Portuguese phonology

The phonology of Portuguese varies among dialects, in extreme cases leading to some 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), Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Angolan Portuguese (AP) can be considerable, varieties are distinguished whenever necessary.

One of the most salient differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese is their prosody.^[1] European Portuguese is a stress-timed language, with reduction, devoicing or even deletion of unstressed vowels and a general tolerance of syllable-final consonants. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, is of mixed characteristics,^[2] and varies according to speech rate, dialect, and the gender of the speaker, but generally possessing a lighter reduction of unstressed vowels, less raising of pre-stress vowels, less devoicing and fewer deletions. At fast speech rates, Brazilian Portuguese is more stress-timed, while in slow speech rates, it can be more syllable-timed. The accents of rural, southern Rio Grande do Sul and the Northeast (especially Bahia) are considered to sound more syllable-timed than the others, while the southeastern dialects such as the mineiro, in central Minas Gerais, the paulistano, of the northern coast and eastern regions of São Paulo, and the fluminense, along Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and eastern Minas Gerais as well the Federal District, are most frequently essentially stress-timed. Also, male speakers of Brazilian Portuguese speak faster than female speakers and speak in a more stress-timed manner.^[3]

Brazilian Portuguese disallows some closed syllables:^[1] coda nasals are deleted with concomitant nasalization of the preceding vowel, even in learned words; coda /l/ becomes [w], except for conservative velarization at the extreme south and rhotacism in remote rural areas in the center of the country; the coda rhotic is usually deleted entirely when word-final, especially in verbs in the infinitive form; and /i/ can be epenthesized after almost all other coda-final consonants. This tends to produce words almost entirely composed of open syllables, e.g., magma [ˈmaɡimɐ]. In European Portuguese, similarly, epenthesis may occur with [ɨ], as in magma [ˈmaɣɨmɐ] and afta [ˈafɨtɐ].^[4]

For more detailed information on regional accents, see Portuguese dialects, and for historical sound changes see History of Portuguese § Historical sound changes.

Consonants[]

The consonant inventory of Portuguese is fairly conservative.^{[citation needed][needs context]} The medieval Galician-Portuguese system of seven sibilants (/ts, dz/, /ʃ ʒ/, /tʃ/, and apicoalveolar /s̺ z̺/) is still distinguished in spelling (intervocalic c/ç z x g/j ch ss -s- respectively), but is reduced to the four fricatives /s z ʃ ʒ/ by the merger of /tʃ/ into /ʃ/ and apicoalveolar /s̺ z̺/ into either /s z/ or /ʃ ʒ/ (depending on dialect and syllable position), except in parts of northern Portugal (most notably in the Trás-os-Montes region). These changes are known as deaffrication. Other than this, there have been no other significant changes to the consonant phonemes since Old Portuguese. However, several consonant phonemes have special allophones at syllable boundaries (often varying quite significantly between European and Brazilian Portuguese), and a few also undergo allophonic changes at word boundaries. Henceforward, the phrase "at the end of a syllable" can be understood as referring to a position before a consonant or at the end of a word.

Phonetic notes

• Semivowels contrast with unstressed high vowels in verbal conjugation, as in (eu) rio /ˈʁi.ʊ/ 'I laugh' and (ele) riu /ˈʁiw/ 'he (has) laughed.' ^[9] Phonologists discuss whether their nature is vowel or consonant.^[10] In intervocalic position semivowels are ambisyllabic, they are associated to both the previous syllable and the following syllable onset.^[11]
• In Brazil and Angola, the consonant hereafter denoted as /ɲ/ is realized as a nasal palatal approximant [j̃], which nasalizes the vowel that precedes it: ninho ([ˈnij̃ʊ ~ ˈnʲij̃ʊ ~ ˈɲij̃ʊ] in Brazil, [ˈnĩj̃u] in Angola) 'nest'.^[12][13]
• [nʲ ~ ɲ] is often the pronunciation of a sequence of /n/ followed by /i/ in a rising diphthong in Brazil, forming a minimal pair between sonha [ˈsoj̃ɐ] and Sônia [ˈsoniɐ ~ ˈsonʲɐ ~ ˈsoɲɐ]; menina, "girl" [miˈninɐ ~ miˈnʲinɐ ~ miˈɲinɐ].^[14]
• [lʲ ~ ʎ] is often the pronunciation of a sequence of /l/ followed by /i/ in a rising diphthong in Brazil; e.g. limão, "lemon" [liˈmɐ̃w̃ ~ lʲiˈmɐ̃w̃ ~ ʎiˈmɐ̃w̃]; sandália, "sandal" [sɐ̃ˈdaliɐ ~ sɐ̃ˈdalʲɐ ~ sɐ̃ˈdaʎɐ].^[14]
• The consonant hereafter denoted as /ʁ/ has a variety of realizations depending on dialect. In Europe, it is typically a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ]. There is also a realization as a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], and the original pronunciation as an alveolar trill [r] also remains very common in various dialects.^[15] A common realization of the word-initial /r/ in the Lisbon accent is a voiced uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝].^[16] In Brazil, /ʁ/ can be velar, uvular, or glottal and may be voiceless unless between voiced sounds;^[17] 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.
• /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. Very few northeastern Portugal dialects still maintain the medieval distinction between apical and laminal sibilants (written s/ss and c/ç/z, respectively).
• As phonemes, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ occur only in loanwords (e.g. tchau and dee jay), with a tendency for speakers to substitute into fricatives in Portugal. However in most Brazilian dialects d and t are pronounced as [dʒ] and [tʃ] before i and e.
• In northern and central Portugal, the voiced stops /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ are usually lenited to fricatives [β], [ð], and [ɣ] respectively, except at the beginning of words, or after nasal vowels;^[18][19] a similar process occurs in Spanish.
• In large parts of northern Portugal, e.g. Trás-os-Montes, /b/ and /v/ are merged, both pronounced /b ~ β/, as in Spanish.

