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Portuguese phonology
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Portuguese phonology
The phonology of Portuguese varies among dialects, in extreme cases leading to some difficulties in mutual intelligibility. This article on phonology 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.
The consonant inventory of Portuguese is fairly conservative.[citation needed] 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.
Phonetic notes
The occurrence of the two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ is mostly predictable by context, with dialectal variations in realization.
The rhotic is predicted to be hard in the following circumstances:
The rhotic is predicted to be "soft" (i.e., /ɾ/) when it occurs in syllable onset clusters (e.g., atributo) or, in some dialects, syllable-finally.
The rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between an oral vowel and a vowel, similar to Spanish. In this context, they are spelled "rr" and "r", respectively.
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]). Conversely, Bonet & Mascaró (1997) argue that the hard is the unmarked realization.
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Portuguese phonology
The phonology of Portuguese varies among dialects, in extreme cases leading to some difficulties in mutual intelligibility. This article on phonology 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.
The consonant inventory of Portuguese is fairly conservative.[citation needed] 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.
Phonetic notes
The occurrence of the two rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ is mostly predictable by context, with dialectal variations in realization.
The rhotic is predicted to be hard in the following circumstances:
The rhotic is predicted to be "soft" (i.e., /ɾ/) when it occurs in syllable onset clusters (e.g., atributo) or, in some dialects, syllable-finally.
The rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ contrast only between an oral vowel and a vowel, similar to Spanish. In this context, they are spelled "rr" and "r", respectively.
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]). Conversely, Bonet & Mascaró (1997) argue that the hard is the unmarked realization.