Portuguese phonology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Below is a sketch of the phonology of Portuguese. Only the most frequent sounds and spellings are given, since a listing of all cases and exceptions would be too cumbersome. Portuguese is a pluricentric language. Differences between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) can be considerable, and in some cases lead to difficulties in intelligibility.
Contents |
[edit] Vowels
Portuguese has one of the richest vowel phonologies of all Romance languages, with seven (in Brazil) to nine (in Portugal) oral vowels, nasal vowels, and nasal diphthongs. The high vowels /e o/ and the low vowels /ɛ ɔ/ are four separate phonemes, unlike in Spanish, and the contrast between them is used for vowel alternation. European Portuguese has also two near central vowels, one of which tends to be elided like the e caduc of French.
Like 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. 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 semivowels /i u/; although rising diphthongs occur in the language as well, they can be interpreted as hiatuses.
[edit] Oral monophthongs
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | a, á, à | prato, dá |
"dish", "he gives" |
As in many other languages, the symbol /a/ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, although /ä/ would be more precise.
The exact realization of the near-open central unrounded vowel /ɐ/ varies somewhat with dialect. In Portugal, it is pronounced higher than in Brazil, approaching the mid central unrounded vowel [ə]. In BP, /a/ and /ɐ/ occur in complementary distribution, the latter in final unstressed syllables and in stressed syllables before one of the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, or /ɲ/ followed by another vowel, and the former elsewhere. In EP, the general situation is similar (with /ɐ/ being more prevalent in unstressed syllables), but there are minimal pairs for the two vowels. Some of these are composed of a stressed word and an unstressed clitic, such as dá "he gives" and da "of the", but the vowels also contrast in verb forms of the first conjugation such as pensamos "we think" and pensámos "we thought" (pensamos in BP; even in Portugal, this distinction is not made in all regions, but it is observed in writing). |
| /ɐ/ | a, â | vida, da (EP) |
"life", "of the" |
|
| /e/ | e, ê | sê, seda | "be" (imperative), "silk" |
The close-mid front unrounded vowel /e/ and the open-mid front unrounded vowel /ɛ/ contrast only when they are stressed. In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. |
| /ɛ/ | e, é | sé, pregar (EP) |
"episcopal see", "to preach" |
|
| /i/ | i, í, e1 | si, teatro |
"himself", "theatre" |
Close front unrounded vowel. It has the semivowel allophone [i̯], when it is the weaker component of a diphthong. It is the epenthetic vowel of BP. |
| /ɨ/ | e2 | se (EP), pregar (EP) |
"if", "to nail" |
Near-close near-back unrounded vowel. 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/ is traditionally used.
This high near central vowel exists only in EP. It is replaced with /e/ or /i/ in BP, according to its position within a word. It is almost an unstressed allophone of /e ɛ/, with which it has very few minimal pairs, excluding monosyllabic clitics. In relaxed pronunciation, it is often elided. |
| /o/ | o, ô, ou | avô, corar (BP) | "grandfather", "to blush" | The close-mid back rounded vowel /o/ and the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/ contrast only when they are stressed. In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution.
Most speakers nowadays pronounce the digraph ou as a monophthong [o], although in some regions of Brazil and northern Portugal it is still pronounced as the falling diphthong [ou̯]. |
| /ɔ/ | o, ó | avó, corar (EP) | "grandmother", "to blush" | |
| /u/ | u, ú, o1, ü3 | nuca, curar | "back of the neck", "to heal" |
Close back rounded vowel. It has the semivowel allophone [u̯], when it is the weaker component of a diphthong. |
1 In unstressed syllables, and in a few monosyllables and clitics, such as e, por and porque.
2 Only in unstressed syllables.
3 The diaeresis mark indicates that the vowel u is to be pronounced in the graphemes gu and qu, before e, i. It is only used in BP.
The acute accent and the circumflex accent indicate stress. The grave accent is used in some contractions. See Portuguese orthography, for details.
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. It 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 [ai], [ɛi], [ei], etc. (except /i/), before a sibilant at the end of a syllable (written s, x, or z). For instance, Jesus [ʒe'zuis] "Jesus", faz [fais] "he does", dez [dɛis] "ten". This has led to the use of meia (meaning "meia dúzia", or "half a dozen") for seis [seis] "six" when making enumerations, to avoid any confusion with três [tɾeis] "three" on the telephone[citation needed].