Consonant elision[]

There is a variation in the pronunciation of the first consonant of certain clusters, most commonly C or P in cç, ct, pç and pt. These consonants may be variably elided or conserved. For some words, this variation may exist inside a country, sometimes in all of them; for others, the variation is dialectal, with the consonant being always pronounced in one country and always elided in the other. This variation affects 0.5% of the language's vocabulary, or 575 words out of 110,000.^[20] In most cases, Brazilians variably conserve the consonant while speakers elsewhere have invariably ceased to pronounce it (for example, detector in Brazil versus detetor in Portugal). The inverse situation is rarer, occurring in words such as fa(c)to and conta(c)to (consonants never pronounced in Brazil, pronounced elsewhere). Until 2009, this reality could not be apprehended from the spelling: while Brazilians did not write consonants that were no longer pronounced, the spelling of the other countries retained them in many words as silent letters, usually when there was still a vestige of their presence in the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. This could give the false impression that European Portuguese was phonologically more conservative in this aspect, when in fact it was Brazilian Portuguese that retained more consonants in pronunciation.

Consonant phonotactics[]

Syllables have the maximal structure of (C)(C)V(C). The only possible codas in European Portuguese are [ʃ], [ɫ] and /ɾ/ and in Brazilian Portuguese /s/ and /ɾ~ʁ/.

• The consonants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ only occur in the middle of a word between vowels, and only rarely occur before /i/.
• Although nasal consonants do not normally occur at the end of syllables, syllable-final /n/ may be present in rare learned words, such as abdomen ([abˈdɔmɛn] 'abdomen'). In Brazilian varieties, these words have a nasal diphthong ([abˈdõmẽj̃], spelled as abdomen).^[21] Word-initial /ɲ/ occurs in very few loanwords.^[18]
• While the sibilant consonants (/s z ʃ ʒ/) contrast word-initially and intervocalically, they appear in complementary distribution in the syllable coda. For many dialects (i.e., those of Portugal and of Rio de Janeiro and the northeast of Brazil and certain other areas in Brazil), the sibilant is a postalveolar in coda position (e.g., pasto [ˈpaʃtu] 'pasture'; -ismo [ˈiʒmu] '-ism'; paz [pa(j)ʃ] 'peace'). In many other dialects of Brazil (e.g., some of the Southeast, Northeast, and North), the postalveolar variant occurs in some or all cases when directly preceding a consonant, including across word boundaries, but not word-finally (e.g., [ˈpaʃtʊ ~ ˈpastu], [ˈiʒmʊ ~ ˈizmʊ], [pa(j)s]). In a number of Brazilian dialects, this "palatalization" is absent entirely (e.g., [ˈpastʊ], [ˈizmʊ], [pa(j)s]).^[22][23] 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.^[18]
• The consonant /l/ is velarized [ɫ] in the syllable coda in European and most of African dialects. In most Brazilian dialects, /l/ is vocalized to [w] at the end of syllables,^[22] but in the dialects of the extreme south, mainly along the frontiers with other countries (especially Uruguay), it has the full pronunciation or the velarized pronunciation.^{[clarification needed][24]} In some caipira registers, there is a rhotacism of coda /l/ to retroflex [ɻ]. In casual BP, unstressed il can be realized as [ju], as in fácil [ˈfasju] ('easy').^[25]
• For speakers who realize /ʁ/ as an alveolar trill [r], the sequence /ʃr/ (as in e.g., os rins) can coalesce into a voiced alveolar fricative trill [r̝].^[16]
• 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/.^[8] This is because, before another vowel, the /w/ is always realized as a semi-vowel. It's never an /u/ in hiatus with the following vowel.
• The semivowels /j/ and /w/ do not occur before /i/ and /u/ respectively, and only contrast in some diphthongs like in pai [ˈpaj] versus pau [ˈpaw]. Otherwise they are the non-syllabic allophones of /i/ and /u/ in unstressed syllables.
• Unlike its neighbor and relative Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese lacks a tendency to elide any stop, including those that may become a continuant (always fricative in Portuguese) by lenition (/b/ > [β], /d/ > [ð], /ɡ/ > [ɣ]), but it has a number of allophones to it.

