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.
Chart of the vowels as they are pronounced in Lisbon
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 and the low vowels 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 tend to be raised to (although 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 ; although rising diphthongs occur in the language as well, they can be interpreted as hiatuses.
Oral monophthongs
Phoneme
Usual spelling
Examples
Meaning!Notes and variants
a, á, à
prato, dá
"dish", "he gives"
The exact realization of the central vowel // (, according to some authors) varies somewhat with dialect; in central and southern EP, it is pronounced higher than in BP. In BP, this sound is just an allophone of , found in unstressed final syllables. In EP, however, they are distinct phonemes. While tends to be stressed and tends to be unstressed, and most minimal pairs, such as dá "he gives" and da "of the", are composed of a stressed monosyllabic word and an unstressed clitic, these two 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). See also Weakening of unstressed vowels.
The central or centralized vowel (, according to some authors), exists only in EP. It is almost an unstressed allophone of , with which it has very few minimal pairs, excluding monosyllabic clitics. In relaxed pronunciation, it is often elided. It is the epenthetic vowel of EP.
i, í, e2
si, teatro
"himself", "theatre"
Semivowel allophone , when it is the weaker component of a diphthong. Epenthetic vowel of BP.
o, ó
avó, corar (EP)
"grandmother", "to blush"
These phonemes contrast only when they are stressed. In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. See also Apophony in Portuguese. Most speakers nowadays pronounce the digraph ou as a monophthong , although in some regions of Brazil and northern Portugal it is still pronounced as the falling diphthong .
o, ô, ou
avô, corar (BP)
"grandfather", "to blush"
u, ú, o2, ü3
nuca, curar
"back of the neck", "to heal"
Semivowel allophone , when it is the weaker component of a diphthong.
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.
Further notes on the oral vowels: * Some BP speakers also diphthongize stressed vowels to , , , etc. (except ), before /s/ at the end of a syllable (written s, x, or z). For instance, Jesus "Jesus" , faz "he does" , dez "ten" . This has led to the substitution of meia (meaning "meia dúzia", or "half a dozen") for seis "six" when making enumerations, to avoid any confusion with três "three" on the telephone. * In BP, stressed vowels have nasal allophones, (or according to some authors), , etc. (see below) before one of the nasal consonants , , , followed by another vowel. In EP, nasalization is nearly absent in this environment. * In central EP, the vowel is pronounced as or when it is stressed before a palatal consonant , or a palato-alveolar , , followed by another vowel. * Some words with in EP have in BP. This happens when those vowels are stressed before the nasal consonants , , 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".
Nasal monophthongs
Sound
Usual spelling
Examples
Meaning!Notes and variants
an, ân, am, âm, ã
pranto, vã
"cry", "vane" (f)
The digraphs an, en, ân, ên, etc. denote nasal vowels when they occur before a consonant. At the end of a word or before final s, am, em, êm, en, and én denote nasal diphthongs. See Nasal diphthongs, and the remarks below. The exact realization of the nasal central vowel varies somewhat with dialect; in central and southern EP, it is pronounced higher than in BP. When a word that ends in unstressed or unstressed is pronounced together with another word that starts with an unstressed , in EP, the two consecutive vowels merge into the allophone (sandhi). E.g. a antiga "the old one" and à antiga "in the old way" are both pronounced .
en, ên, em, êm
senda
"quest"
in, ín, im, ím
sim
"yes"
The digraphs in, on, un, etc. are pronounced as nasal vowels when they occur before another consonant, and so are im, om, um at the end of words.
on, ôn, om, ôm, õ
ponde
"lay" (imperative)
un, ún, um, úm
nunca
"never"
Another way to explain is to say that the vowels a, e, i, o, u, â, ê, í, ô, ú are nasal before the nasal consonants m, n followed by another consonant, or in the final digraphs im, om, um (i.e. in syllable coda). In fact, although this is not usually done, the nasal vowels of Portuguese can be regarded as allophones of the oral vowels appearing in certain environments, namely: * before a nasal consonant, , , followed by another consonant, or at the end of a word (considering that the grapheme ã is an abbreviation of at the end of words and before final ); * as a part of nasal diphthongs, in some special word endings: -ãe(s), -ão(s), -õe(s), -am, -em/-ém, -ens/-éns, -êm, -õem; * in certain compounds formed from words with the previous endings: mãezinha, cãozinho, vãmente, etc.; * 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.
