Portuguese dialects

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The Portuguese dialects are variants of the Portuguese language that are shared by a substantial number of speakers over several generations, but are not sufficiently distinct from the official norms to be considered a separate language. This definition therefore excludes the numerous Portuguese-based creole languages that differ radically from the norm in fundamental grammatical features.

The differences between Portuguese dialects are mostly in phonology, in the frequency of usage of certain grammatical forms, and especially in the distance between the formal and informal levels of speech. Lexical differences are numerous but largely confined to "peripheral" words such as plants, animals, and other local items, with little impact in the core lexicon. Dialectal deviations from the official grammar are relatively few. As a consequence, all Portuguese dialects are mutually intelligible; although for some of the most extremely divergent pairs the phonological changes may make it difficult for speakers to understand rapid speech.

Phrase- and sentence-level stress and tone patterns and differ significantly between dialects: south-central European Portuguese dialects are often described as a stress-timed dialects (consistent with the reduction of pre-stress vowels), while most Brazilian Portuguese dialects are syllable-timed.

This article does not cover Galician, which is treated as a separate language from Portuguese by Galician official institutions. For a discussion of the controversy regarding the status of Galician with respect to Portuguese, see Reintegrationism.

Contents

[edit] Differences

Between Brazilian Portuguese, particularly in its most informal varieties, and European Portuguese, there can be considerable differences in grammar, as well. The most prominent ones concern the placement of clitic pronouns, and the use of subject pronouns as objects in the third person. Non-standard inflections are also common in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese.

Within the two major varieties of Portuguese, most differences between dialects concern pronunciation and vocabulary. Below are some examples:

words for bus
Angola & Mozambique: machimbombo
Brazil: ônibus
Portugal: autocarro
slang terms for to go away
Angola: bazar - from Kimbundu kubaza - to break, leave with rush
Brazil: vazar - from Portuguese "to leak"
Portugal: bazar - from Kimbundu kubaza - to break, leave with rush
words for slum quarter
Angola: musseque
Brazil: favela
Portugal: bairro de lata or ilha

[edit] Classification

[edit] Africa

Main article: African Portuguese

For historical reasons, the dialects of Africa are generally closer to those of Portugal than the Brazilian dialects, although in some aspects of their phonology, especially the pronunciation of unstressed vowels, they resemble Brazilian Portuguese more than European Portuguese. They have not been studied as exhaustively as European and Brazilian Portuguese.

[edit] Brazil

Main article: Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian dialects are divided into a northern and southern groups, where the northern dialects tend to slightly more open pre-stressed vowels. Due to the economic and cultural dominance of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, their dialects end up having some influence on the rest of the country. However, thanks to the migration from the Northern states to the Southern states, this influence can be seen as a two-way phenomenon. Cultural issues also play their roles and speakers of the Gaúcho dialect usually have strong feelings about their way of speaking and are largely uninfluenced by the other dialects.

Between Brazilian Portuguese, particularly in its most informal varieties, and European Portuguese, there can be considerable differences in grammar, aside from the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. The most prominent ones concern the placement of clitic pronouns, and the use of subject pronouns as objects in the third person. Non-standard inflections are also common in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese.

[edit] Portugal

Main article: European Portuguese

The dialects of Portugal can be divided into two major groups:

  • The southern and central dialects are broadly characterized by preserving the distinction between /b/ and /v/, and by the tendency to monophthongize ei and ou to [e] and [o]. They include the dialect of the capital, Lisbon, which however has some peculiarities of its own. Although the dialects of the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira have unique characteristics, as well, they can also be grouped with the southern dialects.
  • The northern dialects are characterized by preserving the pronunciation of ei and ou as diphthongs [ei̯], [ou̯], and by having merged /v/ with /b/ (like in Spanish). This includes the dialect of Porto, Portugal's second largest city.