Rhotics[]

The two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between oral vowels, similar to Spanish.^[26] Elsewhere, their occurrence is predictable by context, with dialectal variations in realization. The rhotic is "hard" (i.e., /ʁ/) in the following circumstances:

• Word-initially (e.g., rosa 'rose');
• Syllable-initially preceded by /l/ or /s/ (e.g., guelra 'gill', Israel);
• Following a nasal vowel (e.g., honrar 'to honor');
• In most Brazilian and some African dialects, syllable-finally (i.e., preceded but not followed by a vowel);
• When written with the digraph "rr" (e.g., carro 'car').

It is "soft" (i.e., /ɾ/) when it occurs in syllable onset clusters (e.g., atributo),^[27] and written as a single 'r' between vowels (e.g., dirigir 'to drive')

The realization of the "hard" rhotic /ʁ/ varies significantly across dialects.

This restricted variation 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 /ˈkaro/ > [ˈkaɾʁu] > [ˈkaʁu]). Similarly, Bonet & Mascaró (1997) argue that the hard is the unmarked realization.

Brazilian rhotics[]

In addition to the phonemic variation between /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ between vowels, up to four allophones of the "merged" phoneme /R/ are found in other positions:

1. A "soft" allophone /ɾ/ in syllable-onset clusters, as described above;
2. A default "hard" allophone in most other circumstances;
3. In some dialects, a special allophone syllable-finally (i.e., preceded but not followed by a vowel);
4. Commonly in all dialects, deletion of the rhotic word-finally.

The default hard allophone is some sort of voiceless fricative in most dialects, e.g., [χ] [h] [x], although other variants are also found. For example, a trill [r] is found in certain conservative dialects down São Paulo, of Italian-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Arabic-speaking, or Slavic-speaking influence. The other trill [ʀ] is found in areas of German-speaking, French-speaking, and Portuguese-descended influence throughout coastal Brazil down Espírito Santo, most prominently Rio de Janeiro.

The syllable-final allophone shows the greatest variation:

• Many dialects (mainly in Brasília, Minas Gerais and Brazilian North and Northeast) use the same voiceless fricative as in the default allophone. This may become voiced before a voiced consonant, esp. in its weaker variants (e.g., dormir [do̞ɦˈmi(h)] 'to sleep').
• The soft [ɾ] occurs for many speakers in Southern Brazil and São Paulo city.
• An English-like approximant [ɹ ~ ɻ] or vowel (R-colored vowel) occurs elsewhere in São Paulo as well as Mato Grosso do Sul, southern Goiás, central and southern Mato Grosso and bordering regions of Minas Gerais. This pronunciation is stereotypically associated with the rural "caipira" dialect.

Throughout Brazil, deletion of the word-final rhotic is common, regardless of the "normal" pronunciation of the syllable-final allophone. This pronunciation is particularly common in lower registers, although found in most registers in some areas, e.g., Northeast Brazil, and in the more formal and standard sociolect. It occurs especially in verbs, which always end in R in their infinitive form; in words other than verbs, the deletion is rarer^[28] and seems not to occur in monosyllabic non-verb words, such as mar.^[29] Evidence of this allophone is often encountered in writing that attempts to approximate the speech of communities with this pronunciation, e.g., the rhymes in the popular poetry (cordel literature) of the Northeast and phonetic spellings (e.g., amá, sofrê in place of amar, sofrer) in Jorge Amado's novels (set in the Northeast) and Gianfrancesco Guarnieri's play Eles não usam black tie (about favela dwellers in Rio de Janeiro).^[30][31]

The soft realization is often maintained across word boundaries in close syntactic contexts (e.g., mar azul [ˈmaɾ‿aˈzuw] 'blue sea').^[32]

Vowels[]

Monophthongs of European Portuguese as they are pronounced in Lisbon, from Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91). The vowel transcribed /ɯ/ on this chart appears only in unstressed syllables and corresponds to the symbol /ɨ/ in this article.

Monophthongs of Brazilian Portuguese as they are pronounced in São Paulo, from Barbosa & Albano (2004:229). The vowels [ɪ, ʊ, ë] appear only in unstressed syllables.

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/, as in Italian, Catalan and French, though there is a certain amount of vowel alternation. European Portuguese has also two central vowels, one of which tends to be elided like the e caduc of French.

The central closed vowel /ɨ/ only occurs in European Portuguese when e is unstressed, e.g. presidente [pɾɨziˈðẽtɨ]; as well as in Angola, but it only occurs at last syllables, e.g. presidente [pɾeziˈdẽtɨ]. However, /ɨ/ does not exist in Brazil, e.g. presidente [pɾeziˈdẽtʃɪ].