Apophony
The low vowels contrast with the high vowels in several kinds of vowel alternation: * between the base form of a noun or adjective and its inflected forms: ovo "egg", ovos "eggs"; novo , nova , novos , novas "new" (masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, feminine plural); * between some nouns or adjectives and related verb forms: adj. seco "dry", v. seco "I dry"; n. gosto "taste", v. gosto "I like"; * in regular verbs, the stressed vowel is normally low , but high before the nasal consonants , (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 ; movo, moves, move, movem (present indicative); ceda, cedas, ceda, cedam ; mova, movas, mova, movam (present subjunctive). (There is another class of stem-changing verbs which alternate with according to the same scheme); * in central EP, the 1st. person plural of verbs of the 1st. conjugation (with infinitives in -ar) has the stressed vowel in the present indicative, but in the preterite, cf. pensamos "we think" with pensámos "we thought". In BP, the stressed vowel is in both, so they are written without accent mark.
There are also pairs of unrelated words that differ in vowel height, such as besta "beast" and besta "crossbow", or este "this one" and este "east". Since most homographs of this sort can be distinguished from context, the orthography normally does not differentiate them.
Weakening of unstressed vowels
Some vowels tend to change pronunciation when they are unstressed and isolated (i.e., neither a part of a diphthong, nor nasal). In the examples below, the vowel which undergoes alternation is bolded, and the stressed syllable of each word is underlined.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the general pattern is that the stressed vowels , , neutralize to , , , respectively, in unstressed syllables, as is common in Romance languages. In final unstressed syllables, however, they are raised to , , .
European Portuguese has taken this process one step further, raising , , to , , in all unstressed syllables. The vowels and are also more centralized than their Brazilian counterparts. The three unstressed vowels are reduced, and is often elided in fast speech.
There are some exceptions to the rules above. For example, become , rather than or , before another vowel with which they do not form a falling diphthong; and , or appear in some unstressed syllables, in EP. There is also dialectal variation in the unstressed sounds: the northern accents of BP have low vowels in unstressed syllables, , instead of the high vowels . 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 and are not affected by this process, nor is the vowel when written as the digraph ou.
Oral 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 or semivowel followed by another vowel, they can be analysed as hiatuses.
Sound
Usual spelling
Example
Meaning!Notes and variants
ai, ái
pai
"father"
Allophone in central and southern EP, when unstressed before another vowel.
ei
bateis
"you beat"
There are very few minimal pairs for and , all of which in oxytone words. Both diphthongs are replaced with in central EP.
éi
batéis
"boats"
oi
sois
"you are"
There are very few minimal pairs for and , all of which in oxytone words.
ói
sóis
"suns"
ui
fui
"I went"
Usually stressed.
au, áu
mau
"bad"
Allophone in EP, found, for instance, in the contractions ao and aos, but otherwise rare.
eu
seu
"his"
There are very few minimal pairs for and , all of which in oxytone words.
éu
céu
"sky"
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: (polvo, "octopus"), (sol, "sun"), (sul, "south"), although this glide [w] is best analysed as an allophone of the consonant /l/.
Nasal diphthongs
Sound
Usual spelling
Example
Meaning!Notes and variants
ãe
mãe
"mother"
The diphthong merges with in central EP. They have no minimal pairs.
em, ém, en, én
tem, parabéns
"he has", "congratulations"
õe
põe
"he lays"
ui
muito
"very"
This diphthong is found only in the five words muito, muita, muitos, muitas, mui. It has no minimal pairs with .
ão, am
vão, andam
"vane" (m), "they walk"
êm
têm
"they have"
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. Replaced with in central EP. Some speakers pronounce as .
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 in central EP. Some speakers pronounce as .
Nasal diphthongs occur mostly at the end of words (or followed by final ), and in a few compounds.
The pronunciation of most consonants is fairly straightforward, and similar to French or Catalan pronunciation. The letter h is silent; it appears only at the start of a word for etymology or tradition, in a few interjections, and as part of the digraphs ch, lh, nh. Only these digraphs and the letters r, s, x, and z may require special attention. Several consonant phonemes have special allophones at some syllable boundaries, and a few also have special allophones at word boundaries (sandhi). 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".
