Portuguese dialects
Encyclopedia
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.
Portuguese does not have an internationally unified body of language regulators. 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.
Within the two major varieties of Portuguese, most differences between dialects concern pronunciation and vocabulary. Below are some examples:
[ʀ].
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 accent, for example, usually have strong feelings about their own way of speaking and are largely uninfluenced by the other accents. Also, people of inner cities of Santa Catarina state and Paraná state usually spell with a very notable German, Italian or Polish accent, while among the inhabitants of the Santa Catarina island
predominates the Azorean Portuguese dialect in its local variant
.
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.
Some public schools along the Brazilian border provide classes both in Portuguese and Spanish.
Besides the official 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 circles, 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).
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.
Within each of these regions, however, there is further variation, especially in 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.
(in the border between Extremadura
, Andalucia and Portugal), a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Extremaduran is spoken, known as barranquenho
.
, 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
.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
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.
Portuguese does not have an internationally unified body of language regulators. The two main language regulators, the Academia Brasileira de Letras
Academia Brasileira de Letras
Academia Brasileira de Letras is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Académie Française. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the statutes being...
(Brazil) and the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras
Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras
The Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras is the language regulator of the Portuguese language in Portugal....
(Portugal), work separately from each other, and on a national level only.
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", Latin vacivu
- Portugal: bazar - from Kimbundu kubaza - to break, leave with rush
- words for slum quarter
- Angola: musseque
- Brazil: favela
- Portugal: bairro de lata or ilha
Africa
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.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 trillUvular trill
The uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital R...
[ʀ].
Brazil
Brazilian dialects are divided into a northern and southern groups, where the northern dialects tend to slightly more open pre-stressedStress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
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 accent, for example, usually have strong feelings about their own way of speaking and are largely uninfluenced by the other accents. Also, people of inner cities of Santa Catarina state and Paraná state usually spell with a very notable German, Italian or Polish accent, while among the inhabitants of the Santa Catarina island
Santa Catarina (island)
Florianópolis Island is an island in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. It is located on the south coast of Brazil between the south 27° latitude and west 48° longitude...
predominates the Azorean Portuguese dialect in its local variant
Florianopolitan dialect
Florianopolitan dialect, pejoratively called manezês or manezinho, is a variety of Brazilian Portuguese heavily influenced by the Azorean dialect. It is spoken by inhabitants of Florianópolis of full or predominant Azorean descent. and also in cities neighbouring the capital, albeit with slight...
.
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.
Uruguay
Uruguay recently adopted Portuguese as obligatory by the 6th grade at public schools.Some public schools along the Brazilian border provide classes both in Portuguese and Spanish.
Besides the official status of Portuguese in Uruguay, there's also the Portunhol Riverense
Riverense Portuñol language
The Riverense Portuñol/Portunhol, also known as Fronterizo/Fronteiriço or just Portuñol/Portunhol, is a mixed language formed from Portuguese and Spanish. It is spoken on the border between Uruguay and Brazil, and more specifically in the region of the twin cities of Rivera and Santana do...
, spoken in the region between Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, particularly in the twin cities of Rivera
Rivera
Rivera is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. It is located at the north end of Route 5, on the border with Brazil. The Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento is right across the border, only a street away of it...
and Santana do Livramento
Santana do Livramento
Santana do Livramento is a city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is located along the border with the city of Rivera, Uruguay, which helps form an international city of 200,000 inhabitants.- Overview :...
, where the border is open and a street is the only line dividing the two countries. This language must not be confused with Portuñol
Portuñol
Portuñol or Portunhol is the code-switching of Portuguese and Spanish.The word portunhol is a portmanteau of the words Portugués/Português and Español/Espanhol ....
, 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 circles, 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).
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.
Portugal
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, LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, which however has some peculiarities of its own. Although the dialects of the Atlantic archipelagos of the AzoresAzoresThe Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
and MadeiraMadeiraMadeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
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 PortoPortoPorto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, Portugal's second largest city.
Within each of these regions, however, there is further variation, especially in 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
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
derived mostly from those of central and southern Portugal.
Barranquenho
In the Portuguese town of BarrancosBarrancos
Barrancos is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 168.3 km² and a total population of 1,825 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of one parish, being one of the six Portuguese municipalities composed of only one parish, and is located in Beja District, close to the Spanish...
(in the border between Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
, Andalucia and Portugal), a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Extremaduran is spoken, known as barranquenho
Barranquenho
Barranquenho , is a Romance linguistic variety spoken in the Portuguese town of Barrancos, near the Spanish border. It can be considered a variety of Portuguese heavily influenced by the Spanish dialects of neighbouring areas in Extremadura and Andalusia , or a Spanish dialect heavily influenced by...
