Help:IPA/Portuguese

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Short description: Wikipedia key to pronunciation

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Portuguese language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-pt}}, {{IPAc-pt}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Distinction is made between the two major standards of the language—Portugal (European Portuguese, EP; broadly the standard also used in Africa and Asia) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese, BP). Neither variant is preferred at Wikipedia, except in cases where a local pronunciation is clearly more relevant, such as a place in Brazil or an individual from Portugal.

National variant differences should be noted with discretion: when there are differing dialectal Brazilian Portuguese pronunciations, the one closest to the European Portuguese should generally be preferred, as this guideline is intended to help native speakers of other languages.

See Portuguese phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Portuguese.

Consonants
IPA Examples English approximation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
b b beiço, âmbar, sob about
β cabeça, sobre[1] EP: between baby and bevy
BP: about
ð d cedo, idade[1] EP: other
BP: today
d dedo, lenda today
digo, ande, balde[2] EP: today
BP: jig
f fado, café face
ɡ ɡ gato, signo, bingo, guerra again
ɣ fogo, figueira[1] EP: between ago and ahold
BP: again
k cor, dica, quente, kiwi scan
l l lua, alô lot
w mal[3] EP: toll
BP: tow
ʎ lhe, velho[4] million
m mês, somo might
n não, sono not
ɲ nhoque, sonho canyon
p pó, sopa, apto spouse
ʁ ʁ rio, carro, enrascado,[5][6] lingerie French rouge
ɾ r, porto, por favor[5][6][7] EP: latter (GA)
BP: French rouge
ɾ frio, caro, por acaso[6][7] latter (GA)
s s saco, isso, braço, máximo sack
ʃ escola, as portas, dez, texto[8] EP: sheep
BP: sack
ʃ chave, achar, xarope, baixo, sushi sheep
tchau, atchim chip
t tipo, ritmo, ponte[2] EP: stand
BP: chip
t tempo, átomo stand
v vela, livro vest
ʒ ʒ já, gente pleasure
z rasgo, os meus[8] EP: pleasure
BP: zebra
z casa, os amigos, doze, existir zebra
 
Semivowels[9]
IPA Examples English approximation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
j saia, pais you, boy
w frequente, quão, mau, Cauã quick, glow
Stressed vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
a a alzheimer, Jaime,[10] dá, lámen, àquele father
ɐ falámos, falamos,[11] andaime[10] EP: father
BP: purse (RP)
ɐ falamos, câmera, bug purse (RP)
ɛ ɛ meta, sé, Émerson,[12] cafezinho set
e prémio, prêmio EP: set
BP: they
e meto, sê[13] they
i si, dia, país, suíço, rainha,[14] diesel see
ɔ ɔ formosa, formosos, avó, somente off
o Antônio, António EP: off
BP: row (GA)
o avô, formoso row (GA)
u rua, lúcido, saúde boot
Unstressed vowels
ɐ ɐ taça, manhã[15] about
a maior, aquele, da EP: about
BP: grandma
a Camões, caveira grandma
ɛ e incrível, segmento[12] EP: access
BP: survey
ɨ semáforo EP: emission
BP: survey
i jure, pequeno,[16] se EP: emission
BP: happy
i júri, meandro, e, doe[17] happy
ɔ o hospital[12] EP: royale
BP: arrow (GA)
u sortudo EP: outlook
BP:  arrow (GA)
u evacuar, boneco,[16] vi-o, voo, frio[17] outlook
 
Suprasegmentals
Stress and syllabification
IPA Examples Explanation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
ˈ João [ʒuˈɐ̃w] (EP, BP) lexical stress
ˌ Vila-Chã [ˌvilɐˈʃɐ̃] (EP, BP) secondary stress
. Rio [ˈʁi.u] (EP, BP) syllable break
Diacritics
◌̃ Chã [ˈʃɐ̃] (EP, BP)[18] nasal vowel
◌̥ devoiced vowel
Other representations
( ) Douro [ˈdo(w)ɾu] (EP, BP) optional sound