Within each of these regions, however, there is further variation, especially in what concerns pronunciation. For example, in Lisbon and its vicinity the diphthong ei is centralized to [ɐi̯], instead of being monophthongized as in the south.

It is usually believed that the dialects of Brazil, Africa and Asia derived mostly from those of central and southern Portugal.

[edit] Barranquenho

In the Portuguese town of Barrancos (in the border between Extremadura, Andalucia and Portugal), a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Extremaduran is spoken, known as barranquenho.

[edit] Portunhol/Portuñol

Main article: Portunhol

In regions where Spanish and Portuguese coexist, various types of language contact have occurred, ranging from improvised code-switching between monolingual speakers of each language to more or less stable mixed languages. They are often designated by the common term portunhol (portuñol). The best studied example of this is Portunhol Riverense, spoken in the region between Uruguay and Brazil, particularly in the twin cities of Rivera and Santana do Livramento, where the border is open and a street is the only line dividing the two countries.

[edit] Notable features of some accents

Many regional accents have special phonological characteristics. Below are some of the most remarkable:

[edit] Conservative features

  • In some regions of northern Portugal and Brazil, the digraph ou still denotes a falling diphthong [ou̯], although it has been monophthongized to [o] by most speakers of Portuguese.
  • In the dialects of Alto-Minho and Trás-os-Montes (northern Portugal), the digraph ch still denotes the affricate /tʃ/, as in Spanish, although for most speakers it has merged with /ʃ/.
  • Some dialects of northern Portugal still contrast the laminal sibilants c/ç /s/ and z /z/ with apical sibilants s(s) /s̺/ and s /z̺/, with minimal pairs such as passo /pas̺u/ "step" and paço /pasu/ "palace" or coser /kuz̺eɾ/ "to sew" and cozer /kuzeɾ/ "to cook", which are homophones in most dialects.
  • In northern Portugal, the phoneme /m/ has a velar allophone [ŋ] at the end of words.

[edit] Innovative features

  • In central and southern Portugal (except the city of Lisbon and its vicinity), the diphthong /ei̯/ is monophthongized to [e]. The nasal diphthong /ẽi̯/ is often monophthongized to [ẽ] in this region, as well.
  • In Lisbon and its surroundings, /ei̯/ and /ẽi̯/ are pronounced [ɐi̯] and [ɐ̃i̯], respectively. Furthermore, in this region stressed /e/ is pronounced [ɐ] or [ɐi̯] before a palato-alveolar or a palatal consonant followed by another vowel.
  • In the dialect of the Beiras (central Portugal), the sibilant /ʒ/ occurs at the end of words, before another word which starts with a vowel, instead of /z/.
  • In the dialects of Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Algarve (Barlavento area) and São Miguel Island (Azores), the near-front rounded vowel [ʏ] replaces /u/, in a process similar to the one which originated the French u. The dialect of São Miguel has also the front rounded vowel [ø] replacing /o/, as in outra or boi.
  • In some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, such as those of the Northeast and in Rio de Janeiro, /ʃ/ replaces /s/ before /t/.
  • In northern Portugal, the close vowels /o/ and /e/, may be pronounced as diphthongs, such as in "Porto", pronounced as ['pwoɾtu], "quê":[kje], "hoje": ['woi̯ʒɨ] or ['woʒɨ] or even ['woi̯ʒɨ]
  • In the caipira dialect, and in Goiás and Minas Gerais, /ɾ/ is pronounced as the alveolar approximant [ɹ]. The same sound replaces [w] as the allophone of /l/ at the end of syllables.
  • The pronunciation of syllable-initial and syllable-final r varies considerably with dialect. See Guttural R in Portuguese, for details.
  • The pronunciation of syllable-final s/x/z also varies with dialect. See Portuguese phonology, for details.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Dialects of Portuguese
Africa Angolan · Cape-Verdean · Guinean · Mozambican · São Tomean
Europe European · Barranquenho · Portuñol
Americas Brazilian · Caipira · Mineiro · Manezês
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