Portuguese phonology

For more detailed information on regional accents, seePortuguese dialects,and for historical sound changes seeHistory of Portuguese § Historical sound changes.

Thephonology of Portuguesevariesamong dialects,in extreme cases leading to some difficulties inmutual intelligibility.This article onphonologyfocuses on thepronunciationsthat are generally regarded as standard. SincePortugueseis apluricentric language,and differences betweenEuropean Portuguese(EP),Brazilian Portuguese(BP), andAngolan Portuguese(AP) can be considerable, varieties are distinguished whenever necessary.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Portuguese is fairly conservative.The medievalGalician-Portuguesesystem of seven sibilants (/tsdz/,/ʃʒ/,/tʃ/,andapicoalveolar/s̺z̺/) is still distinguished in spelling (intervocalicc/ç z, x g/j, ch, ss -s-respectively), but is reduced to the four fricatives/szʃʒ/by the merger of/tʃ/into/ʃ/and apicoalveolar/s̺z̺/into either/sz/or/ʃʒ/(depending on dialect and syllable position), except in parts of northern Portugal (most notably in theTrás-os-Montes region). These changes are known asdeaffrication.Other than this, there have been no other significant changes to the consonant phonemes since Old Portuguese. However, several consonant phonemes have specialallophonesatsyllableboundaries (often varying quite significantly between European and Brazilian Portuguese), and a few also undergo allophonic changes at word boundaries.

Consonant phonemes of Portuguese

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar/Uvular
					plain	labial
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	(kʷ)
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	(ɡʷ)
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
Approximant				j		w
Liquid	central		ɾ		ʁ
	lateral		l	ʎ

Phonetic notes

• Semivowels contrast with unstressed high vowels in verbal conjugation, as in(eu) rio/ˈʁi.u/'I laugh' and(ele) riu/ˈʁiw/'he (has) laughed.'Phonologists debate whether their nature is vocalic or consonantal.In intervocalic position semivowels are ambisyllabic, they are associated to both the previous syllable and the following syllable onset.
• In Brazil and Angola, the consonant hereafter denoted as/ɲ/is realized as anasal palatal approximant[j̃],whichnasalizesthe vowel that precedes it:ninho([ˈnij̃u~ˈnʲij̃u~ˈɲij̃u]in Brazil,[ˈnĩj̃u]in Angola) 'nest'.
• [nʲ~ɲ]is often the pronunciation of a sequence of/n/followed by/i/in a rising diphthong in Brazil, forming a minimal pair betweensonha[ˈsoj̃ɐ]andSônia[ˈsoniɐ~ˈsonʲɐ~ˈsoɲɐ];menina,"girl"[miˈninɐ~miˈnʲinɐ~miˈɲinɐ].
• [lʲ~ʎ]is often the pronunciation of a sequence of/l/followed by/i/in a rising diphthong in Brazil; e.g.limão,"lemon"[liˈmɐ̃w̃~lʲiˈmɐ̃w̃~ʎiˈmɐ̃w̃];sandália,"sandal"[sɐ̃ˈdaliɐ~sɐ̃ˈdalʲɐ~sɐ̃ˈdaʎɐ].
• The consonant hereafter denoted as/ʁ/has a variety of realizations depending on dialect. In Europe, it is typically avoiced uvular fricative[ʁ].There is also a realization as avoiceless uvular fricative[χ],and the original pronunciation as analveolar trill[r]also remains very common in various dialects.A common realization of the word-initial/ʁ/in the Lisbon accent is a voiced uvular fricative trill[ʀ̝].In Brazil,/ʁ/can bevelar,uvular,orglottaland may be voiceless unless between voiced sounds;it is usually pronounced as avoiceless velar fricative[x],avoiceless glottal fricative[h]orvoiceless uvular fricative[χ].See alsoGuttural R in Portuguese.All those variants are transcribed with ⟨ʁ⟩ in this article.
• /s/and/z/are normallylamino-alveolar,as in English. However, a number of dialects in northern Portugal pronounce/s/and/z/asapico-alveolarsibilants[s̺,z̺]which are exactly the same as the ones found in Catalan and Northern European Spanish. Those apico-alveolars sound like duller versions of/s/and/z/,but they are kept apart from/ʃ,ʒ/(writtench/xandj/g) which are laminal postalveolar. A small number of northeastern Portugal dialects still retain the medieval distinction between apical and laminal sibilants (writtens/ssandc/ç/z,respectively), a distinction also found inMirandeseand analogous to thedistinciónof European Spanish.
• As phonemes,/tʃ/and/dʒ/occur only in loanwords (e.g.tchauanddee jay), with a tendency for speakers to substitute into fricatives in Portugal. However, in most Brazilian dialectsdandtare pronounced as[dʒ]and[tʃ]before[i]and[ĩ].
• In northern and central Portugal, the voiced stops/b/,/d/,/ɡ/are usually lenited tofricatives[β],[ð],and[ɣ]respectively, except at the beginning of words, or after nasal vowels;asimilar processoccurs in Spanish.
• In large parts of northern Portugal, e.g.Trás-os-Montes,and also inEast Timorand the islands ofFlores,/b/and/v/are merged, both pronounced/b~β/,as in Spanish.

Consonant elision

There is a variation in the pronunciation of the first consonant of certain clusters, most commonly C or P incç,ct,pçandpt.These consonants may be variably elided or conserved. For some words, this variation may exist inside a country, sometimes in all of them; for others, the variation is dialectal, with the consonant being always pronounced in one country and always elided in the other. This variation affects 0.5% of the language's vocabulary, or 575 words out of 110,000.In most cases, Brazilians variably conserve the consonant while speakers elsewhere have invariably ceased to pronounce it (for example,detectorin Brazil versusdetetorin Portugal). The inverse situation is rarer, occurring in words such asfa(c)toandconta(c)to(consonants never pronounced in Brazil, pronounced elsewhere). Until2009,this reality could not be apprehended from the spelling: while Brazilians did not write consonants that were no longer pronounced, the spelling of the other countries retained them in many words assilent letters,usually when there was still a vestige of their presence in the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. This could give the false impression that European Portuguese was phonologically more conservative in this aspect, when in fact it was Brazilian Portuguese that retained more consonants in pronunciation.

Examples

Example		Gloss
fa(c)to	[ˈfa(k)tu]	'fact'
pacto	[ˈpaktu]	'pact'
ta(c)to	[ˈta(k)tu]	'tact'
ca(c)to	[ˈka(k)tu]	'cactus'

Consonant phonotactics

Syllables have the maximal structure of (C)(C)V(C). The only possible codas in European Portuguese are/ʃ/,/l/and/ɾ/and in Brazilian Portuguese/s/and/ʁ/(or, in a minority of dialects,/ʃ,ɾ/or any combination of the former with the latter).

• The consonants/ʎ/and/ɲ/almost always occur in the middle of a word and between vowels and rarely occur before/i/.

