Portuguese dialects
Portuguese dialects are mutually intelligible variations of the Portuguese language over Portuguese-speaking countries and other areas holding some degree of cultural bound with the language. Portuguese has two standard forms of writing and numerous regional spoken variations.
The standard written form of Portuguese used in Brazil is regulated by the Brazilian Academy of Letters and is sometimes called Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, the language is regulated by the Sciences Academy of Lisbon, Class of Letters and its national dialect is called European Portuguese. This written variation is the one preferred by Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa and Asia, including Cabo Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Timor-Leste, Macau and Goa.
Differences between Brazilian and European written forms of Portuguese occur in a similar way those of American and British English, though spelling divergencies were generally believed to occur with a little greater frequency in the two Portuguese written dialects until a new standard orthography came into full effect in the 2010s. Differences in syntax and word construction, not directly related with spelling, are also observed. Furthermore, there were attempts to unify the two written variations, the most recent of them being the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, which only began to take effect in the 2000s and is still under implementation in some countries. This and previous reforms faced criticism by people who say they are unnecessary or inefficient or even that they create more differences instead of reducing or eliminating them.
The differences between the various spoken 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.
Main subdivisions
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 and, and by the tendency to monophthongize ei and ou to and. They include the dialect of the capital, Lisbon, but it has some peculiarities of its own. Although the dialects of the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira 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,, and by somewhat having sometimes merged with . They include the dialect of Porto, Portugal's second largest city.
It is usually believed that the dialects of Brazil, Africa, and Asia derived mostly from those of central and southern Portugal.
Barranquenho
In the Portuguese town of Barrancos, a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Southern Spanish dialects is spoken, known as barranquenho.Brazil
Brazilian dialects are divided into northern and southern groups, the northern dialects tending to slightly more open pre-stressed vowels. The economic and cultural dominance of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil made their dialects end up having some influence on the rest of the country. However, migration from the Northern states to the Southern states cause the influence to be a two-way phenomenon. Cultural issues also play their roles. 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 the three southern states usually speak with a very notable German, Italian or Polish accent, and among the inhabitants of the Santa Catarina Island, the Azorean Portuguese dialect, in its local variant, predominates.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.
Africa, Asia and Oceania
For historical reasons, the dialects of Africa are generally closer to those of Portugal than the Brazilian dialects, but 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.Asian Portuguese dialects are similar to the African ones and so are generally close to those of Portugal. In Macau, the syllable onset rhotic is pronounced as a voiced uvular fricative or uvular trill.
Notable features of some dialects
Many dialects have special characteristics. Most of the differences are seen in phonetics and phonology, and here are some of the more prominent:Conservative
- In some regions of northern Portugal and Brazil, the digraph ou still denotes a falling diphthong, but it has been monophthongized to by most speakers of Portuguese.
- In the dialects of Alto-Minho and Trás-os-Montes, the digraph ch still denotes the affricate, as in Galicia, but for most speakers, it has merged with.
- Some dialects of northern Portugal still contrast the predorsodental sibilants c/ç and z with apicoalveolar sibilants s and s, with minimal pairs such as passo "step" and paço "palace" or coser "to sew" and cozer "to cook", which are homophones in most dialects. The other dialects of northern Portugal that have lost this distinction have apicoalveolar sibilants instead of the predorsodental fricatives, found in all southern dialects of Portugal as well as in Brazil. In those dialects, they also appear in syllable codas instead of the 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 and parts of the Algarve, one finds word-final where standard EP has, a feature shared with BP.
- Also in Brazil, Alentejo and Algarve, 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.
- In Brazil, original voiced intervocalic stops are still pronounced as such, vida, cabo instead of the normal Portugal pronunciation.
- In Brazil, all five vowels are usually pronounced clearly in unstressed pretonic syllables like in stressed syllables, while in Portugal they are generally reduced to. However, some words in some Brazilian accents have pretonic raised to.
Innovative
- In central and southern Portugal, the diphthong is monophthongized to. The nasal diphthong is often monophthongized to as well.
- In and near Lisbon, and are pronounced and, respectively. Furthermore, stressed is pronounced or before a palato-alveolar or a palatal consonant followed by another vowel.
- In the dialect of the Beiras in central Portugal, the sibilant occurs at the end of words, before another word which starts with a vowel, instead of.
- In northern Portugal, the phoneme has a velar allophone at the end of words.
