since Portuguese is a pluricentric language, and differences between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) can be considerable, both varieties are distinguished whenever necessary.

For finer information on regional accents, see Portuguese dialects, and for historical sound changes see History of Portuguese.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Portuguese is fairly conservative. The medieval affricates /ts/, /dz/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ merged with the fricatives /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, respectively, but not with each other, and there were no other significant changes to the consonant phonemes since then. However, several consonant phonemes have special allophones at syllable boundaries, and a few also undergo allophonic changes at word boundaries. Henceforward, the phrase "at the end of a syllable" can be understood as "before a consonant or at the end of a word".

Phonetic notes

1. Thomas (1974:8) says that in Brazil, the intervocalic consonant hereafter denoted as /ɲ/ may be realized as a nasal palatal approximant [j̃], which nasalizes the vowel that precedes it: [ˈnĩj̃u].
2. Bisol (2005:122) proposes that Portuguese possesses labio-velar stops /kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ as additional phonemes rather than sequences of a velar stop and /w/.^[3]
3. The consonant hereafter denoted as /ʁ/ has a variety of realizations depending on dialect. In Europe, it is typically a uvular trill [ʀ]; however, a pronunciation as a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] may be becoming dominant in the Lisbon area. There is also a realization as a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], and the original pronunciation as an alveolar trill [r] also remains common in various dialects.^[4] In Brazil, /ʁ/ can be velar, uvular, or glottal and may be voiceless unless between voiced sounds;^[5] it is usually pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x], a voiceless glottal fricative [h] or voiceless uvular fricative [χ]. See also Guttural R in Portuguese.
4. /s/ and /z/ are normally lamino-alveolar, as in English. However, a number of dialects in northern Portugal pronounce /s/ and /z/ as apico-alveolar sibilants (sounding somewhat like a soft [ʃ] or [ʒ]), as in the Romance languages of northern Iberia. A very few northeastern Portugal dialects still maintain the medieval distinction between apical and laminal sibilants (written s/ss and c/ç/z, respectively).

Further notes

• Although nasal consonants do not normally occur at the end of syllables, syllable-final /n/ may be present in rare learned words, such as abdómen ([ɐbˈdɔmɛn] 'abdomen'). In Brazilian varieties, these words have a nasal diphthong ([abˈdomẽj̃]).^[6] Word-initial /ɲ/ occurs in very few loanwords.^[7]
• In northern and central Portugal, the voiced plosives /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ may be lenited to fricatives [β], [ð], and [ɣ] respectively, except at the beginning of words, or after nasal vowels;^[7][8] a similar process occurs in Spanish.
• While the sibilant consonants (/s z ʃ ʒ/) contrast word-initially and intervocalically, they appear in complementary distribution in the syllable coda. For most dialects (i.e. those of Portugal and some of the Southeast, Northeast, and North parts of Brazil) the sibilant is a postalveolar in coda position, (e.g. pasto [ˈpaʃtu], 'pasture'; paz [paʃ], 'peace'). This "palatalization" is absent in a number of Brazilian dialects (e.g. [ˈpastʊ], [pas])^[9][10] like that of São Paulo, those of the Southern dialects and some Northern and Northeastern dialects. Voicing contrast is also neutralized, with [ʒ] or [z] occurring before voiced consonants and [ʃ] or [s] appearing before voiceless consonants and before a pause (e.g. pasta [ˈpaʃtɐ] or [ˈpastɐ] , 'paste'; Islão (or Islã) [iʒˈlɐ̃w̃] or [izˈlɐ̃] , 'Islam'). In European dialects, the postalveolar fricatives are only weakly fricated in the syllable coda.^[7]
• The consonant /l/ is velarized in European dialects. In most Brazilian dialects, /l/ is vocalized to [ʊ̯] at the end of syllables,^[9] but in the dialects of the extreme South it has the full pronunciation or the velarized pronunciation.^[11] In casual BP, unstressed il can be realized as [ju], as in fácil [ˈfasju] ('easy').^[12]
• In a number of Brazilian dialects (such as those of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo), the dental plosives are affricated to [tʃ] and [dʒ] before /i/ and /ĩ/.^[13]