.
Spain
The Galician language, spoken in the region of Galicia, Spain, is considered by some of its speakers as a dialect of the Portuguese - or, precisely speaking, Galician-Portuguese (Galego-Português) language, while others believe it to be a different, if closely related, language. It is mainly characterised by the lack of opposition between /b/ and /v/, the preservation of "ei" and "ou" diphthongs, and, perhaps more characteristically, the de-voicing of the consonant ʒ into ʃ ("xeneroso" instead of "generoso") and the use of "om" instead of "ão" ("associaçom" instead of "associação"). The latter two differences, contrary to the formers, are expressed in the differences between written Portuguese and written Galician. These features, however, are not limited to Galicia only: the national border between Portugal and Spain is not a linguistic border. The question whether Galician is a language in its own right is thus largely a matter of definition.Notable features of some dialects
Many dialects have special characteristics. Most of the differences are seen in phonetics and phonology. Below are some of the more prominent:Conservative
- In some regions of northern Portugal and Brazil, the digraph ou still denotes a falling diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
[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 affricateAffricate consonantAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
/tʃ/, as in Galicia, although for most speakers it has merged with /ʃ/.
- Some dialects of northern Portugal still contrast the predorsodental sibilantsSibilant consonantA sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
c/ç /s/ and z /z/ with apicoalveolar sibilants s(s) /s̺/ and s /z̺/, with minimal pairMinimal pairIn phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s such as passo /pas̺u/ "step" and paço /pasu/ "palace" or coser /kuz̺eɾ/ "to sew" and cozer /kuzeɾ/ "to cook", which are homophoneHomophoneA homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s in most dialects. In the other dialects of northern Portugal that have lost this distinction, one finds the apicoalveolar sibilants instead of the predorsodental fricatives that are found in all southern dialects of Portugal as well as in Brazil. In these dialects, they also appear in syllable codas, instead of the [ʃ] realizations that can be observed in all southern dialects.
- In northern Portugal, the pronoun vós and its associated verb forms are still in use.
- In Alentejo (southern Portugal), one finds word-final [i] where standard EP has [ɨ], a feature shared with BP.
- Also in Brazil and Alentejo, progressive constructions are formed with the gerund form of verbs, instead of a followed by the infinitive that one finds in most dialects of Portugal: está chovendo vs. está a chover ("it's raining").
- In Brazil, original voiced intervocalic stops are still pronounced as such, e.g. [vidɐ], [kabu] instead of the normal Portugal pronunciation [viðɐ], [kaβu].
- In Brazil, all five vowels [a e i o u] are usually pronounced clearly in unstressed pretonic syllables, the same as in stressed syllables, while in Portugal they are generally reduced to [ɐ ɨ i u u]. That being said, some words in some Brazilian accents (esp. in Rio) have pretonic [e o] raised to [i u].
Innovative
- 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-alveolarPalato-alveolar consonantIn phonetics, palato-alveolar consonants are postalveolar consonants, nearly always sibilants, that are weakly palatalized with a domed tongue...
or a palatal consonantPalatal consonantPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
followed by another vowel.
- In the dialect of the Beiras (Beira Interior NorteBeira Interior NorteBeira Interior Norte is a Portuguese subregion in the Centro Region. It is also part of an urban community called Beiras. The capital and most important city is Guarda...
, Cova da BeiraCova da BeiraCova da Beira is a NUTS3 subregion of Portugal integrated in the NUTS2 Centro region. It lies in the fertile valley between the Serra da Estrela and Gardunha mountains. It covers an area of 1,373 km², with a population of 92,460 inhabitants for a density of 67 hab/km². The major cities are Covilhã ...
and Beira Interior SulBeira Interior SulBeira Interior Sul is a NUTS3 subregion of Portugal integrating the NUTS2 Centro Region. It is bordered to the east and south by Spain, to the north by the Cova da Beira and Beira Interior Norte subregions and to the west by the Pinhal Interior Sul subregion. It was created around the city of...
) in central Portugal, the sibilant /ʒ/ occurs at the end of words, before another word which starts with a vowel, instead of /z/.
- In northern Portugal, the phoneme /m/ has a velarVelar nasalThe velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
allophone [ŋ] at the end of words.
- 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 FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
u. The dialect of São Miguel has also the front rounded vowelClose-mid front rounded vowelThe close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter o with a diagonal stroke through it, derived from the Danish, Norwegian...
[ø] replacing /o/, as in outra or boi.