- In central Portugal, including Lisbon, stressed /e/ is pronounced as [ɐ] or [ɐi] when it comes before a palatal consonant /ʎ/, /ɲ/ or a palato-alveolar /ʃ/, /ʒ/, followed by another vowel.
[edit] Nasal monophthongs
Historically, most nasal vowels of Portuguese derived from the assimilation of a nasal consonant (/m/ or /n/) which followed them, and was elided in the transition from Latin.
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɐ̃/ | ã1, an, am, ân, âm 2 |
pranto, vã |
"cry", "vane" (f) | The exact realization of the nasal central vowel /ɐ̃/ varies somewhat with dialect; in central and southern EP, it is pronounced higher than in BP. The nasal open central unrounded vowel [ã] only occurs as an allophone of /ɐ̃/. See the section on connected speech, below. |
| /ẽ/ | en, em, ên, êm2 | senda | "quest" | |
| /ĩ/ | in, im, ín, ím 3 |
sim | "yes" | |
| /õ/ | õ4, on, om, ôn, ôm 3 |
ponde | "lay" (imperative) | |
| /ũ/ | un, um, ún, úm 3 |
nunca | "never" |
1 Before vowels, at the end of words, or before word final -s.
2 Before consonants. The accent marks stress.
3 Before consonants, or in word final -im, -om, -um. The accent marks stress.
4 Before vowels.
The consonant m is conventionally written before b or p or at the end of words, and the consonant n before other consonants. In the plural, the ending -m is changed into -ns; for example bem, rim, bom, um → bens, rins, bons, uns. The word endings -am, -em, -ens, with or without an accent mark on the vowel, stand for nasal diphthongs derived from various Latin endings, often -ant, -unt or -en(t)- (see the section on nasal diphthongs).
[edit] Epenthesis
In BP, an epenthetic vowel [i] is inserted between consonants, to break up consonant clusters that are not native to Portuguese, in learned words. For example, psicologia "psychology" is pronounced [pisikoloʒiɐ] (the letter p is not silent, as it is in Spanish and English), and adverso "adverse" is pronounced [adʒivɛɾsu]. In northern Portugal, an epenthetic [ɨ] may be used instead, [pɨsikuluʒiɐ], [adɨvɛɾsu], but in southern Portugal there is often no epenthesis, [psikuluʒiɐ], [advɛɾsu].
[edit] Vowel alternation
The stressed low vowels /a ɛ ɔ/ contrast with the stressed high vowels /ɐ e o/ in several kinds of vowel 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";
- 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 e e e/; mova, movas, mova, movam /o o o 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", 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, etc. In BP, however, these words are all pronounced with /a/.
[edit] Unstressed vowels
Some 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 vowel which undergoes alternation is underlined, and the stressed syllable of each word is bolded. The term "final" should be interpreted here as "at the end of a word, or before word final -s".
| Stressed | Unstressed but not final | Unstressed and final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowels | Examples | Vowels | Examples | Vowels | Examples |
| /a/ or /ɐ/ | parto
pensar |
/a/ (BP) /ɐ/ (EP) | partir | /ɐ/ | pensa |
| /e/ or /ɛ/ | pega /ɛ/
mover /e/ |
/e/ (BP) /ɨ/ (EP) | pegar | /i/ (BP) /ɨ/ (EP) | move |
| /o/ or /ɔ/ | mimosa /ɔ/
pôde /o/ |
/o/ (BP) /u/ (EP) | poder | /u/ | mimos |
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/.
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 are reduced, and /ɨ/ is often 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 with which they do not form a falling diphthong (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] Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | |||||||||||||
| Fricatives | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ʁ | |||||||||
| Flaps | ɾ | |||||||||||||||
| Laterals | l | ʎ | ||||||||||||||
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. 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".
[edit] Plosives
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | p | parte | "part" | Never aspirated. |
| /b/ | b | bola, rabo | "ball", "tail" | As in English. |
| /t/ | t | tosta, tinta | "toast", "ink" | Never aspirated.