Minimal pairs

Rhotics

The two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between vowels.^[14] Elsewhere, their occurrence is predictable by context. The rhotic is "hard" when it is word-initial or syllable-initial preceded by a syllable-final consonant (e.g. palra [ˈpaɫʁɐ]) as well as when it follows a nasal vowel (e.g. honrar [õˈʁaɾ]); and is "soft" when it occurs in syllable onset clusters (e.g. atributo [ɐtɾiˈbutʊ]).^[15] In the syllable coda, there is some variation: while the soft [ɾ] occurs in European Portuguese, in most dialects of Brazilian Portuguese this sound is either hard or is deleted altogether. For example, amar is [ɐˈmaɾ] in European Portuguese, but [aˈmaʁ] ~ [aˈmaχ] ~ [aˈmah] ~ [aˈma] in most Brazilian Portuguese dialects.^[16][17] This is also the case with African dialects. The soft realization is maintained across word boundaries (e.g. mar azul [ˈmaɾɐˈzuɫ], "blue sea").^[18]

This has prompted several authors to postulate a single rhotic phoneme. Câmara (1953) and Mateus & d'Andrade (2000) see the soft as the unmarked realization and that instances of intervocalic [ʁ] result from gemination and a subsequent deletion rule (i.e. carro /ˈkaɾɾo/ → [ˈkaɾʁu] → [ˈkaʁu]). Similarly, Bonet & Mascaró (1997) argue that the hard is the unmarked realization.

Vowels

Portuguese has one of the richest vowel phonologies of all Romance languages, having both oral and nasal vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs. A phonemic distinction is made between close-mid vowels /e o/ and the open-mid vowels /ɛ ɔ/, unlike in Spanish, though there is a certain amount of vowel alternation. European Portuguese has also two near-central vowels, one of which tends to be elided like the e caduc of French. Like standard Catalan, Portuguese uses vowel height to contrast stressed syllables with unstressed syllables; the vowels /a ɛ e ɔ o/ tend to be raised to [ɐ e i ɨ o u] (although [ɨ] occurs only in EP) when they are unstressed (see below for details). The dialects of Portugal are characterized by reducing vowels to a greater extent than others. Falling diphthongs are composed of a vowel followed by one of the high vowels /i/ or /u/; although rising diphthongs occur in the language as well, they can be interpreted as hiatuses.

The exact realization of the /ɐ/ varies somewhat amongst dialects. In Portugal, it is pronounced higher than in Brazil, approaching the mid-central vowel [ə] (see charts to the left).

In Brazil, [a] and [ɐ] occur in complementary distribution: [ɐ] occurs in final unstressed syllables and in stressed syllables before one of the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, or /ɲ/ followed by another vowel, and [a] elsewhere. Many of these are composed of a stressed word and an unstressed clitic, such as dá "he gives" and da "of the". Others are verb forms of the first conjugation such as pensamos "we think" and pensámos "we thought" (pensamos in Brazil).

Close-mid vowels and open-mid vowels (/e ~ ɛ/ and /o ~ ɔ/) contrast only when they are stressed.^[19] In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. In Brazilian Portuguese, they are raised to a high vowel ([i] and [u], respectively) after a stressed syllable.^[19]

European Portuguese possesses a near-close near-back unrounded vowel. It occurs in unstressed syllables such as in pegar [pɯ̽ˈɣaɾ] ('to grip').^[1] There is no standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for this sound. The IPA Handbook transcribes it as /ɯ̽/, but in Portuguese studies /ɨ/ or /ə/ is traditionally used. There are very few minimal pairs between this sound and either /e/ or /ɛ/ (except for monosyllabic clitics), and in relaxed pronunciation it is often elided. Some examples include sê [ˈse] ('be!') vs. sé [ˈsɛ] ('cathedral') vs. se [ˈsɯ̽] ('if') and pêlo [ˈpelu] ('hair') vs. pélo [ˈpɛlu] ('I peel off') vs. pelo [ˈpɯ̽lu] ('for the').^[20] However, there is the minimal pair pregar [pɾɯ̽ˈɣaɾ] ('to nail') vs. pregar [pɾɛˈɣaɾ] ('to preach'), the latter stemming from earlier preegar < Latin praedicāre.^[21]

Oral diphthongs

Diphthongs are not considered independent phonemes in Portuguese, but knowing them can help with spelling and pronunciation.