- In the dialects of Beira Baixa , Northern Portalegre and Far Western Algarve and São Miguel Island in the Azores, the near-front rounded vowel replaces, in a process similar to the one that originated the French u.. These are the only Galician-Portuguese and Ibero-Romance dialects to have these phonemes and they are in common with Gallo-Romance ones, which differentiate them from all the other Galician-Portuguese and Ibero-Romance dialects.
- Micaelense Portuguese also features other sounds in its vowel inventory that is unique to all Portuguese dialects. The Micaelense vowel front rounded vowel replaces the Standard European Portuguese close-mid back rounded vowel in words spelt with ou/oi, as in outra or boi. Although all Azorean dialects are usually grouped together as a whole, these two characteristics are emblematic mostly of Micaelense Portuguese only, and is not the case in the way speakers of Azorean dialects from the other eight islands speak. However both and phonemes are also present in the some parts of other islands, in Terceira, Graciosa, Eastern Pico, Flores and Corvo, but are totally absent in the islands of Santa Maria, Faial, São Jorge and Western Pico.
- In northern Portugal, the close vowels and may be pronounced as diphthongs, such as in "Porto", pronounced, "quê":, "hoje": or or even
- Some dialects of southern Portugal have gerund forms that inflect for person and number: em chegandos, em chegândemos, em chegandem. They are not used in writing.
- There are some dialectal differences in how word final is realized. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is always pronounced. In Portugal, it is usually most audible when at the end of an utterance. In other contexts, it may be realized not at all or 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 would be pronounced as or in those dialects. In the Lisbon dialect the last two words would instead be pronounced,, or. In southern Portugal, word final and are also affected so in Alentejo, the same sentence would sound . In the southernmost region of the country, the Algarve, the vowel is completely lost:.
- In most of Brazil, syllable-final is vocalized to, which causes mau "bad" and mal "badly" to become homophones. Similarly, degrau "step" and jornal "journal" rhyme, which results in false plurals such as degrais "steps", by analogy with correct plural jornais. In the caipira dialect, and in parts of Goiás and Minas Gerais, syllable-final is instead merged with, pronounced as an alveolar approximant in the Caipira way.
- The pronunciation of syllable-initial and syllable-final r varies considerably with dialect. See Guttural R in Portuguese, for details. Syllable-initial ⟨r⟩ and doubled ⟨rr⟩ are pronounced as a guttural in most cities in Portugal, but as a traditional trill in rural Portugal. In Brazil, the sound is normally pronounced as an unvoiced guttural, which is also used for ⟨r⟩ at the end of syllables. ⟨r⟩ at the end of words, in Brazil, is normally silent or barely pronounced. In Macau, 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 is sometimes silent.
- The pronunciation of syllable-final s/x/z also varies with dialect. See Portuguese phonology for details. Portugal and Rio de Janeiro favor, both before a consonant and finally. Most other parts of Brazil favor, but in the Northeast, is often heard before consonants, especially .
- In the Northeast of Brazil and, to an increasing extent, in Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere, is inserted before final in a final-stressed word, which makes mas "but" and mais "more" homonyms, both pronounced or. Other affected examples are faz "he does", dez "ten", nós "we", voz "voice", luz "light", Jesus "Jesus", etc. Related forms like fazem, vozes, nosso are unaffected since is no longer final.
- In most of Brazil, are palatalized to when they are followed by. Common sources of are the unstressed ending -e, as in gente "people" and de "of", and the epenthetic in words such as advogado "lawyer". Prefixes de-, des- and dez- vary from word to word and from speaker to speaker between and.
- 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.
- *Clitic te survives as the normal clitic object pronoun corresponding to você.
- *Clitic pronouns almost always precede the verb. Post-verbal clitics and mesoclisis are seen only in formal contexts.
- *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 heard in speech. Instead, the clitics are simply omitted, especially to refer to objects; or a subject pronoun is placed after the verb: Eu levo "I'll get it"; Vi ele "I saw him".
