Portuguese language

Sounds

The Portuguese language is particularly interesting to linguists because of the complexity of its phonetic structure. The language contains a maximum of 9 oral vowels, 5 nasal vowels and a large number of possible diphthongs including five nasal diphthongs.

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The following table includes standardized forms of Portuguese and most common divergent pronunciation in most regions:

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Vowels

Notes: {{IPA|}} for some /u/ occurs in the dialects of Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Algarve (Barlavento area) and São Miguel Island. occurs in São Miguel Island, for example in boi "ox".

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In Portuguese phonetics, a reduced vowel is indicated by rotating the letter for the unreduced vowel and these are understood as the most common and standard sounds. However, the person used by IPA pronunced the {{IPA|}} (reduced /a/) above as as mid central vowel, IPA {{IPA|}}. The vowel transcribed {{IPA|}} or sometimes {{IPA|}} (reduced /e/) was pronunced as a near-close near-back unrounded vowel, IPA {{IPA|}}.

Related Topics:
Mid central vowel - Near-close near-back unrounded vowel

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Nasal vowels

Semi-vowels

Oral diphthongs

Nasal diphthongs

Consonants

Note: In some Brazilian dialects, especially in the dialects spoken in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia, D and T tend to become affricate before the unstressed phoneme /i/ (which can correspond to either E or I in the alphabet). The affricate D is /dʒ/ and the affricate T is /tʃ/. Therefore, in these Brazilian dialects the pronunciation for the word "dia" (day) is /dʒiɐ/. Affricate T occurs, although declining, in Northern Portugal in words beginning with "ch" (China becomes /{{IPA|ˈtʃinɐ}}/), this was a feature of Old Portuguese.

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