There are also some words with two vowels occurring next to each other like in iate and sábio may be pronounced both as rising diphthongs or hiatus.^[23][24]

The characteristic pronunciation of /l/ as [w] at the end of syllables in Brazilian Portuguese has created new diphthongs: [aw] (sal, "salt"), [ɛw] (mel, "honey"), [iw] (mil, "thousand"), [ow] (polvo, "octopus"), [ɔw] (sol, "sun"), [uw] (sul, "south"); this semivowel [w] is best analyzed as an allophone of the consonant /l/ at the end of syllables.

Oral triphthongs

The characteristic pronunciation of /l/ as [w] at the end of syllables in Brazilian Portuguese has created a new triphthong [waw] in words like qual.

Nasal vowels

Portuguese also has a series of nasalized vowels. Cruz-Ferreira (1995) analyzes European Portuguese with five monophthongs and four diphthongs, all phonemic: /ĩ ẽ ɐ̃ õ ũ ɐ̃ĩ õĩ ũĩ ɐ̃ũ/. Nasal diphthongs occur mostly at the end of words (or followed by a final sibilant), and in a few compounds.

Barbosa & Albano (2004) analyze the nasalized monophthongs of São Paulo Brazilian Portuguese as phonetically nasalized before an archiphoneme /N/ or a heterosyllabic nasal consonant. Nasalized diphthongs in this variant of Brazilian Portuguese are formed by combining [ẽ], [ɐ̃], [õ], or [ũ] with the offglide [ɪ̯̃] (except with /ɐ̃ʊ̃/).^[25]

Vowel alternation

The stressed relatively open vowels /a, ɛ, ɔ/ contrast with the stressed relatively close vowels /ɐ, e, o/ in several kinds of grammatically meaningful alternation:

• Between the base form of a noun or adjective and its inflected forms: ovo /o/ "egg", ovos /ɔ/ "eggs"; novo /o/, nova /ɔ/, novos /ɔ/, novas /ɔ/ "new" (masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, feminine plural);
• Between some nouns or adjectives and related verb forms: adj. seco /e/ "dry", v. seco /ɛ/ "I dry"; n. gosto /o/ "taste", v. gosto /ɔ/ "I like"; n. governo /e/ "government" v. governo /ɛ/ "I govern"; * Between different forms of some verbs: pôde /o/ "he could", pode /ɔ/ "he can";
• Between some pairs of related words: avô /o/ "grandfather", avó /ɔ/ "grandmother";
• In regular verbs, the stressed vowel is normally low /a, ɛ, ɔ/, but high /ɐ, e, o/ before the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, /ɲ/ (the high vowels are also nasalized, in BP);
• Some stem-changing verbs alternate stressed high vowels with stressed low vowels in the present tense, according to a regular pattern: cedo, cedes, cede, cedem /e-ɛ-ɛ-ɛ/; movo, moves, move, movem /o-ɔ-ɔ-ɔ/ (present indicative); ceda, cedas, ceda, cedam /e/; mova, movas, mova, movam /o/ (present subjunctive). (There is another class of stem-changing verbs which alternate /i, u/ with /ɛ, ɔ/ according to the same scheme);
• In central Portugal, the 1st. person plural of verbs of the 1st. conjugation (with infinitives in -ar) has the stressed vowel /ɐ/ in the present indicative, but /a/ in the preterite, cf. pensamos "we think" with pensámos "we thought". In BP, the stressed vowel is /ɐ̃/ in both, so they are written without accent mark.

There are also pairs of unrelated words that differ in the height of these vowels, such as besta /e/ "beast" and besta /ɛ/ "crossbow"; mexo /e/ "I move" and mecho /ɛ/ "I highlight (hair)"; molho /o/ "sauce" and molho /ɔ/ "bunch"; corte /ɔ/ "(a) cut" and corte /o/ "court"; meta /e/ "I put (subjunctive)" and meta /ɛ/ "goal"; and (only in Portugal) para /ɐ/ "for" and para /a/ "he stops". Since most polysyllabic homographs of this sort can be distinguished from context, the orthography does not usually differentiate them.