Voiceless postalveolar affricate allophone [tʃ] before /i, ĩ/, in most of southeastern Brazil (excluding some regions of São Paulo state). |
| /d/ | d | dedo, cada, dia |
"finger", "each", "day" | Voiced postalveolar affricate allophone [dʒ] before /i, ĩ/, in most of southeastern Brazil (excluding some regions of São Paulo state). |
| /k/ | c except before e, i qu before e, i q before u |
casa, aqui, quatro | "house", "here", "four" | Never aspirated. |
| /g/ | g except before e, i gu before e, i |
gato, pagar, guerra |
"cat", "to pay", "war" |
As in English. |
In northern and central Portugal, the voiced plosives /b/, /d/, /g/ may be pronounced as fricatives [β], [ð], [ɣ], except at the beginning of words, or after homorganic stop consonants.
There is a slight difference between the Portuguese pronunciation and the English pronunciation of /t/, /d/. See the discussion at Dental consonant.
[edit] Laterals and Nasals
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /l/ | l | logo, Brasil | "soon", "Brazil" | Velarized allophone [ɫ] in EP, at the end of a syllable (L-velarization). This is like in the Received Pronunciation of English.
Allophone [w] in most of Brazil, at the end of a syllable (L-vocalization). |
| /ʎ/ | lh | alho | "garlic" | Palatal lateral approximant. In some Brazilian dialects, this phoneme is realized as palatal approximant [j], but this is not as widespread as yeísmo in Spanish. |
| /m/ | m | mapa, campo | "map", "field" | At the end of a syllable, /m/ is silent or voiceless, but nasalizes the vowel that precedes it. |
| /n/ | n | número, canto | "number", "corner" | Before another consonant, /n/ is silent or voiceless, but nasalizes the vowel that precedes it. |
| /ɲ/ | nh | ninho | "nest" | Palatal nasal. In many parts of Brazil and Angola, this phoneme is realized as a nasal palatal approximant [j̃], which nasalizes the vowel that precedes it: ['nĩj̃u]. |
There is a slight difference between the Portuguese pronunciation and the English pronunciation of /l/, /n/. See the discussion at Dental consonant.
[edit] Rhotics
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɾ/ | r | caro, prato, sorte, mar |
"expensive", "dish", "luck", "sea" |
Alveolar flap. |
| /ʁ/ | rr between vowels r otherwise |
rosa, tenro, carro, sorte, mar |
"rose", "tender", "car", "luck", "sea" |
There is much dialectal variation in the pronunciation of this phoneme. In Europe and Africa, its most frequent realizations are the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] and the alveolar trill [r]. In Brazil, it is usually pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x], or as a voiceless glottal fricative [h].
See also Guttural R in Portuguese. |
The two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between vowels. At the beginning of words and after /l/, /n/, /z/, /ʒ/, only the former occurs, while elsewhere most dialects use the latter. However, several Brazilian dialects, including the dialect of Rio de Janeiro, use the phoneme /ʁ/ at the end of syllables.
Word final rhotics may be silent when the last syllable is stressed, in colloquial speech (especially in Brazil and some African countries).
[edit] Fricatives
| Phoneme | Usual spelling | Examples | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /f/ | f | ferro | "iron" | As in English. |
| /v/ | v | vento | "wind" | As in English. |
| /s/ | s except between vowels ss between vowels c before e, i ç before a, o, u x, z at the end of a syllable |
sapo, psique, isto assado, cedo, maçã, externo, paz |
"toad", "psyche", "this", "roasted", "early", "apple", "external", "peace" |
As in English. |
| /z/ | z s except at the beginning of a word, or between a consonant and a vowel |
cozer, felizmente, coser, turismo | "to cook", "fortunately", "to sew", "tourism" | As in English. |
| /ʃ/ | x, ch s, z at the end of a syllable |
xarope, caixa, enxame, externo, chuva, isto, paz |
"syrup", "box", "swarm", "external", "rain", "this", "peace" | Voiceless postalveolar fricative. Pronounced as in English. |
| /ʒ/ | j g before e, i s, z at the end of a syllable |
jogo, gelo, turismo, felizmente | "game", "ice", "tourism", "fortunately" | Voiced postalveolar fricative. Pronounced as in English. |
Further notes on the sibilants:
- At the end of syllables, the sibilants /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ occur in complementary distribution. In most of Brazil, they are alveolar: /s/ is used before voiceless consonants or at the end of words, while /z/ is used before voiced consonants: e.g. isto /'istu/, turismo /tu'rizmu/. (This is like in English.) In most of Portugal, and in Rio de Janeiro and some northeastern states of Brazil, syllable-final sibilants have become postalveolar, /ʃ/ before a voiceless consonant or at the end of a word, and /ʒ/ before a voiced consonant: isto /'iʃtu/, turismo /tu'riʒmu/.