• Althoughnasal consonantsdo not normally occur at the end of syllables, syllable-final/n/may be present in rare learned words, such asabdómen([abˈdɔmɛn]'abdomen'). In Brazilian varieties, these words have a nasal diphthong ([abˈdõmẽj̃],spelled asabdômen).Word-initial/ɲ/occurs in very few loanwords.
• While thesibilant consonants(/szʃʒ/) contrast word-initially and intervocalically, they appear incomplementary distributionin the syllable coda. For many dialects (i.e., those of Portugal and ofRio de Janeiroand the northeast of Brazil and certain other areas in Brazil), the sibilant is a postalveolar in coda position (e.g.,pasto[ˈpaʃtu]'pasture';futurismo[futuˈɾiʒmu]'futurism';paz[pa(j)ʃ]'peace'). In many other dialects of Brazil (e.g., some of the Southeast, Northeast, and North), the postalveolar variant occurs in some or all cases when directly preceding a consonant, including across word boundaries, but not word-finally (e.g.,[ˈpaʃtu~ˈpastu],[futuˈɾiʒmu~futuˈɾizmu],[pa(j)s]). In a number of Brazilian dialects, this "palatalization" is absent entirely (e.g.,[ˈpastu],[ˈizmu],[pa(j)s]).Voicing contrast is also neutralized, with[ʒ]or[z]occurring before voiced consonants and[ʃ]or[s]appearing before voiceless consonants and before a pause (e.g.,pasta[ˈpaʃtɐ]or[ˈpastɐ],'paste';Islão(orIslã)[iʒˈlɐ̃w̃]or[izˈlɐ̃],'Islam'). In the vast majority of dialects, however, word-final "s" and "z" are pronounced /z/ before vowels (e.g.os ovos[uzˈɔvuʃ,-s],"the eggs",temos hoje[ˈtemuzˈoʒɨ],"we have today",faz isso[ˈfazˈisu],"do that" ). In European dialects, the postalveolar fricatives are only weakly fricated in the syllable coda.
• The consonant/l/isvelarized[ɫ]in all positions in European Portuguese, even before front vowels. In Portugal, the unvelarized lateral appears only in non-standard dialects.In most Brazilian dialects,/l/isvocalizedto[w]at the end of syllables,but in the dialects of the extreme south, mainly along the frontiers with other countries (especiallyUruguay), it has the full pronunciation or the velarized pronunciation.In somecaipiraregisters, there is arhotacismof coda/l/to retroflex[ɻ].In casual BP, unstressedilcan be realized as[ju],as infácil[ˈfasju]('easy').
• For speakers who realize/ʁ/as an alveolar trill[r],the sequence[ʒr](as in e.g.,os rins) cancoalesceinto a voiced alveolar fricative trill[r̝].
• Regarding Brazilian Portuguese,Bisol (2005:122) analyzes the phonetic clusters at the start of words likequalandguardaras separate phonemes,/kʷ/and/ɡʷ/,rather than as/k/or/g/followed by/w/in phonemic sequence.This is because when/k/or/g/is combined with a different approximant or when/w/is combined with a different initial consonant, the relevant approximant can always be alternatively realized as a full vowel in Brazilian Portuguese:quiabo[ˈkjabu~kiˈabu],guiar[ˈɡja(h)~ɡiˈa(h)],suar[ˈswa(h)~suˈa(h)].However, this alternation can never apply to the phonetic clusters[kw]and[gw]:qualandguardarin Brazilian Portuguese are always[ˈkwaw]and[ɡwaɦˈda(h)],never *[kuˈaw]or *[ɡu.aɦˈda(h)].
• The semivowels/j/and/w/do not occur before/i/and/u/respectively, and only contrast in some diphthongs like inpai[ˈpaj]versuspau[ˈpaw].Otherwise they are the non-syllabic allophones of/i/and/u/in unstressed syllables.
• Unlikeits neighbor and relativeSpanish, Brazilian Portuguese lacks a tendency to elide anystop,including those that may become acontinuantby lenition (/b/>[β],/d/>[ð],/ɡ/>[ɣ]), but it has a number of allophones to it.

Rhotics

The tworhoticphonemes/ʁ/and/ɾ/contrast only between oral vowels, similar to Spanish.Elsewhere, their occurrence is predictable bycontext,with dialectal variations in realization. The rhotic is "hard" (i.e.,/ʁ/) in the following circumstances:

• Word-initially (e.g.,rosa'rose');
• Syllable-initially preceded by/l/or/s/(e.g.,guelra'gill',Israel);
• Following a nasal vowel (e.g.,honrar'to honor');
• In most Brazilian and some African dialects, syllable-finally (i.e., preceded but not followed by a vowel);
• When written with the digraph "rr" (e.g.,carro'car').

It is "soft" (i.e.,/ɾ/) when it occurs insyllable onsetclusters (e.g.,atributo),and written as a single 'r' between vowels (e.g.,dirigir'to drive')

The realization of the "hard" rhotic/ʁ/varies significantly across dialects.

This restricted variation has prompted several authors to postulate a single rhotic phoneme.Câmara (1953)andMateus & d'Andrade (2000)see the soft as the unmarked realization and that instances of intervocalic[ʁ]result from gemination and a subsequent deletion rule (i.e.,carro/ˈkaro/>[ˈkaɾʁu]>[ˈkaʁu]). Similarly,Bonet & Mascaró (1997)argue that the hard is the unmarked realization.

Brazilian rhotics

In addition to the phonemic variation between/ʁ/and/ɾ/between vowels, up to four allophones of the "merged" phoneme /R/ are found in other positions:

1. A "soft" allophone/ɾ/in syllable-onset clusters, as described above;
2. A default "hard" allophone in most other circumstances;
3. In some dialects, a special allophonesyllable-finally(i.e., preceded but not followed by a vowel);
4. Commonly in all dialects, deletion of the rhotic word-finally.

The default hard allophone is some sort of voiceless fricative in most dialects, e.g.,[χ][h][x],although other variants are also found. For example, an alveolar trill[r]is found in certain conservative dialects down São Paulo, of Italian-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Arabic-speaking, or Slavic-speaking influence. A uvular trill[ʀ]is found in areas of German-speaking, French-speaking, and Portuguese-descended influence throughout coastal Brazil down Espírito Santo, most prominently Rio de Janeiro.

The syllable-final allophone shows the greatest variation:

• Many dialects (mainly in Brasília, Minas Gerais and Brazilian North and Northeast) use the same voiceless fricative as in the default allophone. This may become voiced before a voiced consonant, esp. in its weaker variants (e.g.,dormir[doɦˈmi(h)]'to sleep').
• The soft[ɾ]occurs for many speakers in Southern Brazil and São Paulo city.
• An English-like approximant[ɹ~ɻ]or vowel (R-colored vowel) occurs elsewhere in São Paulo as well as Mato Grosso do Sul, southern Goiás, central and southern Mato Grosso and bordering regions of Minas Gerais, as well as in the urban areas in theSinos river valley.This pronunciation is stereotypically associated with the rural "caipira"dialect.

Throughout Brazil, deletion of the word-final rhotic is common, regardless of the "normal" pronunciation of the syllable-final allophone. This pronunciation is particularly common in lowerregisters,although found in most registers in some areas, e.g.,Northeast Brazil,and in the more formal and standardsociolect.It occurs especially in verbs, which always end in R in their infinitive form; in words other than verbs, the deletion is rarerand seems not to occur in monosyllabic non-verb words, such asmar.Evidence of this allophone is often encountered in writing that attempts to approximate the speech of communities with this pronunciation, e.g., the rhymes in the popular poetry (cordel literature) of the Northeast and phonetic spellings (e.g.,amá, sofrêin place ofamar, sofrer) inJorge Amado's novels (set in the Northeast) and Gianfrancesco Guarnieri's playEles não usam black tie(aboutfaveladwellers inRio de Janeiro).

The soft realization is often maintained across word boundaries in close syntactic contexts (e.g.,mar azul[ˈmaɾaˈzuw]'blue sea').

Vowels

Monophthongs of European Portuguese as they are pronounced in Lisbon, fromCruz-Ferreira (1995:91). The vowel transcribed/ɯ/on this chart appears only in unstressed syllables and corresponds to the symbol/ɨ/in this article.

Monophthongs of Brazilian Portuguese as they are pronounced in São Paulo, fromBarbosa & Albano (2004:229). The vowels[ɪ,ʊ,ë]appear only in unstressed syllables.

Portuguese has one of the richest vowel phonologies of allRomance languages,having both oral and nasal vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs. A phonemic distinction is made between close-mid vowels/eo/and the open-mid vowels/ɛɔ/,as inItalian,CatalanandFrench,though there is a certain amount ofvowel alternation.European Portuguese has also twocentral vowels,one of which tends to beelidedlike thee caducofFrench.