In Angola, /ɐ/ and /a/ merge to [a], and /ɐ/ appears only in final syllables rama /ˈʁamɐ/. The nasal /ɐ̃/ becomes open [ã].^[33]

Vowel classification[]

Portuguese uses vowel height to contrast stressed syllables with unstressed syllables; the vowels /a ɛ e ɔ o/ tend to be raised to [ɐ ɛ ɨ ɔ u] (although [ɨ] occurs only in EP and AP) 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.

European Portuguese possesses quite a wide range of vowel allophones:

• All vowels are lowered and retracted before /l/.^[18]
• All vowels are raised and advanced before alveolar, palato-alveolar and palatal consonants.^[18]
• Word-finally, /ɨ/ as well as unstressed /u/ and /ɐ/ are voiceless [ɯ̥̽, u̥, ə̥].^[18]

The exact realization of the /ɐ/ varies somewhat amongst dialects. In Brazil, [a] and [ɐ] are in complementary distribution: [ɐ ~ ə] occurs in word-final unstressed syllables, while [ɜ ~ ə] occurs in stressed syllables before an intervocalic /m/, /n/, or /ɲ/;^[34] in these phonetic conditions, [ɜ ~ ə] can be nasalized. Unstressed [a ~ ɐ ~ ə] occurs in all other environments. In European Portuguese, the general situation is similar (with [ə] being more prevalent in nearly all unstressed syllables), except that in some regions the two vowels form minimal pairs in some European dialects.^[35] In central European Portuguese this contrast occurs in a limited morphological context, namely in verbs conjugation between the first person plural present and past perfect indicative forms of verbs such as pensamos ('we think') and pensámos ('we thought'; spelled ⟨pensamos⟩ in Brazil).^[36] proposes that it is a kind of crasis rather than phonemic distinction of /a/ and /ɐ/. It means that in falamos 'we speak' there is the expected prenasal /a/-raising: [fɐˈlɐmuʃ], while in falámos 'we spoke' there are phonologically two /a/ in crasis: /faˈlaamos/ > [fɐˈlamuʃ] (but in Brazil both merge, falamos [faˈlɐ̃mus]). Close-mid vowels and open-mid vowels (/e ~ ɛ/ and /o ~ ɔ/) contrast only when they are stressed.^[37] In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. In Brazilian Portuguese, they are raised to a high or near-high vowel ([i ~ ɪ] and [u ~ ʊ], respectively) after a stressed syllable,^[37] or in some accents and in general casual speech, also before it.

According to Mateus and d'Andrade (2000:19),^[38] in European Portuguese, the stressed [ɐ] only occurs in the following three contexts:

• Before a palatal consonant (such as telha [ˈtɐʎɐ])
• Before the palatal front glide (such as lei [ˈlɐj])
• Before a nasal consonant (such as cama [ˈkɐmɐ])

English loanwords containing stressed /ʌ/ or /ɜːr/ are usually associated with pre-nasal ⟨a⟩ as in rush,^[39][40] or are influenced by orthography as in clube (club),^[41][42] or both, as in surf/surfe.^[43]

European Portuguese "e caduc"[]

European Portuguese possesses a near-close near-back unrounded vowel. It occurs in unstressed syllables such as in pegar [pɯ̽ˈɣaɾ] ('to grip').^[5] There is no standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for this sound. The IPA Handbook transcribes it with ⟨ɯ⟩, but in Portuguese studies ⟨ɨ⟩ is traditionally used.^[44]

• Traditionally, it is pronounced when "e" is unstressed; e.g. verdade [vɨɾˈdaðɨ], perigo [pɨˈɾiɣu], estado [ɨʃˈtaðu].
• However, if "e" is initial, then it is pronounced [i]; e.g. energia [inɨɾˈʒiɐ], exemplo [iˈzẽplu].
• When "e" is surrounded by another vowel, it becomes [i]; e.g. real [ˈʁjal].
• However, when the e caduc is preceded by a semi-vowel, it may become [e ~ ɛ] poesia [pweˈziɐ], quietude [kjɛˈtuðɨ].
• Theoretically, unstressed "i" cannot be lowered to /ɨ/. However, when it is surrounded by [i, ĩ] or any palatal sound [ɲ, ʎ, ʃ, ʒ], it usually becomes /ɨ/. E.g. ministro [mɨˈniʃtɾu], príncipe [ˈpɾĩsɨpɨ], artilhar [ɐɾtɨˈʎaɾ], caminhar [kɐmɨˈɲaɾ], pistola [pɨʃˈtɔlɐ], pijama [pɨˈʒɐmɐ].
• The Portuguese "e caduc" may be elided, becoming in some instances a syllabic consonant; e.g. verdade [vɾ̩ˈdað], perigo [ˈpɾiɣu], estado [ˈʃtaðu], energia [inɾ̩ˈʒiɐ], ministro [ˈmniʃtɾu], príncipe [ˈpɾĩsp], artilhar [ɐɾtˈʎaɾ], caminhar [kɐmˈɲaɾ], pistola [pʃ̩ˈtɔlɐ].