- 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:
- as sopas (either [s] or [ʃs]);
- as zonas (either [z] or [ʒz]);
- as chaves (either [sʃ] or [ʃ]);
- os generais (either [zʒ] or [ʒ]).
See also the section on connected speech, below.
[edit] Diphthongs
Diphthongs are not considered independent phonemes in Portuguese, but knowing them can help with spelling and pronunciation. Only falling diphthongs are listed below. Although rising diphthongs are frequent in the language as well, especially those composed of semivowel /i/ or semivowel /u/ followed by another vowel, they can be analysed as hiatuses[citation needed].
[edit] Oral
| Diphthong | Usual spelling | Example | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ai/ | ai, ái | pai | "father" | Allophone [ɐi] in central and southern EP, when unstressed before another vowel. |
| /ei/ | ei | bateis | "you beat" | There are very few minimal pairs for /ei/ and /ɛi/, all of which in oxytone words. Both diphthongs are replaced with [ɐi] in central EP. |
| /ɛi/ | éi | batéis | "boats" | |
| /oi/ | oi | sois | "you are" | There are very few minimal pairs for /oi/ and /ɔi/, all of which in oxytone words. |
| /ɔi/ | ói | sóis | "suns" | |
| /ui/ | ui | fui | "I went" | Usually stressed. |
| /au/ | au, áu | mau | "bad" | Allophone [ɐu] in EP, found, for instance, in the contractions ao and aos, but otherwise rare. |
| /eu/ | eu | seu | "his" | There are very few minimal pairs for /eu/ and /ɛu/, all of which in oxytone words. |
| /ɛu/ | éu | céu | "sky" | |
| /iu/ | iu, io, ío | viu | "he saw" | Usually stressed. |
The characteristic pronunciation of /l/ as [w] at the end of syllables in Brazilian Portuguese has created new diphthongs: [ow] (polvo, "octopus"), [ɔw] (sol, "sun"), [uw] (sul, "south"), although this glide [w] is best analysed as an allophone of the consonant /l/.
[edit] Nasal
| Diphthong | Usual spelling | Example | Meaning | Notes and variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɐ̃ĩ/ | ãe | mãe | "mother" | The diphthong /ẽĩ/ merges with /ɐ̃ĩ/ in central EP. They have no minimal pairs. The double diphthong /'ẽĩẽĩ/ is found only in the verb forms têm and vêm (third person plural, present indicative of the verbs ter and vir), or in derived verb forms such as contêm, retêm, etc. It is replaced with /'ɐ̃ĩɐ̃ĩ/ in central EP. In other dialects, it merges with /ẽĩ/. The two have few minimal pairs. |
| /ẽĩ/ | em, ém, en, én | tem, parabéns |
"he has", "congratulations" | |
| /'ẽĩẽĩ/ | êm | têm | "they have" | |
| /õĩ/ | õe | põe | "he lays" | |
| /'õĩẽĩ/ | õem | põem | "they lay" | Found only in the verb form põem (third person plural, present indicative, of the verb pôr), or in derived verb forms such as supõem, compõem, etc. Replaced with /'õĩɐ̃ĩ/ in central EP. Some speakers pronounce /'õĩẽĩ/ as /ˈõẽĩ/. |
| /ũĩ/ | ui | muito | "very" | This diphthong is found only in the six words ruim (in some dialects), muito, muita, muitos, muitas, and mui. |
| /ɐ̃ũ/ | ão, am | vão, andam | "vane" (m), "they walk" |
Nasal diphthongs occur mostly at the end of words (or followed by a final sibilant), and in a few compounds. In fact, although this is not usually done, the nasal vowels of Portuguese can be regarded as allophones of the oral vowels /a e i o u/ appearing in certain environments, namely: (i) before a nasal consonant, /m/, /n/, followed by another consonant, or at the end of a word (considering that the grapheme ã is an abbreviation of /an/ at the end of words and before final s); (ii) as a part of nasal diphthongs, in some special word endings: -ãe(s), -ão(s), -õe(s), -am, -em/-ém, -ens/-éns, -êm, -õem; (iii) in certain compounds formed from words with the previous endings: mãezinha, cãozinho, vãmente, etc.; (iv) as a part of nasal diphthongs, in a small number of other words: cãibra, muito, etc. Thus, a beginner can get by in Portuguese without using nasal vowels, although he will not sound like a native.