The central closed vowel[ɨ]only occurs in European Portuguese wheneis unstressed, e.g.presidente[pɾɨziˈðẽtɨ],as well as in Angola; where unlike Portugal, it only occurs in final syllables, e.g.presidente[pɾeziˈdẽtɨ].However,[ɨ]does not exist in Brazil, e.g.presidente[pɾeziˈdẽtʃi].

In Angola,/ɐ/and/a/merge to[a],and/ɐ/appears only in final syllablesrama/ˈʁamɐ/.The nasal/ɐ̃/becomes open[ã].

Oral vowels Front Central Back Close i (ɨ) u Close-mid e o Open-mid ɛ ɐ ɔ Open a

Nasal vowels Front Central Back Close ĩ ũ Close-mid ẽ õ Open-mid ɐ̃

Oral diphthongs Endpoint /j/ /w/ Start point /a/ aj aw /ɐ/ ɐj ɐw /ɛ/ ɛj ɛw /e/ ej ew /i/ iw /ɔ/ ɔj /o/ oj ow /u/ uj

Nasal diphthongs Endpoint /j̃/ /w̃/ Start point /ɐ̃/ ɐ̃j̃ ɐ̃w̃ /ẽ/ ẽj̃ /õ/ õj̃ õw̃ /ũ/ ũj̃

Vowel classification

In some cases, Portuguese usesvowel heightto contrast stressed syllables with unstressed syllables:

• In Portugal, unstressed/aeo/tend to be raised to/ɐɨu/,whereas/ɛɔ/remain unchanged. In final syllables, only/ɐɨu/appear.
• In the Southern, Central-West and Southeast regions of Brazil, unstressed/ɛɔ/are raised to/eo/,whereas in Northern and Northeast regions, they remain open. However, stressed/aeo/remain unchanged throughout the whole territory. In final syllables, only/ɐiu/appear.
• In Angola, unstressed/aɛeɔo/remain unchanged. In final syllables, only/ɐɨu/appear.

Seebelowfor details. The dialects of Portugal are characterized byreducing vowelsto 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 ashiatuses.

European Portuguese possesses quite a wide range of vowel allophones:

• All vowels are lowered and retracted before/l/:[ɪ,ɤ,u̞,ë̞,o̞,æ̈,ʌ,ɒ,ɑ].
• All vowels are raised and advanced before alveolar, palato-alveolar and palatal consonants:[i,ɯ̽,u,e,o,ɛ,ɐ̝,ɔ,ä̝].Those are the vowels shown on the chart. The diphthong[ɐj]is an exception to that as it is often pronounced[ʌj]in Lisbon, with a back onset.

Furthermore, Cruz-Ferreira gives voiceless allophones of/ɨ/,/u/,/ɐ/in the unstressed word-final position.

The exact realization of the/ɐ/varies somewhat amongst dialects. In Brazil, the vowel can be as high as[ə]in any environment. It is typically closer in stressed syllables before intervocalic nasals/m,n,ɲ/than word-finally, reaching as open a position as[ɐ]in the latter case, and open-mid[ɜ]before nasals,where/ɐ/can be nasalized. In European Portuguese, the general situation is similar, except that in some regions the two vowels formminimal pairsin some European dialects.In central European Portuguese this contrast occurs in a limited morphological context, namely inverb conjugationbetween the first person plural present and past perfect indicative forms of verbs such aspensamos('we think') andpensámos('we thought'; spelled⟨pensamos⟩in Brazil). Spahrproposes that it is a kind ofcrasisrather than phonemic distinction of/a/and/ɐ/.It means that infalamos'we speak' there is the expected prenasal/a/-raising:[fɐˈlɐmuʃ],while infalámos'we spoke' there are phonologically two/a/in crasis:/faˈlaamos/>[fɐˈlamuʃ](however, in Brazil both merge,falamos[faˈlɐ̃mus].In Angola, on the other hand, both merge as well, but spelling keeps differentiated:falamos/falámos[faˈlamuʃ]).Close-mid vowelsandopen-mid vowels(/e~ɛ/and/o~ɔ/) contrast only when they are stressed.In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. In Brazilian Portuguese, they are raised to close/i,u/after a stressed syllable,or in some accents and in general casual speech, also before it.

According to Mateus and d'Andrade (2000:19),in European Portuguese, the stressed/ɐ/only occurs in the following three contexts:

• Before a palatal consonant (such astelha/ˈtɐʎɐ/)
• Before the palatal front glide (such aslei/ˈlɐj/)
• Before a nasal consonant (such ascama/ˈkɐmɐ/)

English loanwords containing stressed/ʌ/or/ɜːr/are usually associated with pre-nasal⟨a⟩as inrush,or are influenced by orthography as inclube(club),or both, as insurf/surfe.

European Portuguese "e caduc"

European Portuguese possesses anear-close near-back unrounded vowel,transcribed/ɨ/in this article. It occurs in unstressed syllables such as inpegar/pɨˈɡaɾ/('to grip').

• Traditionally, all instances of/ɨ/are pronounced; e.g.verdade[vɨɾˈðaðɨ],perigo[pɨˈɾiɣu],estado[ɨʃˈtaðu].
• In modern European Portuguese, the initial/ɨ/is fronted to[i];e.g.energia/ɨnɨɾˈʒiɐ/→[inɨɾˈʒiɐ].
• In traditional EP,/i/was never retracted to[ɨ].In modern EP, it happens when it is surrounded by/i,ĩ,ɲ,ʎ,ʃ,ʒ/,so thatministro/miˈniʃtɾu/,príncipe/ˈpɾĩsipɨ/andartilhar/ɐɾtiˈʎaɾ/are usually pronounced[mɨˈniʃtɾu],[ˈpɾĩsɨpɨ]and[ɐɾtɨˈʎaɾ].
• When "e" is surrounded by another vowel, it becomes[i];e.g.real[ˈʁjal].
• However, when thee caducis preceded by a semi-vowel, it may be given the unreduced pronunciation of the letter⟨e⟩,that is[e]or[ɛ]:poesia[pweˈziɐ],quietude[kjɛˈtuðɨ].
• Regardless of the underlying phoneme, a phonetic[ɨ]can beelided,affectingsyllabificationand sometimes even producing asyllabic consonant;e.g.verdade/vɨɾˈda.dɨ/→[vr̩ˈðað],perigo/pɨˈɾi.ɡu/→[ˈpɾi.ɣu],estado/ɨʃˈta.du/→[ˈʃta.ðu],energia/ɨ.nɨɾˈʒi.ɐ/→[i.nr̩ˈʒi.ɐ],ministro/miˈniʃ.tɾu/→[ˈmniʃ.tɾu],príncipe/ˈpɾĩ.si.pɨ/→[ˈpɾĩsp],artilhar/ɐɾ.tiˈʎaɾ/→[ɐɾtˈʎaɾ],caminhar/kɐ.miˈɲaɾ/→[kɐmˈɲaɾ],pistola/piʃˈtɔ.lɐ/→[ˈpʃ̩tɔ.lɐ](here, ⟨r̩⟩ stands for a syllabic alveolar trill with one contact, the syllabic counterpart of[ɾ]). This can result in complex syllable onsets that are typical ofSlavic languages.
• Whenever[ɨ]is elided, obstruents in the resulting consonant cluster often agree in voicing, so that the most reduced form ofdesistiu/dɨziʃˈtiu/'(he) gave up' surfaces as[tsʃtiu]./ʁ/,a phonological sonorant, behaves like an obstruent in this case and can also be devoiced in voiceless clusters, as inreconhecer[χkuɲɨˈseɾ]'to recognize' (phonemically/ʁɨkuɲɨˈseɾ/).