There are very few minimal pairs for this sound: some examples include pregar [pɾɨˈɣaɾ] ('to nail') vs. pregar [pɾɛˈɣaɾ] ('to preach'; the latter stemming from earlier preegar < Latin praedicāre),^[45] sê [ˈse] ('be!') vs. sé [ˈsɛ] ('see/cathedral') vs. se [sɨ] ('if'), and pêlo [ˈpelu] ('hair') vs. pélo [ˈpɛlu] ('I peel off') vs. pelo [pɨlu] ('for the'),^[46] after orthographic changes, all these three words are now spelled pelo.

Oral diphthongs[]

Diphthongs are not considered independent phonemes in Portuguese, but knowing them can help with spelling and pronunciation.^[47]

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.^[50][51] In these and other cases, other diphthongs, diphthong-hiatus or hiatus-diphthong combinations might exist depending on speaker, such as [uw] or even [uw.wu] for suo ('I sweat') and [ij] or even [ij.ji] for fatie ('slice it').

[j] and [w] are non-syllabic counterparts of the vowels /i/ and /u/, respectively. At least in European Portuguese, the diphthongs [ɛj, aj, ɐj, ɔj, oj, uj, iw, ew, ɛw, aw] tend to have more central second elements [i̠̯, u̟̯] – note that the latter semivowel is also more weakly rounded than the vowel /u/. In the Lisbon accent, the diphthong [ɐj] often has an onset that is more back than central, i.e. [ɐ̠j] or even [ʌj].^[18]

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 ɐ̃j̃ õj̃ ũj̃ ɐ̃w̃ õw̃/. Nasal diphthongs occur mostly at the end of words (or followed by a final sibilant), and in a few compounds. Brazilian Portuguese is overall more nasal^{[clarification needed]} than European Portuguese due to many external influences including the common language spoken at Brazil's coast at time of discovery, Tupi.^{[citation needed]}

As in French, the nasal consonants represented by the letters ⟨m n⟩ are deleted in coda position, and in that case the preceding vowel becomes phonemically nasal, e.g. in genro /ˈʒẽʁʊ/ ('son-in-law'). But a nasal consonant subsists when it is followed by a plosive, e.g. in cantar [kɐ̃nˈtaɾ] ('to sing').^[52] Vowel nasalization has also been observed non-phonemically as result of coarticulation, before heterosyllabic nasal consonants, e.g. in soma [ˈsõmɐ] ('sum').^[22] Hence, one speaks discriminatingly of nasal vowels (i.e. phonemically so) and nasalized vowels. Additionally, a nasal monophthong /ɐ̃/ written ⟨ã⟩ exists independently of these processes, e.g. in romã /ʁoˈmɐ̃/ ('pomegranate').

The /e-ɛ/ and /o-ɔ/ distinction does not happen in nasal vowels; ⟨em om⟩ are pronounced as close-mid. In BP, the vowel /a/ (which the letter ⟨a⟩ otherwise represents) is sometimes phonemically raised to /ɐ/ when it is nasal, and also in stressed syllables before heterosyllabic nasal consonants (even if the speaker does not nasalize vowels in this position):^[53] compare for instance dama sã [ˈdɐmɐ ˈsɐ̃] (PT) or [ˈdɐ̃mɐ ˈsɐ̃] (BR) ('healthy lady') and dá maçã [ˈda mɐˈsɐ̃] (PT) or [ˈda maˈsɐ̃] (BR) ('it gives apples'). /a/ may also be raised slightly in word-final unstressed syllables.

Nasalization and height increase noticeably with time during the production of a single nasal vowel in BP in those cases that are written with nasal consonants ⟨m n⟩, so that /ˈʒẽʁu/ may be realized as [ˈʒẽj̃ʁʊ] or [ˈʒẽɰ̃ʁʊ].^[54] This creates a significant difference between the realizations of ⟨am⟩ and ⟨ã⟩ for some speakers: compare for instance ranço real [ˈʁɐ̃su 'ʁɨal] (PT) or [ˈʁɐ̃ɰ̃sʊ ʁeˈaw] (BR) ('royal rancidness') and rã surreal [ˈʁɐ̃ suˈʁɨal] (PT) or [ˈʁɐ̃ suʁeˈaw] (BR) ('surreal frog'). (Here [ɰ̃] means a velar nasal approximant.) At the end of a word ⟨em⟩ is always pronounced [ẽj̃] with a clear nasal palatal approximant (see below). Whenever a nasal vowel is pronounced with a nasal coda (approximant or occlusive) the (phonetic) nasalization of the vowel itself is optional.^[55]

The following examples exhaustively demonstrate the general situation for BP.