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 In northern and central Portugal, /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are lenited to fricatives of the same place of articulation ([β], [ð], and [ɣ], respectively) in all places except after a pause, or a nasal vowel, in which contexts they are stops [b, d, ɡ], not dissimilar from English b, d, g (Mateus & d'Andrade 2000:11). Most often, it happens only in southern and insular Portugal and in Brazil in some unstressed syllables, generally in relaxed speech, but this is by no means universal.
  2. 2.0 2.1 In most varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, /d, t/ are palatalized and affricated to post-alveolar before high front vowels /i, ĩ/, to the exception of certain dialects of Northeast of Brazil, such as central northeastern Portuguese /d, t/ are more often pronounced alveolar or dental mode before high front vowels (/i, ĩ/). Furthermore, the full palatalization of /d, t/ in all positions before /i, ĩ/ (including in most loanwords) is only truly completed in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
  3. Final /l/ is velarized in European Portuguese and along the Brazilian-Uruguayan border.
  4. /ʎ/ has merged with [j] in some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, specially the caipira one.
  5. 5.0 5.1 The rhotic consonant represented as /ʁ/ has considerable variation across different variants, being pronounced as [x], [h], [χ], [ɦ], [ʀ], [r] etc. See also Guttural R in Portuguese.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 The rhotic consonants /ɾ/ ⟨r⟩ and /ʁ/ ⟨rr⟩ contrast only between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ⟨r⟩, with /ʁ/ occurring word-initially, after ⟨l⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨s⟩ and in compounds; /ɾ/ is found elsewhere.
  7. 7.0 7.1 The realization of syllable-final ⟨r⟩ varies amongst dialects; it is generally pronounced as an alveolar tap [ɾ] in European Portuguese and some Brazilian dialects (e.g. Rio Grande do Sul state and São Paulo city), as a coronal approximant ([ɹ] or [ɻ]) in various other Brazilian dialects, and as a guttural R in all others (e.g. Rio de Janeiro city, the overwhelmingly majority from the Northeast). Additionally, in some Brazilian Portuguese dialects, word-final ⟨r⟩ may be weakened to complete elision in infinitives; e.g. ficar [fiˈka] (no ⟨r⟩ is pronounced but as a tap [ɾ] only if it is followed by a vowel sound in the same phrase or prosodic unit: ficar ao léu [fiˈkaɾ aw ˈlɛw]). This is very similar to the linking R used in some accents of English, e.g. Received Pronunciation or Australian English.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Mostly in Brazil, the fricatives /s/ and /z/ are not palatalized between syllables or coda positions, but there is a strong palatalization of them in some dialects, such as fluminense, northern, recifense, soteropolitan and florianopolitan (coda /s/ merges with /ʃ/ and /z/ merges with /ʒ/). In the carioca dialect (southern coast of Rio de Janeiro, including the whole metropolitan area), coda sibilants are almost always palatalized ([ʃ, ʒ]), while in most dialects of the northeast region of Brazil, palatalization of fricatives occurs only before stop or affricate consonants (/d, t, dʒ, tʃ/), such in as the word texto [ˈteʃtu].
  9. Intervocalic glides are ambisyllabic, they are part of previous falling diphthongs and they are geminated to next syllable onset. Examples of such pronunciations are goiaba [ɡojˈjabɐ] and Cauã for [kawˈwɐ̃].
  10. 10.0 10.1 Most Brazilian dialects have closed ⟨a⟩ for stressed sequences ⟨ai⟩ when it comes before /m/ and /n/. In many dialects it is also nasalized. Many speakers of those dialects, including broadcast media has open ⟨a⟩ for some words like Jaime and Roraima.
  11. First-person plural past tense in European Portuguese has open ⟨a⟩, and present tense has closed ⟨a⟩. Both conjugated with closed ⟨a⟩ in Brazilian Portuguese
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 The "northern dialects" (restricted to North and Northeast Brazil) do not follow the Standard Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation in terms of unstressed vocalism—the standard pronunciation of these vowels are always closed /e, o/, as in "perereca" [peɾeˈɾɛkɐ] and "horário" [oˈɾaɾju], but on those dialects, they are open vowels /ɛ, ɔ/, and the pronunciations of these words to change for [pɛɾɛˈɾɛkɐ] and [ɔˈɾaɾju]. This is also true to smaller degrees to most speakers from Rio de Janeiro and the Federal District, as local dialects are also very vocally harmonic, and to many speakers from Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Goiás and Espírito Santo. In many cases, the /ɛ, e/, /ɔ, o/ distinctions are not at all clear, neutralizing towards [e̞, o̞] (these are possible in almost the entirety of Brazil, in fact). Brazilian Portuguese /ẽ, õ/ might also vary between close-mid, mid and open-mid positions depending on the dialect, speaker and word.
  13. In the dialect of Lisbon, /e/ merges with /ɐ/ when it comes before palatal sounds (e.g. abelha, venho, jeito).
  14. There is no diphthong before palatal consonant, so hiatuses are not indicated before /ɲ/ (e.g. rainha /ʁaˈiɲɐ/).
  15. In Brazilian Portuguese, pre-stressed close ⟨a⟩ only is obligatory before /ɲ/, and has tendency to raise before other nasal consonant. In many dialects nasalization also is obligatory before /ɲ/, Wetzel proposes such nasalized dialects have phonemic palatal gemination (e.g. canhoto /kaɲˈɲotu/ [kɐ̃ˈɲotu]). See Consoantes palatais como geminadas fonológicas no Português Brasileiro*
  16. 16.0 16.1 In words such as "perigo" [pɪˈɾiɡu] and "boneco" [bʊˈnɛku], for example, vowels ⟨e, o⟩ pre-stressed syllables may be pronounced, respectively, as [ɪ, ʊ] in some varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, instead of [i, u].
  17. 17.0 17.1 Some of the post-stressed high vowels in hiatuses, as in frio ('cold') and rio ('river'), may vary between a reduced vowel [ˈfɾi.u] and a glide [ˈfɾiw], exceptions are verbal conjugations, forming pairs like eu rio [ˈew ˈʁi.u] (I laugh) and ele riu [ˈelɨ ˈʁiw] (he laughed).
  18. Nasal vowels in Portuguese are /ɐ̃/, /ẽ/, /ĩ/, /õ/ and /ũ/

External links