There are very few minimal pairs for this sound, includingpregar/pɾɨˈɡaɾ/('to nail') vs.pregar/pɾɛˈɡaɾ/('to preach'; the latter stemming from earlierpreegar< Latinpraedicāre)as well asjure/ˈʒuɾɨ/('I swear', subjunctive) vs.júri/ˈʒuɾi/('jury').

Oral diphthongs

Diphthongs are not considered independent phonemes in Portuguese, but knowing them can help with spelling and pronunciation.

Diphthong	Usual spelling	Example	Meaning	Notes and variants
/aj/	ai, ái	pai	'father'	In Brazil, it may be realized as[a]before a post-alveolar fricative/ʃ,ʒ/,makingbaixorealized as[ˈbaʃu].
/ɐj/	ai, âi	plaina	'jointer'	In several Brazilian dialects; it occurs before nasal consonants and can be nasalised, as inplaina[ˈplɐ̃jnɐ~ˈplɐjnɐ~ˈplajnɐ].
	ei, éi, êi	leite	'milk'	InGreater Lisbon(except bySetúbal)/e,ɛ/can be centralized to[ɐ]before palatals/j,ɲ,ʃ,ʒ,ʎ/.; e.g.roupeiro[ʁowˈpejɾu-ʁoˈpɐjɾu],brenha[ˈbɾeɲɐ-ˈbɾɐ(j)ɲɐ],texto[ˈteʃtu-ˈtɐ(j)ʃtu],vejo[ˈveʒu-ˈvɐ(j)ʒu],coelho[kuˈeʎu-kuˈɐ(j)ʎu],anéis[ɐˈnɛjʃ-ɐˈnɐjʃ].Before/j/,it is often a back vowel[ʌ]:[ɐˈnʌjʃ]etc.
/ej/	ei, êi	rei	'king'	In several vernacular dialects (most of Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa), "ei" may be realized essentially as[e]in unstressed syllables.Words ending on either-eiroor -eira(likeroupeiro[ʁoˈpeɾu],bandeira[bɐ̃ˈdeɾɐ],brasileiro[bɾaziˈleɾu],brasileira[bɾaziˈleɾɐ],etc.), wheneiprecedes a palatal sound (likequeijo[ˈkeʒu],deixa[ˈdeʃɐ],etc.), or wheneiprecedes a consonant in general (likemanteiga[mɐ̃ˈteɡɐ],beiço[ˈbesu]) are optionally monophthongized, depending on the speaker and region (comparable to Spanishropero, bandera, brasilero, brasilera, queso, deja, manteca, bezo). However, notice that wheneimakes up part of a Greco-Latin loanword (likediarreico,anarreico,etc.), as well as nouns ending on-ei(likerei[ˈʁej],lei[ˈlej]) andseis,reinokeep their palatal sound/ej/(/ɛj/,in case of-eicoending nouns and adjectives). In most stressed syllables, the pronunciation is/ej/.There are very few minimal pairs for/ej/and/ɛj/,all of which occur inoxytonicwords. InGreater Lisbon,however, it is always pronounced[ɐj].
/ɛj/	ei,éi	geleia,anéis	'jelly', 'rings'	It only occurs in-elplurals likeanéis(plural ofanel'ring'). InGreater Lisbon,however, it is always pronounced[ɐj].
/oj/	oi, ôi	dois	'two'
/ɔj/	oi,ói	dói,destrói	'hurts', 'destroys'	Pronounced as/ɔj/mostly on-oiending words likeherói'hero', as well as some verbal conjugations.
/uj/	ui	fui	'I went'	Usually stressed.
/aw/	au, áu	mau	'bad'
/ɐw/	au, âu	saudade, trauma	'to miss', 'trauma'	In EP, when unstressed. In several Brazilian dialects; it occurs before nasal consonants and can be nasalised, as intrauma[ˈtɾɐ̃wmɐ~ˈtɾɐwmɐ~ˈtɾawmɐ].
/ew/	eu, êu	seu	'your'/'yours'	There are very few minimal pairs for/eu/and/ɛu/,all occurring inoxytonicwords.
/ɛw/	eu, éu	céu	'sky'
/iw/	iu	viu	'he saw'	Usually stressed.
/ow/	ou	ouro	'gold'	Merges optionally with/o/in most of modern Portuguese dialects, excluding some regions in northern Portugal.

There are also some words with two vowels occurring next to each other like iniateandsábiomay be pronounced both as rising diphthongs or hiatus.In these and other cases, other diphthongs, diphthong-hiatus or hiatus-diphthong combinations might exist depending on speaker, such as[uw]or even[uw.wu]forsuo('I sweat'), and in BP[ij]or even[ij.ji]forfatie('slice it').

[j]and[w]are non-syllabic counterparts of the vowels/i/and/u/,respectively. At least in European Portuguese, the diphthongs[ɛj,aj,ɐj,ɔj,oj,uj,iw,ew,ɛw,aw]tend to have more central second elements[ɛɪ̯,aɪ̯,ʌɪ̯,ɔɪ̯,oɪ̯,uɪ̯,iʊ̯,eʊ̯,ɛʊ̯,aʊ̯](as stated above, the starting point of/ɐi/is typically back) – note that[ʊ̯]is also more weakly rounded than the[u]monophthong.

Nasal vowels

Nasal vowel	Usual spelling	Example	Meaning
/ɐ̃/	ã,am,an	rã,canto	'frog', 'I sing' or 'corner'
/ẽ/	em,en	entro	'I enter'
/ĩ/	im,in	vim	'I came'
/õ/	õ,om,on	sombra	'shadow'
/ũ/	um,un	mundo	'world'

Portuguese also has a series of nasalized vowels.Cruz-Ferreira (1995)analyzes European Portuguese with five monophthongs and five diphthongs, all phonemic:/ĩẽɐ̃õũɐ̃j̃õj̃ũj̃ɐ̃w̃õw̃/.Nasal diphthongs occur mostly at the end of words (or followed by a final sibilant), and in a few compounds.

As in French, the nasal consonants represented by the letters ⟨m n⟩ are deleted incodaposition, and in that case the preceding vowel becomesphonemicallynasal,e.g. ingenro/ˈʒẽʁu/('son-in-law'). But a nasal consonant subsists when it is followed by a plosive, e.g. incantar[kɐ̃nˈtaɾ]('to sing').Vowel nasalization has also been observed non-phonemically as result ofcoarticulation,before heterosyllabic nasal consonants, e.g. insoma[ˈsõmɐ]('sum').Hence, there is a difference between phonemic nasal vowels and those that are allophonically nasalized. Additionally, a nasalmonophthong/ɐ̃/written ⟨ã⟩ exists independently of these processes, e.g. inromã/ʁoˈmɐ̃/('pomegranate'). Brazilian Portuguese is seen as being more nasal than European Portuguese due to the presence of these nasalized vowels. Some linguistsconsider them to be a result of external influences, including the common language spoken at Brazil's coast at time of discovery,Tupi.

The/e-ɛ/and/o-ɔ/distinction does not happen in nasal vowels; ⟨em om⟩ are pronounced asclose-mid.In BP, the vowel/a/(which the letter ⟨a⟩ otherwise represents) is sometimes phonemically raised to/ɐ/when it is nasal, and also in stressed syllables before heterosyllabic nasal consonants (even if the speaker does not nasalize vowels in this position):compare for instancedama sã[ˈdɐmɐˈsɐ̃](PT) or[ˈdɐ̃mɐˈsɐ̃](BR) ('healthy lady') anddá maçã[ˈdamɐˈsɐ̃](PT) or[ˈdamaˈsɐ̃](BR) ('it gives apples')./a/may also be raised slightly in word-final unstressed syllables.