• romã ('pomegranate') : [ʁoˈmɜ̃] : final vowel is (phonemically) "nasal" and nasal approximants may not be pronounced.
• genro ('son-in-law') : [ˈʒẽʁʊ] or [ˈʒẽj̃ʁʊ] or [ˈʒẽɰ̃.ʁʊ] : nasal consonant deleted; preceding vowel is (phonemically) "nasal" and nasal approximants may be pronounced.
• cem ('a hundred') : [ˈsẽj̃] : nasal approximant must be pronounced.
• cantar ('to sing') : [kɜ̃nˈtaɾ]: nasal consonant remains because of the following plosive; preceding vowel is raised and nasalized non-phonemically. (This is traditionally considered a "nasal" vowel by textbooks.)
• cano ('pipe') : [ˈkɜ̃nʊ] or [ˈkɜnʊ] : first vowel is necessarily raised, and may be nasalized non-phonemically.
• tomo ('I take') : [ˈtomʊ] or [ˈtõmʊ] : first vowel may be nasalized non-phonemically.

It follows from these observations that the vowels of BP can be described simply in the following way.

• BP has eight monophthongs—/a ɐ e ɛ i o ɔ u/—whose phonetic realizations may be affected by a nasal archiphoneme /N/.^[56][57] The vowel /ɐ/ is typically nasalized (in every position), but this is not phonemic.
• All eight vowels are differentiated in stressed and unstressed positions. But in word-final unstressed position and not followed by /N/, they reduce to three vowels—/a i u/—in most dialects. In this position, /a/ has a free variation [ɐ] and this fatally impairs /a-ɜ/ distinction. (For instance: the word ímã ('magnet') is effectively pronounced as either ima or ímam, depending on speaker.)
• Like the ん of Japanese, the archiphoneme /N/ is a nasal archiphoneme of syllabic codas and its actual place of articulation is determined by the following sound:
  • /VNp, VNb/=[Ṽmp, Ṽmb];
  • /VNt, VNd/=[Ṽnt, Ṽnd];
  • /VNk, VNg/=[Ṽŋk, Ṽŋg];
  • otherwise it becomes a nasal approximant [ɰ̃] (as in Japanese kan'i 簡易 [かんい], etc.). After the vowels /e i/ this approximant may also be pronounced as [j̃]; and after /o u/ as [w̃] (free variations).
• The system of eight monophthongs reduces to five—/ɐ e i o u/—before /N/ and also in stressed syllables before heterosyllabic nasal consonants. The grapheme ⟨a⟩ stands for /ɐ/ in these cases.
• /eN/ is not allowed at word-final position because ⟨em⟩ stands for /ẽj/ in this case. (Here /j̃/ means the same phoneme that ⟨nh⟩ represents; and /e/ may be nasalized non-phonemically.) This is the only case of /j̃/ in coda-position.

With this description, the examples from before are simply /ʁoˈmɐ/, /ˈʒeNʁu/, /sej̃/, /kaNˈtaɾ/, /ˈkɐnu/, /ˈtomu/. But there is no commonly accepted transcription for Brazilian Portuguese phonology.

Vowel nasalization in some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese is very different from that of French, for example. In French, the nasalization extends uniformly through the entire vowel, whereas in the Southern-Southeastern dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, the nasalization begins almost imperceptibly and then becomes stronger toward the end of the vowel. In this respect it is more similar to the nasalization of Hindi-Urdu (see Anusvara). In some cases, the nasal archiphoneme even entails the insertion of a nasal consonant such as [m, n, ŋ, ȷ̃, w̃, ɰ̃] (compare Polish phonology § Open), as in the following examples:

Nasal diphthongs[]

Most times nasal diphthongs occur at the end of the word. They are:

• -ãe [ɐ̃j̃]. It occurs in mãe(s) ('mother[s]') and in the plural of some words ending in -ão, e.g., cães ('dogs'), pães ('breads'); and exceptionally non-finally in cãibra ('cramp'). In Central European Portuguese, it occurs also in all words ending in -em, like tem ('he/she/it has'), bem ('well', 'good', as a noun), mentem (they lie), etc.
• -em [ẽj̃]. It occurs, both stressed and unstressed, in Brazilian Portuguese and in European Portuguese (northern and southern dialects) in word-final syllables ending in -em and -ém like bem, sem, além, as well as in verbs ending in -em (3rd person plural present indicative or verbs in -er and -ir). In Greater Lisbon, [ẽj̃] has merged with [ɐ̃j̃]; and it occurs duplicated in têm [ˈtẽj̃ẽj̃] or [ˈtɐ̃j̃ɐ̃j̃] (3rd person plural present indicative of ter, originally tẽem), which in Brazilian is homophonous with tem (the 3rd person singular).
• -õe [õj̃]. It occurs:
  • in the present indicative of pôr and its derivatives; in the 2nd person singular (pões [põj̃s], opões, compões, pressupões), in the 3rd person singular (põe [põj̃], opõe etc.), and non-finally in the 3rd person plural (põem [ˈpõẽj̃ ~ ˈpõj̃ẽj̃ ~ ˈpõj̃], opõem etc.).
  • in the plural of many words ending in-ão, e.g., limões ('lemons'), anões ('dwarfs'), espiões ('spies'), iões ('ions'), catiões ('cations'), aniões ('anions'), eletrões ('electrons'), neutrões ('neutrons'), protões ('protons'), fotões ('photons'), positrões ('positrons') and the plurals of all words with the suffix -ção (compare English -tion, like in communication), like comunicações ('communications'), provocações ('provocations').
• -uim or -uin [w̃ĩ] Example: pinguim ('penguin').
• ui [ũj̃] occurs only in the words muito [ˈmũj̃tu] and the uncommon mui [mũj̃]. The nasalisation here may be interpreted as allophonic, bleeding over from the previous m (compare mãe with the same bleeding of nasality).
• -ão or -am. [ɐ̃w̃]. Examples: pão ('bread'), cão ('dog'), estão ('they are'), vão ('they go'), limão ('lemon'), órgão ('organ'), Estêvão ('Steven'). When in the -am form (unstressed) they are always the 3rd person of the plural of a verb, like estavam ('they were'), contam ('they account'), escreveram ('they wrote'), partiram ('they left').
• -om [õw̃]. It occurs in word-final syllables ending in -om like bom and som. However, it may be algo monophthongized [õ].

