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European Portuguese

Dialect of the Portuguese language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

European Portuguese
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European Portuguese (Portuguese: português europeu, pronounced [puɾtuˈɣez ewɾuˈpew]), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese (Portuguese: português lusitano) or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (Portuguese: português de Portugal), is a dialect of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portuguese Portuguese" ("português português") as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese. "Peninsular Portuguese" (Portuguese: português peninsular) and "Iberian Portuguese" (Portuguese: português ibérico) are sometimes used, but they implicitly exclude the varieties of Portuguese spoken in Madeira and the Azores.

Quick Facts Native to, Native speakers ...
Sara, a speaker of European Portuguese

Portuguese is a pluricentric language; it is the same language with several interacting codified standard forms in many countries. Portuguese is a Romance language with Celtic, Germanic, Greek, and Arabic influence. It was spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before as Galician-Portuguese. With the formation of Portugal as a country in the 12th century, the language evolved into Portuguese. In the Spanish province of Galicia to the north of Portugal, the native language is Galician. Both Portuguese and Galician are very similar and natives can understand each other as they share the same recent common ancestor. Portuguese and Spanish are different languages, although they share 89% of their lexicon.[2]

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Phonology

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Further information: Portuguese phonology

Vowels

More information Front, Central ...

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] 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/.[3]
  • All vowels are raised and advanced before alveolar, palato-alveolar and palatal consonants.[3]
  • Word-finally, /ɨ/ as well as unstressed /u/ and /ɐ/ are voiceless [ɯ̥̽, u̥, ə̥].[3]

The realization of /ɐ/ in this contrast occurs in a limited morphological context, namely in verbal conjugation between the first person plural present and past perfect indicative forms of verbs such as pensamos ('we think') and pensámos ('we thought').[4][5] 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]. Close-mid vowels and open-mid vowels (/e ~ ɛ/ and /o ~ ɔ/) contrast only when they are stressed.[6] In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution.

According to Mateus and d'Andrade (2000:19),[7] 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])

In Greater Lisbon (according to NUTS III, which does not include Setúbal) /e/ can be centralized [ɐ] before palatal sounds (/j, ɲ, ʃ, ʒ, ʎ/); e.g. roupeiro [ʁoˈpɐjɾu], brenha [ˈbɾɐ(ʲ)ɲɐ], texto [ˈtɐ(ʲ)ʃtu], vejo [ˈvɐ(ʲ)ʒu], coelho [kuˈɐ(ʲ)ʎu].

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').[3] There is no standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for this sound. The IPA Handbook transcribes it as /ɯ/, but in Portuguese studies /ɨ/ is traditionally used.[8]

  • Traditionally, it is pronounced when "e" is unstressed; e.g. verdade [vɨɾˈðaðɨ], perigo [pɨˈɾiɣu].
  • However, if "e" is initial, then it is pronounced [i]; e.g. energia [inɨɾˈʒiɐ], exemplo [iˈzẽplu].
  • When "e" is adjacent to another vowel, it becomes [i]; e.g. real [ʁiˈal].
  • However, notice that when the e caduc is preceded by a semi-vowel, it may become [e ~ ɛ] poesia [pwɛˈziɐ], quietude [kjɛˈtuðɨ].
  • For the most part, unstressed "i" is not lowered to /ɨ/. However, when it is adjacent to a palatal consonant, [ɲ, ʎ, ʃ, ʒ], or to [i, ĩ] in the preceding/following syllable, it usually does become /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 [vɾ̩ˈðað], perigo [ˈpɾiɣu], energia, [inɾ̩ˈʒiɐ], ministro [mˈniʃtɾu], 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),[9] 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'),[10] after orthographic changes, all these three words are now spelled pelo.

Consonants

More information Bilabial, Labiodental ...
  1. /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ are alternatively interpreted as simple consonant clusters /kw/ and /gw/.[13][14]
  2. In the Northern and Central dialects, word-medial /b/, /d/ and /g/ usually lenite to their respective fricative counterparts: [β], [ð] and [ɣ] (except after a nasal vowel, or when enunciating very clearly).[3][15] At the end of a phrase, due to final-obstruent devoicing, they may even be devoiced to [ɸ], [θ], and [x] (for example, verde at the end of a sentence may be pronounced [veɹθ]).
  3. Merged into /ʃ/ in most dialects, though it is still very much distinguished in writing (see: chá (tea) vs. xá (shah)). Still occurs in select loanwords, as well as an allophone of the consonant cluster /tʃ/.
  4. Formerly an allophone of /ʒ/, has disappeared from virtually all dialects. Still occurs in select loanwords, as well as an allophone of the consonant cluster /dʒ/ in words like adjetivo.
  5. With the exception of a few conservative dialects (mostly in northern Portugal), most spoken varieties of European Portuguese have merged their lamino-dental and apico-alveolar sibilants one way or the other. Furthermore, in some dialects (chiefly the ones which lost their lamino-dental consonants) [s] and [z] become palatalized [ʃ] and [ʒ] before consonants or at the end of words. In any case, the orthography continues to fully uphold this distinction, helping distinguish between word pairs like maça (mace) vs. massa (dough) and coser (to sew) vs. cozer (to boil).
  6. Merged into [b]~[β] in the Northern dialects, as well as in some Inner Central and select Southern dialects. It's still debated if this is these dialects experienced a merger in said dialects or rather if other dialects experienced a split. It's possible both processes happened at different times in different dialects.
  7. The uvular rhotic /ʁ/ (and its allophone [ʀ]) exists in free variation with the alveolar rhotic /r/ in the dialects in and around Lisbon and Porto (and to a lesser extent the Beira Litoral region, between the two). This "guttural R" was formerly considered non-standard, but its ubiquity in urban areas lead to its eventual acceptance as a valid allophone of /r/. Some linguists even go as far as considering it the "standard" pronunciation now, with [r] being a conservative, "rustic" allophone.
  8. /l/ becomes [ɫ] when at the end of a syllable.
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Geographic variation

Thumb
Dialect map for European Portuguese.
  Transmontano
  Minhoto
  Beirão
  Alentejano
  Alto-Alentejano
  Estremenho
  Açoriano / Micaelense
  Madeirense
  Algarvio
  Portuense

European Portuguese is divided into Northern and Southern varieties. The prestige norms are based on two varieties: that of Coimbra and that of Lisbon.[16]

Phonetically, differences emerge within Continental Portuguese. For example, in northern Portugal, the phonemes /b/ and /v/ are less differentiated than in the rest of the Portuguese speaking world (similar to the other languages of the Iberian peninsula). Also, the original alveolar trill /r/ remains common in many northern dialects (especially in rural areas), like Transmontano, Portuense, Minhoto, and much of Beirão. Another regionalism can be found in the south and the islands with the use of the gerund in the present progressive tense rather than the infinitive.

Portuguese is spoken by a significant minority in Andorra and Luxembourg. There are also immigrant communities in France and Germany.

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Prominence

The Instituto Camões is a Portuguese international institution dedicated to the worldwide promotion of the Portuguese language, Portuguese culture, and international aid, on behalf of the Government of Portugal.

RTP is the Portuguese public television network and also serves as a vehicle for European-Portuguese-providing media content throughout the world. There is a branch of RTP Internacional named RTP África, which serves Lusophone Africa.

In estimating the size of the speech community for European Portuguese, one must take into account the consequences of the Portuguese diaspora: immigrant communities located throughout the world in the Americas, Australia, Europe and Africa.

See also

References

Works cited

External links

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