Nasalization and height increase noticeably with time during the production of a single nasal vowel in BP in those cases that are written with nasal consonants ⟨m n⟩, so that/ˈʒẽʁu/may be realized as[ˈʒẽj̃ʁu]or[ˈʒẽɰ̃ʁu].This creates a significant difference between the realizations of ⟨am⟩ and ⟨ã⟩ for some speakers: compare for instanceranço real[ˈʁɐ̃suˈʁjal](PT) or[ˈʁɐ̃ɰ̃suʁeˈaw](BR) ('royal rancidness') andrã surreal[ˈʁɐ̃suˈʁjal](PT) or[ˈʁɐ̃suʁeˈaw](BR) ('surreal frog'). (Here[ɰ̃]means a velarnasal approximant.) At the end of a word ⟨em⟩ is always pronounced[ẽj̃]with a clearnasal palatal approximant(see below). Whenever a nasal vowel is pronounced with a nasal coda (approximant or occlusive) the (phonetic) nasalization of the vowel itself is optional.

The following examples exhaustively demonstrate the general situation for BP.

• romã('pomegranate'):[ʁoˈmɐ̃]:final vowel is (phonemically) "nasal" and nasal approximants may not be pronounced.
• genro('son-in-law'):[ˈʒẽʁu]or[ˈʒẽj̃ʁu]or[ˈʒẽɰ̃ʁu]:nasal consonant deleted; preceding vowel is (phonemically) "nasal" and nasal approximants may be pronounced.
• cem('a hundred'):[ˈsẽj̃]:nasal approximant must be pronounced.
• cantar('to sing'):[kɐ̃nˈtaɾ]:nasal consonant remains because of the following plosive; preceding vowel is raised and nasalized non-phonemically. (This is traditionally considered a "nasal" vowel by textbooks.)
• cano('pipe'):[ˈkɐ̃nu]or[ˈkɐnu]:first vowel is necessarily raised, and may be nasalized non-phonemically.
• tomo('I take'):[ˈtomu]or[ˈtõmu]:first vowel may be nasalized non-phonemically.

It follows from these observations that the vowels of BP can be described simply in the following way.

• BP has eight monophthongs—/aɐeɛioɔu/—whose phonetic realizations may be affected by a nasal archiphoneme/N/.The vowel/ɐ/is typically nasalized (in every position), but this is not phonemic.
• All eight vowels are differentiated in stressed and unstressed positions. But in word-final unstressed position and not followed by/N/,they reduce to three vowels—/aiu/—in most dialects. In this position,/a/has a free variation[ɐ]and this fatally impairs/a-ɐ/distinction. (For instance: the wordímã('magnet') is effectively pronounced as eitherimaorímam,depending on speaker.)
• Like theんof Japanese, the archiphoneme/N/is a nasal archiphoneme of syllabic codas and its actual place of articulation is determined by the following sound:
  • /VNp,VNb/=[Ṽmp,Ṽmb];
  • /VNt,VNd/=[Ṽnt,Ṽnd];
  • /VNk,VNg/=[Ṽŋk,Ṽŋg];
  • otherwise it becomes a nasal approximant[ɰ̃](as in Japanese kan'iGiản dịch[かんい], etc.). After the vowels/ei/this approximant may also be pronounced as[j̃];and after/ou/as[w̃](free variations).
• The system of eight monophthongs reduces to five—/ɐeiou/—before/N/and also in stressed syllables before heterosyllabic nasal consonants. The grapheme ⟨a⟩ stands for/ɐ/in these cases.
• /eN/is not allowed at word-final position because ⟨em⟩ stands for/ẽj/in this case. (Here/j̃/means the same phoneme that ⟨nh⟩ represents; and/e/may be nasalized non-phonemically.) This is the only case of/j̃/in coda-position.

With this description, the examples from before are simply/ʁoˈmɐ/,/ˈʒeNʁu/,/sej̃/,/kaNˈtaɾ/,/ˈkɐnu/,/ˈtomu/.Note that the aforementioned description may only apply to Southern-Southeastern dialects of Brazilian Portuguese. But there is no commonly accepted transcription for Brazilian Portuguese phonology.

Vowel nasalization in some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese is very different from that of French, for example. In French, the nasalization extends uniformly through the entire vowel, whereas in the Southern-Southeastern dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, the nasalization begins almost imperceptibly and then becomes stronger toward the end of the vowel. In this respect it is more similar to the nasalization ofHindi-Urdu(seeAnusvara). In some cases, the nasalarchiphonemeeven entails the insertion of anasal consonantsuch as[m,n,ŋ,ȷ̃,w̃,ɰ̃](comparePolish phonology § Open), as in the following examples:

• banco[ˈbɐ̃ku~ˈbɐ̃ŋku~ˈbɐ̃ɰ̃ku]
• tempo[ˈtẽpu~ˈtẽmpu~ˈtẽȷ̃pu~ˈtẽɰ̃pu]
• pinta[ˈpĩtɐ~ˈpĩntɐ~ˈpĩȷ̃tɐ~ˈpĩɰ̃tɐ]
• sombra[ˈsõbɾɐ~ˈsõmbɾɐ~ˈsõw̃bɾɐ~ˈsõɰ̃bɾɐ]
• mundo[ˈmũdu~ˈmũndu~ˈmũw̃du~ˈmũɰ̃du]
• fã[ˈfɐ̃~ˈfɐ̃ŋ~ˈfɐ̃ɰ̃]
• bem[ˈbẽȷ̃~ˈbẽĩ̠̯ɰ̃~ˈbẽɰ̃]
• vim[ˈvĩ~ˈvĩĩ̠̯ɰ̃~ˈvĩŋ~ˈvĩj̃~ˈvĩɰ̃]
• bom[ˈbõ~ˈbõw̃~ˈbõɰ̃~ˈbõŋ]
• um[ˈũ~ˈũŋ~ˈũw̃~ˈũɰ̃]
• mãe[ˈmɐ̃ȷ̃]
• pão[ˈpɐ̃w̃]
• põe[ˈpõȷ̃]
• muito[ˈmũj̃tu~ˈmũj̃ntu]

Nasal diphthongs

Nasal diphthong	Usual spelling	Example	Meaning	Notes and variants
/ɐ̃w̃/	am,ão	falam,mão	'they speak', 'hand'	The spellingamis used in unstressed syllables (falaram[fɐˈlaɾɐ̃w̃],'they spoke'), whereasãois for stressed syllables (falarão[fɐlɐˈɾɐ̃w̃],'they will speak')
/ɐ̃j̃/	ãe,ãi	mãe,cãibra	'mom', 'cramp'	In Central and Southern Portugal, it is also the colloquial pronunciation of /ẽj/, which meansmãeandbemrhyme.
/ẽj̃/	em	bem	'well'	InGreater Lisbon,it merges to[ɐ̃j],which meansmãeandbemrhyme.
/õw̃~õ/	om	bom	'good'	The diphthongization of such nasal vowel is controversial.
/õj̃/	õe	põe	'(he/she) puts'
/ũj̃/	ui	muito	'very', 'much'	Only nasalized in words derived frommuito(includingmui).