- In northern Portugal, the close vowels /o/ and /e/ may be pronounced as diphthongs, such as in "Porto", pronounced [ˈpwoɾtu], "quê": [kje], "hoje": [ˈwoi̯ʒɨ] or [ˈwoʒɨ] or even [ˈwoi̯ʒɨ]
- Some dialects of southern Portugal have gerund forms that inflect for person and number: em chegandos (when you arrive), em chegândemos (when we arrive), em chegandem (when you/they arrive). These are not used in writing.
- There are some dialectal differences in how word final [u] is realized. In BP, it is always pronounced. In Portugal, it is usually most audible when at the end of an utterance. In other contexts, it may be not realized, or realized as mere labialization of the preceding consonant. The northern dialects tend to maintain it in most contexts. For instance, a sentence like o meu irmão comprou um carro novo ("my brother bought a new car") would be pronounced as [u ˈmew iɾˈmɐ̃w̃ kõˈpɾow u~ ˈkaʁu ˈnovu] or [u ˈmew iɾˈmɐ̃w̃ kõˈpɾow ũ ˈkaʁʷ ˈnovu] in these dialects. In the dialect spoken in Lisbon, the two last words would instead be pronounced [ˈkaʁʷ ˈnovu], [ˈkaʁʷ ˈnovʷ], [ˈkaʁ ˈnovu] or [ˈkaʁ ˈnovʷ]. In southern Portugal, word final [w] and [w̃] are also affected, so in Alentejo the same sentence would sound [u ˈme iɾˈmɐ̃ kõˈpɾo ũ ˈkaʁ ˈnovu] (in this dialect, utterance final vowels are also noticeably very prolonged, so a more accurate transcription might be [ˈnovuː] for this example). And in the southernmost region of the country, the Algarve, the vowel is completely lost: [u ˈme iɾˈmɐ̃ kõˈpɾo ũ ˈkaʁ ˈnov].
- In most of Brazil, syllable-final /l/ is vocalized to /w/. This causes mau "bad" and mal "badly" to become homophones (although Brazil tends to use ruim in place of mau). Similarly, degrau "step" and jornal "journal" rhyme, which results in false plurals such as degrais "steps" (vs. correct degraus), by analogy with correct plural jornais. In the caipira dialectCaipiraCaipira is a Brazilian Portuguese term used to designate inhabitants of rural, remote areas of some Brazilian states—it refers to the people of lesser schooling. It can be considered pejorative when used to describe others, but it can also be used as a self-identifier without negative connotations...
, and in parts of Goiás and Minas Gerais, syllable-final /l/ is instead merged with /ɾ/, pronounced as an alveolar approximant [ɹ] in the Caipira way.
- The pronunciation of syllable-initial and syllable-final r varies considerably with dialect. See Guttural R in Portuguese, for details. In summary, syllable-initial ‹r› and doubled ‹rr› are pronounced as a guttural [ʁ] in most cities in Portugal, but as a traditional trill [r] in rural Portugal. In Brazil, this sound is normally pronounced as an unvoiced guttural ([x], [χ] or [h]), which is also used for ‹r› at the end of syllables (except in the caipira dialectCaipiraCaipira is a Brazilian Portuguese term used to designate inhabitants of rural, remote areas of some Brazilian states—it refers to the people of lesser schooling. It can be considered pejorative when used to describe others, but it can also be used as a self-identifier without negative connotations...
, which uses an alveolar approximant [ɹ]). ‹r› at the ends of words in Brazil is normally silent or barely pronounced. In MacauMacauMacau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
(where Portuguese is spoken mostly as a second language), initial and intervocalic "r" is sometimes replaced with a diphthong, and ‹r› at the end of words (esp. when final-stressed) is sometimes silent.
- The pronunciation of syllable-final s/x/z also varies with dialect. See Portuguese phonology for details. In summary, Portugal and Rio de Janeiro favor [ʃ], both before a consonant and finally. Most other parts of Brazil favor [s], although in the NortheastNortheast Region, BrazilThe Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....
[ʃ] is often heard before consonants, especially /t/ (but not finally).
- In the Northeast of Brazil and to an increasing extent in Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere, [j] is inserted before final /s/ in a final-stressed word. This makes mas "but" and mais "more" homonyms, both pronounced [majs] or [majʃ]. Other affected examples are faz "he does", dez "ten", nós "we", voz "voice", luz "light", Jesús "Jesus", etc. Related forms like fazem, vozes, nosso are unaffected, since /s/ is no longer final.