At the end of a syllable, // is silent or voiceless, but nasalizes the vowel that precedes it.
2
n
número, canto
"number", "corner"
Before another consonant, is silent or voiceless, but nasalizes the vowel that precedes it.
nh
ninho
"nest"
In many parts of Brazil and Angola, is pronounced as a nasal glide that nasalizes the preceding vowel: .
p
parte
"part"
Never aspirated.
r at the start of a word or afterl, n, s rr
rosa, tenro, carro
"rose", "tender", "car"
There is much dialectal variation in the pronunciation of this phoneme. In Europe and Africa, its most frequent realizations are or . In Brazil, it is usually pronounced or . See also Guttural R in Portuguese.
r except at the start of a word and afterl, n, s
caro, prato, sorte, mar
"expensive", "dish", "luck", "sea"
At the end of a syllable, it is pronounced as the phoneme , in many regions of Brazil. But at the end of a word, when the next word begins with a vowel and both words are pronounced together, the phoneme reverts to . See Guttural R in Portuguese, for other Brazilian pronunciations of // at the end of syllables. It is not unusual for to be silent in final stressed syllables.
s except between vowels ss cbeforee, i ç x, z4 at the end of a syllable
In most of Brazil (except Rio de Janeiro and some northeastern states), // has the alveolar allophones at the end of a word or when followed by a voiceless consonant (no change), and when followed by a voiced consonant: isto , turismo . This is like in English. In Rio de Janeiro and most of Portugal, becomes postalveolar, before a voiceless consonant and before a voiced consonant: isto , turismo .Before a word that starts with a voiced consonant, is also voiced to or . Before a word that starts with a vowel, is pronounced . For example, the phrase os ensinos antigos may be pronounced . This is like in French.
2
t
tosta, tinta
"toast", "ink"
Never aspirated.Palatalised allophone before , in most of Brazil (excluding the South, the Northeast and parts of the North and of state of São Paulo).3
v
vento
"wind"
As in English.
x6 ch
xarope, caixa, enxame, chuva
"syrup", "box", "swarm", "rain"
Not at the end of a syllable.
z sbetween vowels
cozer, coser
"to cook", "to sew"
Not at the end of a syllable. Pronounced as in English.
1 The voiced plosives , , have the fricative allophones , , , respectively, after a vowel in EP.
2 There is a slight difference between the Portuguese pronunciation and the English pronunciation of these sounds. See the discussion at Dental consonant.
4 At the end of a syllable, the choice between s, x and z is mostly a matter of etymology or tradition. Phonetically, they have the same value. In this environment, the letter x is normally preceded by e; and the letter z only occurs at the end of oxytone words and in a few compounds.
5 In Ladino, has the postalveolar allophone at the end of syllables, too.
6 Between vowels in loan words from Latin or Greek, the letter x may be pronounced in other ways. See Orthography of Portuguese.
When similar sounds occur in sequence within a word or at word boundaries, they coalesce into a single, simple sound. This normally happens with the sibilants, and with some vowels, shown in the following table. The letters that represent the assimilated sounds are bolded in the words and phrases given as examples.
Original sounds
Assimilated sound
Examples
Notes
+
nascer, desço, excesso, exsudar, as sopas
In the dialects where the phoneme has the allophones or at the end of syllables. (In most of Portugal, the pronunciation of these sequences of consonants is and .)
+
aszonas
+
os xailes, as chaves
In the dialects where the phoneme has the allophones or at the end of syllables. (In most of Brazil, the pronunciation of these sequences of consonants is and .)
+
disjuntor, línguas gerais
+
toda a noite, nessa altura, já agora
There may be no assimilation when one of the vowels in the pair is stressed. For example, conta da água is pronounced with a hiatus, , or , although many people in Brazil always pronounce (and sometimes even write) da água as d'água, as in copo d'água, .
+
senhora de idade
+
todo o dia
+
fila de espera
Before a different vowel (even a stressed vowel), the phoneme of European Portuguese either turns into , or is elided. For example, the phrase queda de água may be pronounced , or .
* 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