Most times nasal diphthongs occur at the end of the word. They are:

• -ãe[ɐ̃j̃].It occurs inmãe(s)('mother[s]') and in the plural of some words ending in-ão,e.g.,cães('dogs'),pães('breads'); and exceptionally non-finally incãibra('cramp'). In Central European Portuguese, it occurs also in all words ending in-em,liketem('he/she/it has'),bem('well', 'good', as a noun),mentem(they lie), etc.
• -em[ẽj̃].It occurs, both stressed and unstressed, in Brazilian Portuguese and in European Portuguese (both northern and southern) in word-final syllables ending in-emor-ém,likebem,sem,andalém,as well as in verbs ending in-em(the 3rd person plural present indicative of verbs whose infinitives end in-eror-ir).In Greater Lisbon,[ẽj̃]has merged with[ɐ̃j̃];and it occurs duplicated intêm[ˈtẽj̃ẽj̃]or[ˈtɐ̃j̃ɐ̃j̃](3rd person plural present indicative ofter,originallytẽem), which in Brazilian is homophonous withtem(the 3rd person singular).
• -õe[õj̃].It occurs:
  • in the present indicative ofpôrand its derivatives; in the 2nd person singular (pões[põj̃s],opões,compões,pressupões), in the 3rd person singular (põe[põj̃],opõeetc.), and non-finally in the 3rd person plural (põem[ˈpõẽj̃~ˈpõj̃ẽj̃~ˈpõj̃],opõemetc.).
  • in the plural of many words ending in-ão,e.g.,limões('lemons'),anões('dwarfs'), espiões ('spies'),iões('ions'),catiões('cations'),aniões('anions'),eletrões('electrons'),neutrões('neutrons'),protões('protons'),fotões('photons'),positrões('positrons') and the plurals of all words with the suffix -ção (compare English -tion, like in communication), like comunicações ('communications'), provocações ('provocations').
• -uimor-uin[w̃ĩ]Example:pinguim('penguin').
• ui[ũj̃]occurs only in the wordsmuito[ˈmũj̃tu]and the uncommonmui[mũj̃].The nasalisation here may be interpreted as allophonic, bleeding over from the previousm(comparemãewith the same bleeding of nasality).
• -ãoor-am.[ɐ̃w̃].Examples:pão('bread'),cão('dog'),estão('they are'),vão('they go'),limão('lemon'),órgão('organ'),Estêvão('Steven'). When in the-amform (unstressed) they are always the 3rd person of the plural of a verb, likeestavam('they were'),contam('they account'),escreveram('they wrote'),partiram('they left').
• -om[õw̃].It occurs in word-final syllables ending in-omlikebomandsom.However, it may be also monophthongized to[õ].

[j̃]and[w̃]are nasalized, non-syllabic counterparts of the vowels/i/and/u/,respectively. In European Portuguese, they are normally not fully close, being closer to[ɪ̯̃ʊ̯̃].As with the oral[ʊ̯],the nasal[ʊ̯̃]is not only more central but also more weakly rounded than the[u]monophthong. This is not transcribed in this article.

Vowel alternation

The stressed relativelyopen vowels/a,ɛ,ɔ/contrast with the stressed relativelyclose vowels/ɐ,e,o/in several kinds of grammatically meaningfulalternation:

• Between the base form of a noun or adjective and its inflected forms:ovo/o/('egg'),ovos/ɔ/('eggs');novo/o/,nova/ɔ/,novos/ɔ/,novas/ɔ/('new': masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, feminine plural);
• Between some nouns or adjectives and related verb forms: adj.seco/e/('dry'), v.seco/ɛ/('I dry'); n.gosto/o/('taste'), v.gosto/ɔ/('I like'); n.governo/e/('government') v.governo/ɛ/('I govern');
• Between different forms of some verbs:pôde/o/('he could'),pode/ɔ/('he can');
• Between some pairs of related words:avô/o/('grandfather'),avó/ɔ/('grandmother');
• In regular verbs, thestressed vowelis normally low/a,ɛ,ɔ/,but high/ɐ,e,o/before the nasal consonants/m/,/n/,/ɲ/(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/e-ɛ-ɛ-ɛ/;movo,moves,move,movem/o-ɔ-ɔ-ɔ/(present indicative);ceda,cedas,ceda,cedam/e/;mova,movas,mova,movam/o/(present subjunctive). (There is another class of stem-changing verbs which alternate/i,u/with/ɛ,ɔ/according to the same scheme);
• In central Portugal, the 1st. person plural of verbs of the 1st. conjugation (with infinitives in-ar) has the stressed vowel/ɐ/in the present indicative, but/a/in the preterite, cf.pensamos('we think') withpensámos('we thought'). In BP, the stressed vowel is/ɐ̃/in both, so they are written without accent mark.

There are also pairs of unrelated words that differ in the height of these vowels, such asbesta/e/('beast') andbesta/ɛ/('crossbow');mexo/e/('I move') andmecho/ɛ/('I highlight [hair]');molho/o/('sauce') andmolho/ɔ/('bunch');corte/ɔ/('cut') andcorte/o/('court');meta/e/('I put' subjunctive) andmeta/ɛ/('goal'); and (especially in Portugal)para/ɐ/('for') andpara/a/('he stops');forma/o/('mold') andforma/ɔ/('shape').

There are several minimal pairs in which acliticcontaining the vowel/ɐ/contrasts with amonosyllabicstressed word containing/a/:davs.dá,masvs.más,avs.à/a/,etc. In BP, however, these words may be pronounced with/a/in some environments.

Unstressed vowels

Some isolated vowels (meaning those that are neither nasal nor part of a diphthong) tend to change quality in a fairly predictable way when they becomeunstressed.In the examples below, the stressed syllable of each word is in boldface. The term "final" should be interpreted here as at the end of a word or before word-final-s.

Spelling	Stressed		Unstressed, not final		Unstressed and final
a	/a/or/ɐ/(BR, EP) /a/(AP)	parto/a/ pensamos/ɐ/(BR, EP);/a/(AP)	/ɐ/or/a/(EP) /a/(AP, BP)	partir/a/(BR, AP);/ɐ/(EP) ação/a/	/ɐ/	pensa/ɐ/
ai	/aj/or/aj~ɐj/(BR) /aj/(EP, AP)	pai/aj/ plaina/aj~ɐj/(BR);/aj/(EP, AP)	/aj/(BR, AP) /ɐj/(EP)	apaixonar/aj/(BR, AP);/ɐj/(EP)	–	–
au	/aw/or/aw~ɐw/(BR) /aw/(EP, AP)	pau/aw/ fauna/aw~ɐw/(BR);/aw/(EP, AP)	/aw/(BR, AP) /ɐw/(EP)	saudade/aw/(BR, AP);/ɐw/(EP)	–	–
e	/e/or/ɛ/	mover/e/ pega/ɛ/	/e/(BR) /ɨ/or/ɛ/(EP) /e/or/ɛ/(AP)	pregar/e/(BP, AP);/ɨ/(EP) (to nail) pregar/e/(BP);/ɛ/(EP, AP) (to preach, to advocate)	/i/(BR) /ɨ/(EP, AP)	move/i/(BP);/ɨ/(EP, AP)
ei	/ej~e/or/ɛj/ /ɐj/(Lisbon)	peixe/ej~e/;/ɐj/(Lisbon) anéis/ɛj/;/ɐj/(Lisbon)	/ej~e/ /ɐj/(Lisbon)	eleição/ej~e/;/ɐj/(Lisbon)	/ej~e/ /ɐj/(Lisbon)	possíveis/ej~e/;/ɐj/(Lisbon)
eu	/ew/or/ɛw/	meu/ew/ céu/ɛw/	/ew/	europeu/ew/	–	–
o	/o/or/ɔ/	pôde/o/ pode/ɔ/	/o/(BP) /u/or/ɔ/(EP) /o/or/ɔ/(AP)	poder/o/(BP, AP);/u/(EP) você/o/(BP);/ɔ/(EP, AP)	/u/	pato/u/
oi	/oj/or/ɔj/	coisa/oj/ dói/ɔj/	/oj/	oitavo/oj/	–	–
ou	/ow~o/	ouro/ow~o/	/ow~o/	dourado/ow~o/	–	–

With a few exceptions mentioned in the previous sections, the vowels/a/and/ɐ/occur in complementary distribution when stressed, the latter before nasal consonants followed by a vowel, and the former elsewhere.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the general pattern in the southern and western accents is that the stressed vowels/a,ɐ/,/e,ɛ/,/o,ɔ/neutralizeto/a/,/e/,/o/,respectively, in unstressed syllables, as is common in Romance languages. In final unstressed syllables, however, they are raised to/ɐ/,/i/,/u/.In casual BP (as well as in thefluminensedialect), unstressed/e/and/o/may be raised to/i/,/u/onanyunstressed syllable,as long as it has nocoda.However, in the dialects of Northeastern Brazilian (as spoken in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco), non-final unstressed vowels are often open-mid/a/,/ɛ/,/ɔ/,independent of vowel harmony with surrounding lower vowels.