In EP, there are several minimal pairs in which a clitic containing the vowel /ɐ/ contrasts with a monosyllabic stressed word containing /a/: da vs. dá, mas vs. más, a vs. à /a/, etc. In BP, however, these words are all pronounced with /a/.

Unstressed vowels

Some isolated vowels (meaning those that are neither nasal nor part of a diphthong) tend to change quality in a fairly predictable way when they become unstressed. In the examples below, the stressed syllable of each word is in boldface. The term "final" should be interpreted here as "at the end of a word or before word-final -s".

With a few exceptions mentioned in the previous sections, the vowels /a/ and /ɐ/ occur in complementary distribution when stressed, the latter before nasal consonants followed by a vowel, and the former elsewhere.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the general pattern in the Southeastern and Southern accents is that the stressed vowels /a, ɐ/, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ neutralize to /a/, /e/, /o/, respectively, in unstressed syllables, as is common in Romance languages. In final unstressed syllables, however, they are raised to /ɐ/, /i/, /u/. In casual BP, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ may be raised to /i/, /u/ on any unstressed syllable.^[26]

European Portuguese has taken this process one step further, raising /a, ɐ/, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ to /ɐ/, /ɨ/, /u/ in all unstressed syllables. The vowels /ɐ/ and /ɨ/ are also more centralized than their Brazilian counterparts. The three unstressed vowels /ɐ, ɨ, u/ are reduced and often voiceless, and in some cases elided in fast speech.

There are some exceptions to the rules above. For example, /i/ occurs instead of unstressed /e/ or /ɨ/, before another vowel in hiatus (teatro, reúne, peão). Also, /a/, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/ appear in some unstressed syllables, in EP. And there is some dialectal variation in the unstressed sounds: the northern accents of BP have low vowels in unstressed syllables, /ɛ, ɔ/, instead of the high vowels /e, o/. However, the Brazilian media tend to prefer the southern pronunciation. In any event, the general paradigm is a useful guide for pronunciation and spelling.

Nasal vowels, vowels that belong to falling diphthongs, and the high vowels /i/ and /u/ are not affected by this process, nor is the vowel /o/ when written as the digraph ⟨ou⟩.

Epenthesis

In BP, an epenthetic vowel [i] is sometimes inserted between consonants, to break up consonant clusters that are not native to Portuguese, in learned words and in borrowings.^[27][28] This also happens at the ends of words after consonants that cannot occur word-finally (e.g. /d/, /k/, /f/). For example, psicologia ('psychology') may be pronounced [pisikoloˈʒiɐ]; adverso ('adverse') may be pronounced [adʒiˈvɛχsu]; McDonald's may be pronounced [makiˈdõnawdʒis]; and both rock and hockey are typically pronounced [ˈχɔki]. In northern Portugal, an epenthetic [ɨ] may be used instead, [pɨsikuluˈʒiɐ], [ɐðɨˈβɛɾsu], but in southern Portugal there is often no epenthesis, [psikuluˈʒiɐ], [ɐdˈvɛɾsu]. Epenthesis at the end of a word does not normally occur in Portugal.

The native Portuguese consonant clusters, where there is not epenthesis, are sequences of a non-sibilant oral consonant followed by the liquids /ɾ/ or /l/,^[27] and the complex consonants /ks, kw, ɡw/.^[28] Some examples:

flagrante [flaˈɡɾɐ̃tɨ], complexo [kõˈplɛ.ksu], fixo [ˈfi.ksu] (but not ficção [fikˈsɐ̃w]), latex [latɛks], quatro [ˈkwatɾu], guaxinim [ɡwaʃiˈnĩ]

