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 separate languages. 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 can 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.

Portuguese, unlike Spanish, does not have an internationally unified body of language regulators comparable to the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. The two main language regulators, the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil) and the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal), work separately from each other, and on a national level only.

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[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] Main subdivisions

[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] Asia

Asian Portuguese dialects are similar to the African ones, thus generally close to those of Portugal. In Macau, the syllable onset rhotic /ʁ/ is pronounced as a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or uvular trill [ʀ].

[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, for example, usually have strong feelings about their own way of speaking and are largely uninfluenced by the other dialects. Also, people of inner cities of Santa Catarina state usually spells with a very notable german, italian or polish accent.

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] Uruguay

Recently Uruguay adopted Portuguese as obligatory beginning by the 6th grade at public schools[1].

Some public schools along the Brazilian border provide classes both in Portuguese and Spanish[2].

Besides the oficial status of Portuguese in Uruguay, there's also the 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. This language must not be confused with Portuñol, since it's not a mixing of Spanish and Portuguese, but a variety of Portuguese language developed in Uruguay back in the time of its first settlers. It has since received some input from Uruguayan Spanish language and also Brazilian Portuguese language used on television and literature.

In academic field, the Portuguese used by the northern population of Uruguay received the name "Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay" (Uruguayan Portuguese Dialects, or "DPU" for short). There's still no consensus if the language(s) is (are) a dialect or a creole, although the name given by linguists uses the term "dialect"; there is even no consensus on how many varieties it has (studies point out to at least two variations, an urban one and a rural one, although other sources says there are even six varieties—Riverense Portuñol being one of these varieties).[3]

This Portuguese spoken in Uruguay is also referred by its speakers, depending on the region that they live, as Bayano, Riverense, Fronterizo, Brasilero or simply Portuñol.

[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] 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 predorsodental sibilants c/ç /s/ and z /z/ with apicoalveolar 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 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.
  • In Macau (where Portuguese is spoken mostly as a second language), initial and intervocalic "r" is sometimes replaced with a diphthong. At the end of stressed final syllables, "r" is sometimes silent.
  • 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] Mixed languages

  • Frantuguês/Frantugais (Frenchuguese), a mix of Portuguese with French

[edit] Closely related languages

Main articles: Galician and Fala language

This article does not cover Galician, which is treated as a separate language from Portuguese by Galician official institutions, nor the Fala language. For a discussion of the controversy regarding the status of Galician with respect to Portuguese, see Reintegrationism.

[edit] List of dialects

Dialects in Europe:

Dialects in America:

Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay (DPU)

Dialects in Brazil:

Dialects in Africa:

Dialects in Asia:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Learning of Portuguese in Uruguay
  2. ^ Chapter: "Diagnóstico sociolingüístico de comunidades escolares fronterizas en el norte de Uruguay" (A Sociolinguistic Diagnosis of border school communities in northern Uruguay). In print. Portugués del Uruguay y Educación Bilingüe. Nicolás Brian, Claudia Brovetto, Javier Geymonat (Eds.) Montevideo: Administración Nacional de Educación Pública. República Oriental del Uruguay. 44-96
  3. ^ CARVALHO, Ana Maria. Variation and diffusion of Uruguayan Portuguese in a bilingual border town, by Ana Maria Carvalho, University of California at Berkeley USA. (PDF)


v • d • e
Portuguese dialects
Europe (European Portuguese)
Africa (African Portuguese)
Angolan (Benguelense • Luandense • Sulista) • Cape Verdean • Guinean • Mozambican • São Tomean
Americas
Brazilian (Caipira • Carioca or Fluminense • Cearense • Baiano • Gaúcho • Manezês • Mineiro • Nordestino • Nortista • Paulistano • Sertanejo • Sulista) • Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay
Asia
See also

[edit] External links