European Portuguese has taken this process one step further, raising/a,ɐ/,/e,ɛ/,/o,ɔ/to/ɐ/,/ɨ/,/u/in almost all unstressed syllables. The vowels/ɐ/and/ɨ/are also morecentralizedthan their Brazilian counterparts. The three unstressed vowels/ɐ,ɨ,u/arereducedand oftenvoicelessorelidedin fast speech.

However, Angolan Portuguese has been more conservative, raising/a/,/e,ɛ/,/o,ɔ/to/a/,/e/,/o/in unstressed syllables; and to/ɐ/,/ɨ/,/u/in final unstressed syllables. Which makes it almost similar to Brazilian Portuguese (except by final/ɨ/,which is inherited from European Portuguese).

There are some exceptions to the rules above. For example,/i/occurs instead of unstressed/e/or/ɨ/,word-initially or before another vowel inhiatus(teatro,reúne,peão)./ɨ/is often deleted entirely word-initially in the combination/ɨsC/becoming[ʃC~ʒC].Also,/a/,/ɛ/or/ɔ/appear in some unstressed syllables in EP, being marked in the lexicon, likeespetáculo(spectacle)[ʃpɛˈtakulu];these occur from deletion of the final consonant in a closed syllable and from crasis. And there is some dialectal variation in the unstressed sounds: the northern and eastern accents of BP have low vowels in unstressed syllables,/ɛ,ɔ/,instead of the high vowels/e,o/.However, the Brazilian media tends 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/i/and/u/are not affected by this process, nor is the vowel/o/when written as the digraph⟨ou⟩(pronounced/ow/in conservative EP).

Epenthesis

In BP, anepenthetic vowel[i]is sometimes inserted between consonants, to break up consonant clusters that are not native to Portuguese, inlearned wordsand in borrowings.This also happens at the ends of words after consonants that cannot occur word-finally (e.g.,/d/,/k/,/f/). For example,psicologia('psychology') may be pronounced[pisikoloˈʒiɐ];adverso('adverse') may be pronounced[adʒiˈvɛʁsu];McDonald'smay be pronounced[mɛkiˈdõnawdʒis].In northern Portugal, an epenthetic[ɨ]may be used instead,[pɨsikuluˈʒiɐ],[ɐðɨˈβɛɾsu],but in southern Portugal there is often no epenthesis,[psikuluˈʒiɐ],[ɐdˈvɛɾsu].Epenthesis at the end of a word does not normally occur in Portugal.

The native Portuguese consonant clusters, where there is not epenthesis, are sequences of a non-sibilant oral consonant followed by the liquids/ɾ/or/l/,and the complex consonants/ks,kw,ɡw/.Some examples:flagrante/flɐˈɡɾɐ̃tɨ/,complexo/kõˈplɛksu/,fixo/ˈfiksu/(but notficção/fikˈsɐ̃w/),latex/ˈlatɛks/,quatro/ˈkʷatɾu/,guaxinim/ɡʷɐʃiˈnĩ/,/ɡʷaʃiˈnĩ/

Further notes on the oral vowels

• Some words with/ɛɔ/in EP have/eo/in BP. This happens when those vowels are stressed before the nasal consonants/m/,/n/,followed by another vowel, in which case both types may occur in European Portuguese, but Brazilian Portuguese for the most part allows only mid or close-mid vowels. This can affect spelling: cf. EPtónico,BPtônico"tonic".
• In most BP, stressed vowels havenasalallophones,[ɐ̃],[ẽ],[ĩ],[õ],[ũ],etc. (see below) before one of the nasal consonants/m/,/n/,/ɲ/,followed by another vowel. In São Paulo, Southern Brazil,and EP, nasalization is nearly absent in this environment, other than in compounds such asconnosco,comummente(spelledconosco,comumentein BP).
• Most BP speakers alsodiphthongizestressed vowels in oxytones to[aj],[ɛj],[ej],[oj],[ɔj],[uj],etc. (sometimes/ij/), before a sibilant coda (writtensorz). For instance,Jesus[ʒeˈzujs]('Jesus'),faz[fajs]('he does'),dez[dɛjs]('ten'). This has led to the use ofmeia(frommeia dúzia'half a dozen ") instead ofseis[sejs]('six') when making enumerations, to avoid any confusion withtrês[tɾejs]('three') on the telephone.
• In Greater Lisbon,/e/is pronounced[ɐ(j)]when it comes before a palatal consonant/j/,/ʎ/,/ɲ/or a palato-alveolar/ʃ/,/ʒ/,followed by another vowel; as well as[ẽj̃]is pronounced[ɐ̃j̃].

Sandhi

When two words belonging to the same phrase are pronounced together, or twomorphemesare joined in a word, the last sound in the first may be affected by the first sound of the next (sandhi), either coalescing with it, or becoming shorter (a semivowel), or being deleted. This affects especially the sibilant consonants/s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/,and the unstressed final vowels/ɐ/,/i,ɨ/,/u/.

Consonant sandhi

As was mentioned above, the dialects of Portuguese can be divided into two groups, according to whether syllable-final sibilants are pronounced as postalveolar consonants/ʃ/,/ʒ/or as alveolar/s/,/z/.At the end of words, the default pronunciation for a sibilant is voiceless,/ʃ,s/,but in connected speech the sibilant is treated as though it were within a word (assimilation):

• If the next word begins with avoiceless consonant,the final sibilant remains voiceless/s,ʃ/;bons tempos[bõʃˈtẽpuʃ]or[bõsˈtẽpus]('good times').
• If the next word begins with a voiced consonant, the final sibilant becomes voiced as well/z,ʒ/;bons dias[bõʒˈdiɐʃ]or[bõzˈdʒiɐs]('good days').
• If the next word begins with a vowel, the final sibilant is treated as intervocalic, and pronounced[z];bons amigos[bõzɐˈmiɣuʃ]or[bõzaˈmiɡus]('good friends').

When two identical sibilants appear in sequence within a word, they reduce to a single consonant. For example,nascer,desço,excesso,exsudarare pronounced with[s]by speakers who use alveolar sibilants at the end of syllables, anddisjuntoris pronounced with[ʒ]by speakers who use postalveolars. But if the two sibilants are different they may be pronounced separately, depending on the dialect. Thus, the former speakers will pronounce the last example with[zʒ],whereas the latter speakers will pronounce the first examples with[s]if they are from Brazil or[ʃs]if from Portugal (although inrelaxed pronunciationone of the siblants may be dropped). This applies also to words that are pronounced together in connected speech:

• sibilant +/s/,e.g.,as sopas:either[s](most of Brazil);[ʃs](Portugal, standard)
• sibilant +/z/,e.g.,aszonas:either[z](mostly in Brazil);[ʒz](Portugal, standard)
• sibilant +/ʃ/,e.g.,as chaves:always[ʃ];
• sibilant +/ʒ/,e.g.,os genes:always[ʒ].