Further notes on the oral vowels

• Some words with /ɛ ɔ/ in EP have /e o/ in BP. This happens when those vowels are stressed before the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, followed by another vowel, in which case both types of vowel may occur in European Portuguese, but Brazilian Portuguese only allows high vowels. This can affect spelling: cf. EP tónico, BP tônico "tonic".
• In BP, stressed vowels have nasal allophones, [ɐ̃], [ẽ], etc. (see below) before one of the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, /ɲ/, followed by another vowel. In EP, nasalization is nearly absent in this environment.
• Some BP speakers also diphthongize stressed vowels to [ai̯], [ɛi̯], [ei̯], etc. (except /i/), before a sibilant at the end of a syllable (written s, x, or z). For instance, Jesus [ʒeˈzui̯s] "Jesus", faz [fai̯s] "he does", dez [dɛi̯s] "ten". This has led to the use of meia (meaning "meia dúzia", or "half a dozen") for seis [sei̯s] "six" when making enumerations, to avoid any confusion with três [tɾei̯s] "three" on the telephone.^[29]
• In Lisbon and surrounding areas, stressed /e/ is pronounced [ɐ] or [ɐi] when it comes before a palatal consonant /ʎ/, /ɲ/ or a palato-alveolar /ʃ/, /ʒ/, followed by another vowel.
• In EP, if two adjacent syllables have the vowel /i/ as their vowel, the first /i/ vowel is often realized as [ɨ]: m[ɨ]nistro, F[ɨ]lipe, d[ɨ]ficuldade. There are, however, many exceptions (f[i]nito), as well as some variation (d[i]fícil or d[ɨ]fícil). A similar (but more widespread) phenomenon affects this vowel when it occurs in unstressed syllables and immediately before palatal or post-alveolar consonants: f[ɨ]lhote, m[ɨ]nhoca, b[ɨ]chano, t[ɨ]jolo. It also occurs before fricative codas (which are post-alveolar in EP): d[ɨ]stância.

Sandhi

When two words belonging to the same phrase are pronounced together, or two morphemes are joined in a word, the last sound in the first may be affected by the first sound of the next (sandhi), either coalescing with it, or becoming shorter (a semivowel), or being deleted. This affects especially the sibilant consonants /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and the unstressed final vowels /ɐ/, /i, ɨ/, /u/.

Consonant sandhi

As was mentioned above, the dialects of Portuguese can be divided into two groups, according to whether syllable-final sibilants are pronounced as postalveolar consonants /ʃ/, /ʒ/ or as alveolar /s/, /z/. At the end of words, the default pronunciation for a sibilant is voiceless, /ʃ, s/, but in connected speech the sibilant is treated as though it were within a word (assimilation):

• If the next word begins with a voiceless consonant, the final sibilant remains voiceless /s, ʃ/; bons tempos [bõʃ ˈtẽpuʃ] or [bõs ˈtẽpus] "good times".
• If the next word begins with a voiced consonant, the final sibilant becomes voiced as well /z, ʒ/; bons dias [bõʒ ˈdiɐʃ] or [bõz ˈdʒiɐs] "good days".
• If the next word begins with a vowel, the final sibilant is treated as intervocalic, and pronounced [z]; bons amigos [bõz ɐˈmiɡuʃ] or [bõz aˈmiɡus] "good friends".

When two identical sibilants appear in sequence within a word, they reduce to a single consonant. For example, nascer, desço, excesso, exsudar are pronounced with [s] by speakers who use alveolar sibilants at the end of syllables, and disjuntor is pronounced with [ʒ] by speakers who use postalveolars. But if the two sibilants are different they are pronounced separately. Thus, the former speakers will pronounce the last example with [zʒ], and the latter speakers will pronounce the first examples with [ʃs] (although in relaxed pronunciation the first sibilant in each pair may be dropped). This applies also to words that are pronounced together in connected speech:

• sibilant + /s/, e.g. as sopas: either [ʃs] or [s];
• sibilant + /z/, e.g. as zonas: either [ʒz] or [z];
• sibilant + /ʃ/, e.g. as chaves: either [ʃ] or [sʃ];
• sibilant + /ʒ/, e.g. os genes: either [ʒ] or [zʒ].

Vowel sandhi

Normally, only the three vowels /ɐ/, /i/ (in BP) or /ɨ/ (in EP), and /u/ occur in unstressed final position. If the next word begins with a similar vowel, they merge with it in connected speech, producing a single vowel, possibly long (crasis). Here, "similar" means that nasalization can be disregarded, and that the two central vowels /a, ɐ/ can be identified with each other. Thus,