Homophones in dialects
''Mau'' and ''mal''
Both mean bad, but mau is an adjective, mal an adverb. In most parts of Brazil, the l before consonants and ending words, which represents a velarized alveolar lateral approximant in differing dialects, became a labio-velar approximant, making both words homophones.''Júri'' and ''jure''
While júri means jury, jure is the imperative and second subjunctive third singular form of jurar, "may he/she swear". In different contexts, unstressed /e/ often became a close front unrounded vowel, but in some Southern Brazilian dialects, /e/ never goes through the change.''Comprimento'' and ''cumprimento''
Comprimento means "length", and cumprimento means "greeting". The same thing that happened with /e/ in the example of júri/jure happened to the letter /o/, such becomes a close back rounded vowel in some cases. Hispanic influence makes it never represent that sound in some Southern Brazilian.''Asa'' and ''haja''
Asa means "wing", and haja is the imperative and second subjunctive third singular form of haver, "may he/she exist". The words are usually distinguished, but in Alto Trás-os-Montes and for some East Timorese Portuguese speakers, they are homophones, both voiced palato-alveolar sibilants.''Boa'' and ''voa''
Boa means "good" and voa, "he/she/it flies". Unlike most of the West Iberian languages, Portuguese usually differs between the voiced bilabial plosive and the voiced labiodental fricative, but the distinction used to be absent in the dialects of the northern half of Portugal, and in some dialects spoken in the border of Brazil or Portugal and Spanish-speaking countries. Both are realized indistinctly as a voiced bilabial plosive or a voiced bilabial fricative, like in Spanish.''Más'', ''mas'' and ''mais''
Más means "bad ones", mas means "but" and mais means "more" or "most". In Northeastern Brazil and the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, the vowels followed by coronal fricatives in the same syllable have a palatal approximant pronounced between both. The feature is very distinguishable since this combination appears in the plural forms.''Xá'' and ''chá''
Xá means "shah", and chá means tea. At the beginning of words,Other differences
Terms for modern elements often differ between variations of Portuguese, sometimes even taking different genders. The following is a basic description of the PlayStation videogame console:| English | The PlayStation is a video game console. |
| European Portuguese | A PlayStation é uma consola de videojogos. |
| Brazilian Portuguese | O PlayStation é um console de videogame. |
In this sentence, not only is "PlayStation" feminine in one dialect and masculine in another, but the words for "console" and "videogame" are adapted from English in Portugal but retained in their original form in Brazil, and "video game" in the phrase "video game console" is numbered in Portugal but singular in Brazil.
Mixed languages
/Portunhol: In regions where Spanish and Portuguese coexist, various types of language contact have occurred, ranging from improvised code-switching between monolingual speakers of each language to more or less stable mixed languages.Closely related languages
This section does not cover Galician, which is treated as a separate language from Portuguese by Galician official institutions, or Fala. For a discussion of the controversy regarding the status of Galician with respect to Portuguese, see Reintegrationism.Portunhol Riverense is spoken in the region between Uruguay and Brazil, particularly in the twin cities of Rivera and Santana do Livramento.
The language must not be confused with Portuñol, since it is 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 suffered influence from Uruguayan Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
In academic circles, the Portuguese used by the northern population of Uruguay received the name "Dialectos Portugueses del Uruguay". There's still no consensus if the language is a dialect or a creole, although the name given by linguists uses the term "dialect". There is also no consensus on how many varieties it has, with some studies indicating that there are at least two varieties, an urban one and a rural one, while others say there are six varieties, of which Riverense Portuñol is one.
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.
Mutual comprehension
The different dialects and accents do not block cross-understanding among the educated. Meanwhile, the basilects have diverged more. The unity of the language is reflected in the fact that early imported sound films were dubbed into one version for the entire Portuguese-speaking market. Currently, films not originally in Portuguese are dubbed separately into two accents: one for Portugal and one for Brazilian. When dubbing an African character in cartoons and TV and film productions, Portuguese people usually mimic an Angolan accent, as it is also commonly seen as the African accent of Portuguese. The popularity of telenovelas and music familiarizes the speakers with other accents of Portuguese.Prescription and a common cultural and literary tradition, among other factors, have contributed to the formation of a Standard Portuguese, which is the preferred form in formal settings, and is considered indispensable in academic and literary writing, the media, etc. This standard tends to disregard local grammatical, phonetic and lexical peculiarities, and draws certain extra features from the commonly acknowledged, preserving certain verb tenses considered "bookish" or archaic in most other dialects. Portuguese has two official written standards, Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese. The written standards slightly differ in spelling and vocabulary, and are legally regulated. Unlike the written language, however, there is no spoken-Portuguese official standard, but the European Portuguese reference pronunciation is the educated speech of Lisbon.