- In most of Brazil, /t/, /d/ are palatalized to [tʃ], [dʒ] when followed by /i/. Common sources of /i/ are the unstressed ending -e, as in gente "people" [ˈʒẽtʃi] and de "of" [dʒi], and the epenthetic /i/ in words such as advogado "lawyer" [adʒivoˈgadu]. The prefixes de-, des- and dez- (e.g. dezoito "eighteen") vary from word to word and speaker to speaker between [de], [des]/[dez]/etc. and [dʒi], [dʒis]/[dʒiz]/etc..
- Informal Brazilian Portuguese makes major changes in its use of pronouns:
- Informal tu is dropped entirely in most regions, along with all second-person singular verbal inflections. When tu survives, it is used with third-person inflections.
- But clitic te [tʃi] survives as the normal clitic object pronoun corresponding to você.
- Clitic pronouns almost always precede the verb. Post-verbal clitics are seen only in formal contexts, and mesoclisis (amar-te-ei "I will love you") is practically incomprehensible to most Brazilians.
- Possessives seu, sua virtually always mean "your". To say "his, her", constructions like o carro dele "his car" or o carro dela "her car" are used.
- Third-person clitics o, a, os, as and combined clitics like mo, no-lo are virtually never seen in speech. Instead, the clitics are simply omitted, especially when referring to objects; or a subject pronoun is placed after the verb: Eu levo "I'll get it"; Vi ele "I saw him".
- nós "we" is often replaced by a gente, conjugated with a third-person singular verb.
- Other Brazilian Portuguese grammatical changes:
- Preposition a is normally replaced by para in speech. (Note: para a /pra/, para o /pro/.)
- The future tense is rarely used except for certain verbs with monosyllabic infinitives; otherwise periphrasis, e.g. vou falar "I will speak", is used. (But note that future perfect, future subjunctive and future perfect subjunctive all occur with regularity.)
- The conditional tense is likewise used rarely. When a true conditional meaning is intended, the imperfect is substituted. When a prospective-in-past meaning is intended, a periphrasis is often substituted, e.g. disse que ia falar comigo "He said he would speak with me".
Mixed languages
- Frantuguês/Frantugais (Frenchuguese), a mix of Portuguese with FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
- Portunhol/PortuñolPortuñolPortuñol or Portunhol is the code-switching of Portuguese and Spanish.The word portunhol is a portmanteau of the words Portugués/Português and Español/Espanhol ....
. In regions where Spanish and Portuguese coexist, various types of language contactLanguage contactLanguage contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
have occurred, ranging from improvised code-switchingCode-switchingIn linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
between monolingual speakers of each language to more or less stable mixed languageMixed languageA mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
s. They are often designated by the common term portunhol (portuñol).
- PorglishPorglishPorglish or Portuglish refers to various types of language contact between Portuguese and English which have occurred in regions where the two languages coexist. These range from improvised code-switching between bilingual speakers of each language to more or less stable dialects...
, a mix of Portuguese with EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Closely related languages
This article does not cover GalicianGalician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
, which is treated as a separate language from Portuguese by Galician official institutions, nor the Fala language
Fala language
Fala is a Romance linguistic variety commonly classified in the Portuguese-Galician subgroup, with some traits from Leonese, spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of whom 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal...
. For a discussion of the controversy regarding the status of Galician with respect to Portuguese, see Reintegrationism
Reintegrationism
Reintegrationism is the linguistic and cultural movement in Galicia which defends the unity of Galician and Portuguese as a single language. In other words, it postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages did not only share a common origin and literary tradition, but that they are in fact...
.
List of dialects
See also
- Dialects
- Portuguese phonologyPortuguese phonologyThe phonology of Portuguese can vary considerably between dialects, in extreme cases leading to difficulties in intelligibility. This article focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard...
- GalicianGalician languageGalician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
- FalaFala languageFala is a Romance linguistic variety commonly classified in the Portuguese-Galician subgroup, with some traits from Leonese, spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of whom 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal...
External links
- Dialects of Portuguese at the Instituto Camões
- Audio samples of the dialects of Portugal
- Audio samples of the dialects from outside Europe
- Audio samples of Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, and Galician
- A Pronúncia do Português Europeu at the website of the Instituto CamõesInstituto CamõesThe Instituto Camões is an institution created in 1992 for the world-wide promotion of the Portuguese language and culture...
- Isoglosses of the main dialects in Portugal at the website of the Instituto CamõesInstituto CamõesThe Instituto Camões is an institution created in 1992 for the world-wide promotion of the Portuguese language and culture...
- Lindley Cintra, Luís F. Nova Proposta de Classificação dos Dialectos Galego-Portugueses Boletim de Filologia, Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Filológicos, 1971. (PDF)
- Portugués del Uruguay y educación bilingüe