• /a, ɐ/ + /a, ɐ/ → [a(ː)]; toda a noite [ˈtoda(ː) ˈnoi̯tʃi] or [ˈtoda(ː) ˈnoi̯tɨ] "all night", nessa altura [ˈnɛs au̯ˈtuɾɐ] or [ˈnɛs aɫˈtuɾɐ] "at that point".
• /a, ɐ/ + /ɐ̃/ → [ã(ː)] (note that this low nasal vowel appears only in this situation); a antiga "the ancient one" and à antiga "in the ancient way", both pronounced [ã(ː)ˈtʃiɡɐ] or [ã(ː)ˈtiɡɐ].
• /i/ + /i, ĩ/ → [i(ː), ĩ(ː)]; de idade [dʒi(ː)ˈdadʒi] or [di(ː)ˈdadɨ] "aged".
• /ɨ/ + /ɨ/ → [ɨ]; fila de espera [ˈfilɐ dɨʃˈpɛɾɐ] "waiting line" (EP only).
• /u/ + /u, ũ/ → [u(ː), ũ(ː)]; todo o dia [ˈtodu(ː) ˈdʒiɐ] or [ˈtodu(ː) ˈdiɐ] "all day".

If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then /i/ and /u/ become approximants in Brazilian Portuguese (synaeresis):

• /i/ + V → [jV]; durante o curso [duˈɾɐ̃tʃj u ˈkuɾsu] "during the course", mais que um [mai̯s kj ũ] "more than one".
• /u/ + V → [wV]; todo este tempo [ˈtodw ˈestʃi ˈtẽpu] "all this time" do objeto [dw obiˈʒɛtu] "of the object".

In careful speech and in with certain function words, or in some phrase stress conditions (see Mateus and d'Andrade, for details), European Portuguese has a similar process:

• /ɨ/ + V → [jV]; se a vires [sj ɐ ˈviɾɨʃ] "if you see her", mais que um [mai̯ʃ kj ũ] "more than one".
• /u/ + V → [wV]; todo este tempo [ˈtodw ˈeʃtɨ ˈtẽpu] "all this time", do objecto [dw ɔbˈʒɛtu] "of the object".

But in other prosodic conditions, and in relaxed pronunciation, EP simply drops final unstressed /ɨ/ and /u/ (elision):

• /ɨ/ + V → [V]; durante o curso [duˈɾɐ̃t u ˈkuɾsu] "during the course", este inquilino [ˈeʃt ĩkɨˈlinu] "this tenant".
• /u/ + V → [V]; todo este tempo [tod ˈeʃtɨ ˈtẽpu] "all this time", disto há muito [diʃt a ˈmũi̯tu] "there's a lot of this".

Unlike French, for example, Portuguese does not indicate most of these sound changes explicitly in its orthography.

Stress

Primary stress may fall on any of the three final syllables of a word, but mostly on the last two. There is a partial correlation between the position of the stress and the final vowel; for example, the final syllable is usually stressed when it contains a nasal phoneme, a diphthong, or a close vowel. The orthography of Portuguese takes advantage of this correlation to minimize the number of diacritics.

Because of the phonetic changes that often affect unstressed vowels, pure lexical stress is less common in Portuguese than in related languages, but there is still a significant number of examples of it:

dúvida /ˈduvidɐ/ "doubt" (noun) vs. duvida /duˈvidɐ/ "he doubts"

ruiram /ʁuˈiɾɐ̃ũ/ "they collapsed" vs. ruirão /ʁuiˈɾɐ̃ũ/ "they will collapse"

falaram /faˈlaɾɐ̃ũ/ "they spoke" vs. falarão /falaˈɾɐ̃ũ/ "they will speak" (Brazilian pronunciation)

ouve /ˈovi/ "he hears" vs. ouvi /oˈvi/ "I heard" (Brazilian pronunciation)

túnel /ˈtunɛl/ "tunnel" vs. tonel /tuˈnɛl/ "wine cask" (European pronunciation)

Prosody

Tone is not lexically significant in Portuguese, but phrase- and sentence-level tones are important. There are of six dynamic tone patterns that affect entire phrases, which indicate the mood and intention of the speaker such as implication, emphasis, reservation, etc. As in most Romance languages, interrogation is expressed mainly by sharply raising the tone at the end of the sentence.