[edit] Connected speech
When two words belonging to the same phrase are pronounced together, the last sound in the first word may be affected by the first sound of the next word, 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] Word-final sibilants
As was mentioned above, the dialects of Portuguese can be divided into two groups, according to whether syllable-final sibilants are pronounced as alveolar /s/, /z/, or as postalveolar consonants /ʃ/, /ʒ/. At the end of words, the default pronunciation for a sibilant is voiceless, /s, ʃ/, but in connected speech the sibilant is treated as though it were within a word:
- If the next word begins with a voiceless consonant, the final sibilant remains voiceless /s, ʃ/; bons tempos [bõs tẽpus] or [bõʃ tẽpuʃ] "good times".
- If the next word begins with a voiced consonant, the final sibilant becomes voiced as well /z, ʒ/; bons dias [bõz 'dʒiɐs] or [bõʒ 'diɐʃ] "good day".
- If the next word begins with a vowel, the final sibilant is treated as intervocalic, and pronounced /z/; bons amigos [bõz a'migus] or [bõz ɐ'miguʃ] "good friends".
[edit] Word-final unstressed vowels
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 (crasis). Here, "similar" means that nasalization can be disregarded, and that the two vowels /a, ɐ/ can be identified with each other. Thus,
- /a, ɐ/ + /a, ɐ/ → [a]; toda a noite ['toda 'noi̯tʃi] or ['toda 'noi̯tɨ] "all night", nessa altura ['nɛs aw'tuɾɐ] or ['nɛs aɫ'tuɾɐ] "at that point".
- /a, ɐ/ + /ɐ̃/ → [ã] (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'tʃigɐ] or [ã'tigɐ].
- /i/ + /i, ĩ/ → [i, ĩ]; de idade [dʒi'dadʒi] or [di'dadɨ] "aged".
- /ɨ/ + /ɨ/ → [ɨ]; fila de espera ['filɐ dɨʃ'pɛɾɐ] "waiting line" (EP only).
- /u/ + /u, ũ/ → [u, ũ]; todo o dia ['todu 'dʒiɐ] or ['todu 'diɐ] "all day".
If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then /i/ and /u/ become semivowels in Brazilian Portuguese:
- /i/ + V → [i̯V]; durante o curso [du'ɾɐ̃tʃi̯ u 'kuɾsu] "during the course", mais que um [mai̯s ki̯ ũ] "more than one".
- /u/ + V → [u̯V]; todo este tempo ['todu̯ 'estʃi 'tẽpu] "all this time" do objeto [du̯ obi'ʒɛtu] "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 → [i̯V]; se a vires [si̯ ɐ 'viɾɨʃ] "if you see her", mais que um [mai̯ʃ ki̯ ũ] "more than one".
- /u/ + V → [u̯V]; todo este tempo ['todu̯ 'eʃtɨ 'tẽpu] "all this time", do objecto [du̯ ɔb'ʒɛtu] "of the object".
But in other prosodic conditions, and in relaxed pronunciation, EP simply elides final unstressed /ɨ/ and /u/:
- /ɨ/ + V → [V]; durante o curso [du'ɾɐ̃t u 'kuɾsu] "during the course", este inquilino ['eʃt ĩkɨ'linu] "this tenant".
- /u/ + V → [V]; todo este tempo [tod 'eʃtɨ 'tẽpu] "all this time", disto há muito [diʃt a 'mũi̯tu] "there's a lot of this".
[edit] References
- International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Mateus, Maria Helena & d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000) The Phonology of Portuguese ISBN 0-19-823581-X
- Vázquez Cuesta, Mendes da Luz, (1987) Gramática portuguesa, 3rd. ed. ISBN 84-249-1117-2
[edit] See also
[edit] 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