Vowel sandhi

Normally, only the three vowels/ɐ/,/i/(in BP) or/ɨ/(in EP), and/u/occur inunstressedfinal position. If the next word begins with a similar vowel, they merge with it in connected speech, producing a single vowel, possiblylong(crasis). Here, "similar" means that nasalization can be disregarded, and that the two central vowels/a,ɐ/can be identified with each other. Thus,

• /aa,aɐ,ɐa,ɐɐ/→[a(ː)](henceforth transcribed[a(a)]);toda a noite[ˈtoða(a)ˈnojtɨ]or[ˈtoda(a)ˈnojtʃi]('all night'),nessa altura[ˈnɛsawˈtuɾɐ]or[ˈnɛsalˈtuɾɐ]('at that point').
• /aɐ̃,ɐɐ̃/→[ã(ː)]) (henceforth transcribed[ã(ã)]);a antiga('the ancient one') andà antiga('in the ancient way'), both pronounced[ã(ã)ˈtʃiɡɐ]or[ã(ã)ˈtiɣɐ].The open nasalized[ã]appears only in this environment.
• /ii,iĩ/→[i(ː),ĩ(ː)](henceforth transcribed[i(i),ĩ(ĩ)]);de idade[dʒi(i)ˈdadʒi]or[di(i)ˈðaðɨ]('aged').
• /ɨɨ/→[ɨ];fila de espera[ˈfilɐðɨʃˈpɛɾɐ]('waiting line') (EP only).
• /uu,uũ/→[u(ː),ũ(ː)](henceforth transcribed[u(u),ũ(ũ)]);todo o dia[ˈtodu(u)ˈdʒiɐ]or[ˈtoðu(u)ˈðiɐ]('all day').

If the next word begins with a dissimilar vowel, then/i/and/u/becomeapproximantsin Brazilian Portuguese (synaeresis):

• /i/+ V →[jV];durante o curso[duˈɾɐ̃tʃjuˈkuɾsu]('during the course'),mais que um[majskjũ]('more than one').
• /u/+ V →[wV];todo este tempo[ˈtoˈdwestʃiˈtẽpu]('all this time')do objeto[dwobiˈʒɛtu]('of the object').

In careful speech and in with certain function words, or in some phrase stress conditions (see Mateus and d'Andrade, for details), European Portuguese has a similar process:

• /ɨ/+ V →[jV];se a vires[sjɐˈviɾɨʃ]('if you see her'),mais que um[majʃkjũ]('more than one').
• /u/+ V →[wV];todo este tempo[ˈtoˈðweʃtɨˈtẽpu]('all this time'),do objeto[dwɔbˈʒɛtu]('of the object').

But in otherprosodicconditions, and in relaxed pronunciation, EP simply drops final unstressed/ɨ/and/u/(elision), though this is subject to significant dialectal variation:

• durante o curso[duˈɾɐ̃tuˈkuɾsu]('during the course'),este inquilino[ˈeʃtĩkɨˈlinu]('this tenant').
• todo este tempo[toˈðeʃtɨˈtẽpu]('all this time'),disto há muito[diʃtaˈmũjtu]('there's a lot of this').

Aside from historical setcontractionsformed by prepositions plusdeterminersor pronouns, likeà/dà, ao/do,nesse,dele,etc., on one hand and combinedcliticpronouns such asmo/ma/mos/mas(it/him/her/them to/for me), and so on, on the other,Portuguese spellingdoes not reflect vowel sandhi. In poetry, however, an apostrophe may be used to showelisionsuch as ind'água.

Stress

Primarystressmay fall on any of the three final syllables of a word, but most commonly on the last two, as antepenultimate stress is relatively less frequent in the language. There is a partial correlation between the position of the stress and the final vowel; for example, the final syllable is usually stressed when it contains a nasal phoneme, a diphthong, or aclose vowel—this is especially relevant given the influence of Indigenous languages in Brazil, as indigenous words often have final stress:urubu'vulture',açaí'açai', both of which originate from Tupi and have final stress. The orthography of Portuguese takes advantage of this correlation to minimize the number of diacritics, but orthographic rules vary in different regions (e.g., Brazil and Portugal), and should not be used as a reliable guide to stress, despite the existing correlations found in the grapheme-phoneme conversion of Portuguese data.

As in English, stress in verbs and non-verbs is computed differently.For verbs, stress is deterministic, as different morphemes determine the location of stress in a given word based on tense, mood, person and number. For this reason, the few examples one can find of minimal pairs of lexical stress involve either different verb forms for a given stem, such asruíram/ʁuˈiɾɐ̃w̃/ 'they collapsed' vs.ruirão/ʁuiˈɾɐ̃w̃/ 'they will collapse', or a noun-verb pair, such asdúvida/ˈduvidɐ/ 'doubt' vs.duvida/duˈvidɐ/ 's/he doubts'. For example, regardless of which verb one considers, stress is always final for the first person singular in the future simple tense (indicative):(eu) falarei'I will speak'. For nouns and adjectives (i.e., non-verbs), stress is mostly affected by phonological factors such as syllable weight,although morphology also plays a role, as different suffixes may affect the location of stress in a given word. In simple terms, the algorithm for stress in non-verbs is similar to that of English and Latin (modulo the extrametricality of the final syllable, which is absent in Portuguese): stress is final if the final syllable is heavy and penultimate otherwise. A heavy syllable contains a diphthong or a coda consonant. All other patterns are considered to be irregular in most approaches in the literature, even though subregularities have been determined and discussed in recent studies.Finally, syllable weight has also been shown to affect the position of secondary stress in the language, whose location can vary in words with an odd number of pre-tonic syllables. In such words, there's some experimental evidence showing that the presence of a given syllable containing a coda leads to a preference for secondary stress in said syllable.

Prosody

Toneis not lexically significant in Portuguese, but phrase- and sentence-level tones are important. As in most Romance languages, interrogation on yes–no questions is expressed mainly by sharply raising the tone at the end of the sentence. An exception to this is the wordoithat is subject to meaning changes: an exclamation tone means 'hi/hello', and in an interrogative tone it means 'I didn't understand'.

As for prosodic domains, the presence of metrical feet in Portuguese has been called into question in a recent study, which argues that no strong evidence exists in the language that supports this particular domain (at least Brazilian Portuguese)—despite the presence of stress and secondary stress, both of which are typically (albeit not always) associated with feet.

See also

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
• History of Portuguese
• Portuguese orthography
• Portuguese dialects

Bibliography

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• Cagliari, Luiz Carlos (1977),An Experimental Study of Nasality with Particular Reference to Brazilian Portuguese(thesis), University of Edinburgh,hdl:1842/17275
• Cuesta, Vázquez; da Luz, Mendes (1987),Gramática portuguesa[Portuguese grammar] (in Portuguese) (3rd ed.), Gredos,ISBN84-249-1117-2
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• Grønnum, Nina(2005),Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk(3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag,ISBN87-500-3865-6
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• Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000),The Phonology of Portuguese,Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-823581-X
• Perini, Mário Alberto(2002),Modern Portuguese (A Reference Grammar),New Haven: Yale University Press,ISBN978-0-300-09155-7
• Rodrigues, Marisandra Costa (2012),Encontros Vocálicos Finais em Português: Descrição e Análise Otimalista[Final vowel encounters in Portuguese: Optimalistic description and analysis](PDF)(thesis) (in Portuguese), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-10-11,retrieved2015-07-05
• Spahr, Christopher (2013),Confronting the European Portuguese low vowel distinction(PDF),Toronto: University of Toronto
• Undolo, Márcio (2014),"Caracterização do sistema vocálico do português culto falado em Angola"[Characterization of the vowel system of learned Portuguese spoken in Angola],Revista de Filologia Romanica(in Portuguese),31(2), Évora, Portugal: Universidade de Évora, Portugal: 181–187
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External links

• The Portuguese Stress Lexiconcontains a comprehensive list of nouns and adjectives coded for numerous phonological variables.
• The Fonology packagefor R provides a wide range of functions to work with written data, especially in Portuguese.
• Omniglot's page on Portugueseincludes a recording of the phonemes and diphthongs (Brazilian Portuguese).
• The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal
• Phoneme summary, with samples
• The pronunciation of each vowel and consonant letter in European Portuguese