See also

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
• History of Portuguese
• Portuguese orthography, for further information on spelling
• Portuguese dialects
• Portuguese alphabet

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
2. ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:228–229)
3. ^ A proposta é que a sequencia consoante velar + glide posterior seja indicada no léxico como uma unidade monofonemática /kʷ/ e /ɡʷ/. O glide que, nete caso, situa-se no ataque não-ramificado, forma com a vogal seguinte um ditongo crescente em nível pós lexical. Ditongos crescentes somente se formam neste nível. Em resumo, a consoante velar e o glide posterior, quando seguidos de a/o, formam uma só unidade fonológica, ou seja, um segmento consonantal com articulação secundária vocálica, em outros termos, um segmento complexo.
4. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:5–6, 11)
5. ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:228)
6. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:22)
7. ^ ^{a b c} Cruz-Ferreira (1995:92)
8. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:11)
9. ^ ^{a b} Barbosa & Albano (2004:229)
10. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:13)
11. ^ http://www.ciberduvidas.com/pergunta.php?id=29411
12. ^ Major (1992:18)
13. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:16)
14. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:15)
15. ^ Bonet & Mascaró (1997:104)
16. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:12) citing Callou & Leite (1990:72–76)
17. ^ Other pronunciations in states such as Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo include [aˈmaɾ] ~ [aˈmaɹ] ~ [aˈmaɻ], etc. Bisol (2005:215)
18. ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:15–16)
19. ^ ^{a b} Major (1972:7)
20. ^ Mateus, Maria Helena Mira; Ana Maria Brito, Inês Duarte, Isabel Hub Faria (2003) (in Portuguese), Gramática da Língua Portuguesa, colecção universitária, Linguística (7 ed.), Lisbon: Caminho, pp. 995, ISBN 9722104454
21. ^ Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1988), The Romance Languages, Oxford: Oxford University Press
22. ^ ^{a b c} Major (1992:14)
23. ^ Solange Carlos de Carvalho, p. 32 - The unique kind of diphthong which doesn't swap with hiatus is that preceded by velar plosives such as that in quando and água.
24. ^ The syllabic separation given by the dictionaries of Portuguese indicates these vowels in iate and sábio can be pronounced both as diphthong or hiatus.
25. ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:230)
26. ^ Major (1992:10–11)
27. ^ ^{a b} O alinhamento relacional e o mapeamento de ataques complexos em português, Tatiana Keller, PUCRS, p.64 (p.4 in the attached PDF doc). (Portuguese)
28. ^ ^{a b} Verbal Stress Assignment in Brazilian Portuguese and the Prosodic Interpretation of Segmental Sequences, Cantoni & Cristófaro Silva, Faculty of Letters, Federal University of Minas Gerais (English)
29. ^ Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa, p. 1882

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
• Bisol, Leda (2005) (in Portuguese), Introdução a estudos de fonologia do português brasileiro, Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul: EDIPUCRS, ISBN 85-7430-529-4, http://books.google.com/?id=TFzWAq-S7I0C&pg=PA215
• Bonet, Eulàlia; Mascaró, Joan (1997), "On the representation of contrasting rhotics", in Martínez-Gil, Fernando, Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages, Georgetown University Press, pp. 103–126
• Callou, Dinah; Leite, Yonne (1990), Iniciação à fonética e à fonologia, Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, ISBN 8571100969
• Câmara, Joaquim Mattoso, Jr. (1953), Para o Estudo da Fonémica Portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Organização Simões
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1999), "Portuguese (European)", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 126–130, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Major, Roy C. (1992), "Stress and Rhythm in Brazilian Portuguese", in Koike, Dale April; Macedo, Donaldo P, Romance Linguistics: The Portuguese Context, Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, ISBN 0897892976
• Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
• Thomas, Earl W. (1974), A Grammar of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, ISBN 082651197X, http://books.google.com.br/books?id=Gm8yS1ZKJ5gC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Vázquez Cuesta, Mendes da Luz, (1987) Gramática portuguesa, 3rd. ed. ISBN 84-249-1117-2

External links

• Omniglot's page on Portuguese Includes a recording of the phonemes and diphthongs (Brazilian Portuguese).
• The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal
• Phoneme summary, with samples
• Instituto Camões — A Pronúncia do Português Europeu
• The Phonology of Portuguese (excerpt)

Categories:

• Portuguese language
• Language phonologies

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See Also:

• Portuguese Navy