[j̃] and [w̃] are nasalized, non-syllabic counterparts of the vowels /i/ and /u/, respectively. At least in European Portuguese, the diphthongs [ɐ̃j̃, õj̃, ũj̃, ɐ̃w̃] tend to have more central second elements [ĩ̠̯, ũ̟̯] – note that the latter semivowel is also more weakly rounded than the vowel /u/.^[18]

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/ ('cut') and corte /o/ ('court'); meta /e/ ('I put' subjunctive) and meta /ɛ/ ('goal'); and (especially in Portugal) para /ɐ/ ('for') and para /a/ ('he stops'); forma /o/ ('mold') and forma /ɔ/ ('shape').

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 may be pronounced with /a/ in some environments.

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.

^{* N.E.: The bold syllable is the stressed, but the pronunciation indicated on the left is for the unstressed syllable – not bold.}

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 southern and western 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 (as well as in the fluminense dialect), unstressed /e/ and /o/ may be raised to /ɪ ~ i/, /ʊ ~ u/ on any unstressed syllable,^[60] as long as it has no coda. However, in the dialects of Northeastern Brazilian (as spoken in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco), non-final unstressed vowels are often open-mid /a/, /ɛ/, /ɔ/, independent of vowel harmony with surrounding lower vowels.

European Portuguese has taken this process one step further, raising /a, ɐ/, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ to /ɐ/, /ɨ/, /u/ in almost 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 or elided in fast speech. If /ɨ/ is elided, which mostly it is in the beginning of a word and word finally, the previous consonant becomes aspirated like in ponte (bridge) [ˈpõtʰ], or if it is /u/ is labializes the previous consonant like in grosso (thick) [ˈɡɾosʷ].

However, Angolan Portuguese has been more conservative, raising /a/, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ to /a/, /e/, /o/ in unstressed syllables; and to /ɐ/, /ɨ/, /u/ in final unstressed syllables. Which makes it almost similar to Brazilian Portuguese (except by final /ɨ/, which is inherited from European Portuguese).

There are some exceptions to the rules above. For example, /i/ occurs instead of unstressed /e/ or /ɨ/, word-initially or before another vowel in hiatus (teatro, reúne, peão). /ɨ/ is often deleted entirely word-initially in the combination /ɨsC/ becoming [ʃC ~ ʒC]. Also, /a/, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/ appear in some unstressed syllables in EP, being marked in the lexicon, like espetáculo (spectacle) [ʃpɛˈtakulu]; these occur from deletion of the final consonant in a closed syllable and from crasis. And there is some dialectal variation in the unstressed sounds: the northern and eastern accents of BP have low vowels in unstressed syllables, /ɛ, ɔ/, instead of the high vowels /e, o/. However, the Brazilian media tends 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⟩ (pronounced /ow/ in conservative EP). Nevertheless, casual BP may raise unstressed nasal vowels /ẽ/, /õ/ to [ɪ̃ ~ ĩ], [ʊ̃ ~ ũ], too.

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.^[61][62] 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 [adʒiˈvɛχsʊ]; McDonald's may be pronounced [mɛ̞kiˈdõnawdʒɪs]. 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/,^[61] and the complex consonants /ks, kw, ɡw/.^[62] Some examples:

flagrante [flɐˈɣɾɐ̃tɨ ~ flaˈɡɾɐ̃tʃɪ ~ flaˈɡɾãtɨ], complexo [kõˈplɛksu ~ kõˈplɛksʊ], fixo [ˈfiksu ~ ˈfiksʊ] (but not ficção [fikˈsɐ̃w]), latex [latɛks], quatro [ˈkʷatɾu ~ ˈkʷatɾʊ], guaxinim [ɡʷɐʃiˈnĩ ~ 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 may occur in European Portuguese, but Brazilian Portuguese for the most part allows only mid or close-mid vowels. This can affect spelling: cf. EP tónico, BP tônico "tonic".
• In most BP, stressed vowels have nasal allophones, [ɐ̃], [ẽ], [ĩ], [õ], [ũ], etc. (see below) before one of the nasal consonants /m/, /n/, /ɲ/, followed by another vowel. In São Paulo, Southern Brazil,^[63] and EP, nasalization is nearly absent in this environment, other than in compounds such as connosco, comummente (spelled conosco, comumente in BP).
• Most BP speakers also diphthongize stressed vowels in oxytones to [aj], [ɛj], [ej], [oj], [ɔj], [uj], etc. (sometimes /ij/), before a sibilant coda (written s or z). For instance, Jesus [ʒeˈzujs] ('Jesus'), faz [fajs] ('he does'), dez [dɛjs] ('ten'). This has led to the use of meia (from meia dúzia 'half a dozen") instead of seis [sejs] ('six') when making enumerations, to avoid any confusion with três [tɾejs] ('three') on the telephone.^[64]
• In Greater Lisbon, /e/ is pronounced [ɐ(j)] when it comes before a palatal consonant /j/, /ʎ/, /ɲ/ or a palato-alveolar /ʃ/, /ʒ/, followed by another vowel; as well as [ẽj̃] is pronounced [ɐ̃j̃].

Sandhi[]

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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‿ˈtẽpʊs] ('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‿ɐˈmiɣuʃ] or [bõz‿aˈmiɡʊs] ('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 may be pronounced separately, depending on the dialect. Thus, the former speakers will pronounce the last example with [zʒ], whereas the latter speakers will pronounce the first examples with [s] if they are from Brazil or [ʃs] if from Portugal (although in 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 [s] (most of Brazil); [ʃ‿s] (Portugal, standard)
• sibilant + /z/, e.g., as zonas: either [z] (mostly in Brazil); [ʒ‿z] (Portugal, standard)
• sibilant + /ʃ/, e.g., as chaves: either [ʃ] (most of Brazil and Portugal) or [s‿ʃ] (Portugal, standard);
• sibilant + /ʒ/, e.g., os genes: either [ʒ] (most of Brazil and Portugal) or [z‿ʒ] (Portugal, standard).

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 [ˈtoða(ː) ˈnojtʃi] or [ˈtoda(ː) ˈnojtɨ] ('all night'), nessa altura [ˈnɛs‿awˈtuɾɐ] 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)‿ˈtiɣɐ].
• /i/ + /i, ĩ/ → [i(ː), ĩ(ː)]; de idade [dʒi(ː)‿ˈdadʒi] or [di(ː)‿ˈðaðɨ] ('aged').
• /ɨ/ + /ɨ/ → [ɨ]; fila de espera [ˈfilɐ ð‿ɨʃˈpɛɾɐ] ('waiting line') (EP only).
• /u/ + /u, ũ/ → [u(ː), ũ(ː)]; todo o dia [ˈtodu(ː) ˈdʒiɐ] or [ˈtoðu(ː) ˈðiɐ] ('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 [majs 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 [majʃ kj‿ũ] ('more than one').
• /u/ + V → [wV]; todo este tempo [ˈtoðw‿ˈeʃtɨ ˈtẽpu] ('all this time'), do objeto [dw‿ɔbˈʒɛtu] ('of the object').

But in other prosodic conditions, and in , EP simply drops final unstressed /ɨ/ and /u/ (elision)(significant dialectal variation):

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

Aside from historical set contractions formed by prepositions plus determiners or pronouns, like à/dà, ao/do, nesse, dele, etc., on one hand and combined clitic pronouns such as mo/ma/mos/mas (it/him/her/them to/for me), and so on, on the other, Portuguese spelling does not reflect vowel sandhi. In poetry, however, an apostrophe may be used to show elision such as in d'água.

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.

Practically, for the main stress pattern, words that end with: "a(s)", "e(s)", "o(s)", "em(ens)" and "am" are stressed in the penultimate syllable, and those that don't carry these endings are stressed in the last syllable. In the case a word doesn't follow this pattern, it takes an accent according to Portuguese's accentuation rules (these rules might not be followed everytime when concerning personal names and non-integrated loanwords).

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' vs. duvida /duˈvidɐ/ 's/he doubts'

ruíram /ʁuˈiɾɐ̃w̃/ 'they collapsed' vs. ruirão /ʁuiˈɾɐ̃w̃/ 'they will collapse'

falaram /faˈlaɾɐ̃w̃/ 'they spoke' vs. falarão /falaˈɾɐ̃w̃/ '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[]

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Tone is not lexically significant in Portuguese, but phrase- and sentence-level tones are important. As in most Romance languages, interrogation on yes-no questions is expressed mainly by sharply raising the tone at the end of the sentence. An exception to this is the word oi that is subject to meaning changes: an exclamation tone means 'hi/hello', and in an interrogative tone it means 'I didn't understand'.

Phonological comparison[]

Table[]

Sample[]

Os Lusíadas, Luís de Camões (I, 33)

See also[]

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

References[]

Bibliography[]

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
• The pronunciation of each vowel and consonant letter in European Portuguese