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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.
[edit] ConsonantsThe 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. In the following, the phrase "at the end of a syllable" can be understood as "before a consonant, or at the end of a word".
Phonetic notes
[edit] Further notes
[edit] Minimal pairs
[edit] RhoticsThe two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between vowels.[16] Elsewhere, their occurrence is predictable by context. The rhotic is a trill (R forte) 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 the flap (R brando) occurs in syllable onset clusters (e.g. atributo [ɐtɾiˈbutu], respectively).[17] In the syllable coda, there is some variation: while the flap [ɾ] occurs in European Portuguese, in most dialects of Brazilian Portuguese it is either the trill or it is deleted altogether. For example, amar is [ɐˈmaɾ] in European Portuguese, but [aˈmaʁ] ~ [aˈmaχ] ~ [aˈmah] ~ [aˈma] in most Brazilian Portuguese,[18][19] This also occurs in African dialects.[citation needed] The flap realization is maintained across word boundaries (e.g. mar azul [ˈmaɾɐˈzuɫ], 'blue sea').[20] This has prompted several authors to postulate a single rhotic phoneme. Câmara (1953) and Mateus & d'Andrade (2000) see the flap 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 trill is the unmarked realization. [edit] 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 the 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. The exact realization of the /ɐ/ varies somewhat amongst dialects. In Portugal, it is pronounced higher than in Brazil, approaching the mid central unrounded 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.[citation needed] In European Portuguese, the general situation is similar (with [ɐ] being more prevalent in unstressed syllables), except that for some regions there are minimal pairs for the two vowels.[citation needed] Many 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.[21] 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.[22] European Portuguese possess a Near-close near-back unrounded vowel. It occurs in unstressed syllables such as in pegar [pɯˈɡaɾ] ('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/ are traditionally used. There are very few minimal pairs with /e ~ ɛ/ (except for monosyllabic clitics) and in relaxed pronunciation, it is often elided.[23] [edit] Oral diphthongsDiphthongs are not considered independent phonemes in Portuguese, but knowing them can help with spelling and pronunciation.
There are also some "false diphthongs", some words with two vowels occurring next to each other like in iate and sábio may be pronounced as rising diphthongs, though these vowels are more oftenly pronounced and regarded as hiatuses.[27][28] 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 analysed as an allophone of the consonant /l/ at the end of syllables. [edit] 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. [edit] Nasal vowelsPortuguese 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 Brazilian Portuguese as phonetically nasalized before an archiphoneme /N/ or a heterosyllabic nasal consonant. Nasalized diphthongs in Brazilian Portuguese, are formed by combining [ẽ], [ɐ̃], [õ], or [ũ] with the offglide [ɪ̯̃] (except with/ɐ̃ʊ̃/).[29]
[edit] Vowel alternationThe stressed relatively open vowels /a, ɛ, ɔ/ contrast with the stressed relatively close vowels /ɐ, e, o/ in several kinds of grammatically meaningful alternation:
There are also pairs of unrelated words that differ in the height of these vowels, such as besta /e/ "beast" and besta /ɛ/ "crossbow", or este /e/ "this one" and este /ɛ/ "east". Since most polysyllabic homographs of this sort can be distinguished from context, the orthography does not 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/. [edit] Unstressed vowelsSome isolated vowels (meaning, those that are neither nasal, nor part of a diphthong) tend to change quality when they become unstressed in a fairly predictable way. 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 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.[30] 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. [edit] EpenthesisIn BP, an epenthetic vowel [i] is sometimes inserted between consonants, to break up consonant clusters that are not native to Portuguese, in learned words. For example, psicologia "psychology" may be pronounced [pisikoloˈʒiɐ] (the letter p is not silent, as it is in English), and adverso "adverse" may be pronounced [adʒiˈvɛɾsu]. In northern Portugal, an epenthetic [ɨ] may be used instead, [pɨsikuluˈʒiɐ], [ɐðɨˈβɛɾsu], but in southern Portugal there is often no epenthesis, [psikuluˈʒiɐ], [ɐdˈvɛɾsu]. [edit] Further notes on the oral vowels
[edit] SandhiWhen 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/. [edit] ConsonantsAs 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):
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:
[edit] VowelsNormally, 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,
If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then /i/ and /u/ become approximants in Brazilian Portuguese (synaeresis):
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:
But in other prosodic conditions, and in relaxed pronunciation, EP simply drops final unstressed /ɨ/ and /u/ (elision):
Unlike French, for example, Portuguese does not indicate most of these sound changes explicitly in its orthography. [edit] StressPrimary 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:
[edit] ProsodyTone is not lexically significant in Portuguese, but phrase- and sentence-level tone 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.[citation needed] As in most Romance languages, interrogation is expressed mainly by sharply raising the tone at the end of the sentence. [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
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