音 Section 04
Phonology
The sounds of Portuguese — nasal vowels, sibilants and rhythm.
12 articles
The phonology of Portuguese — an overview
A map of the sound system of European Portuguese — vowels, consonants, stress and rhythm — and a guide to reading the phonetic transcription (IPA) used on this site.
The phonetic alphabet (IPA) used on this site
The inventory of International Phonetic Alphabet symbols used on linguagem.pt to transcribe European Portuguese — consonants, vowels, diphthongs and stress marks — and the conventions for reading them.
The oral vowels
European Portuguese distinguishes seven oral vowels in stressed syllables — /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/ — including the aperture contrast that separates avô from avó and sê from sé.
The nasal vowels
Portuguese distinguishes five nasal vowels — /ɐ̃ ẽ ĩ õ ũ/ — in which air escapes through the mouth and the nose at once. One of its most recognisable traits, and what sets lã apart from lá and mundo from mudo.
Diphthongs
The oral and nasal diphthongs of European Portuguese — from pai and céu to pão, mãe and põe — their articulation, their spelling, and what tells a diphthong apart from a hiatus.
Unstressed-vowel reduction
The weakening, centralisation and frequent deletion of unstressed vowels — the single trait that most sets European Portuguese pronunciation apart and gives it its compressed, consonant-heavy rhythm.
The consonants
The nineteen-consonant inventory of European Portuguese and its allophony — the lenition of voiced stops, the dark l, and the way syllable position reshapes each sound.
Sibilants and hushing sounds
Portuguese's four sibilants — s, z, ch and x —, the merger of the old medieval series, and the syllable-final [ʃ] that gives European Portuguese its characteristic sound.
The rhotics (r and rr)
The contrast between the soft and strong r of Portuguese, its distribution governed by position, and the shift, in the European standard, from the old alveolar trill to the guttural R.
Stress and Tonicity
In Portuguese the stress accent falls almost always on the penultimate syllable, yet it is free and distinctive: its position sets words apart and organises the rhythm of the language.
Rhythm and intonation
European Portuguese is a stress-timed language: the reduction of unstressed vowels compresses its syllables, sandhi blurs word boundaries, and melody alone distinguishes statement from question.
The Phonology of European and Brazilian Portuguese
What sets the two great standards of Portuguese apart to the ear — unstressed vowels, the palatalisation of t/d, coda l and s, and the rhotics — and why they sound so different.