Portuguese orthography
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The orthography of Portuguese is based on the Latin alphabet, and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla, to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. Brazilian Portuguese also uses the diaeresis mark. Accented letters and digraphs are not counted as separate characters for collation purposes.
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[edit] Letters
Only the most frequent sounds are given below, since a listing of all cases and exceptions would be too cumbersome. Portuguese is a pluricentric language, and the pronunciation of some of the letters is different in European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Furthermore, several letters have different pronunciations according to their position in a word. Apart from these variations, the pronunciation of most consonants is fairly straightforward, and similar to French or Catalan pronunciation. Only the consonants r, s, x, z, the vowels, and the digraphs ch, lh, nh, rr may require special attention. In the following, the phrase "at the end of a syllable" can be understood as "before a consonant, or at the end of a word". For the letter r, "at the start of a syllable" means "at the beginning of a word, or after l, n, s".
| Letter | Default pronunciations | Other pronunciations |
|---|---|---|
| a | /a, ɐ, ɐ̃/ | |
| b | /b/ | |
| c | /k/ | /s/ before e or i |
| d | /d/ | [dʒ] before /i, ĩ/ (in BP only) |
| e | /e, ɛ, ẽ/ | /i, ɨ/ when unstressed |
| f | /f/ | |
| g | /g/ | /ʒ/ before e or i |
| h | silent; part of the digraphs ch, lh, nh | |
| i | /i, ĩ/ | [i̯] in diphthongs |
| j | /ʒ/ | |
| l | /l/ | [ɫ] (in EP) or [w] (in BP), at the end of a syllable |
| m | /m/ | silent, or voiceless, at the end of a syllable |
| n | /n/ | silent, or voiceless, before a consonant |
| o | /o, ɔ, õ/ | /u/ when unstressed |
| p | /p/ | |
| q | /k/ | |
| r | /ɾ/ except at the start of a syllable | /ʁ/ at the start or at the end of a syllable |
| s | /s/, but /z/ between vowels | /s/ or /ʃ/ before a voiceless consonant;
/z/ or /ʒ/ before a voiced consonant |
| t | /t/ | [tʃ] before /i, ĩ/ (in BP only) |
| u | /u, ũ/ | [u̯] in diphthongs |
| v | /v/ | |
| x | /ʃ/ before vowels;
/ks/ between vowels only (in loanwords) |
/s/ or /ʃ/ before a voiceless consonant;
/z/ or /ʒ/ before a voiced consonant |
| z | /z/ | /s/ or /ʃ/ before a voiceless consonant;
/z/ or /ʒ/ before a voiced consonant |
For the names of the letters, see Portuguese alphabet.
[edit] Notes on the vowels
- The letters i and u are pronounced as semivowels [i̯], [u̯] in diphthongs.
- The nasal vowels /ɐ̃ ẽ ĩ õ ũ/ occur mostly before m, n followed by a consonant, and in the word endings -im, -om, -um.
- The pronunciations /i, ɨ/ for e, and /u/ for o occur mostly in unstressed syllables.
- The vowels in the pairs /a, ɐ/, /e, ɛ/, /o, ɔ/ only contrast in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, each element of the pair occurs in complementary distribution with the other. Stressed /ɐ/ appears mostly before the nasal consonants m, n, nh, followed by a vowel, and stressed /a/ elsewhere, although they have a limited number of minimal pairs in EP.
- For more information on the pronunciation of the vowels, see Portuguese phonology: Vowels.
[edit] Notes on the consonants
- The voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ has various dialectal variants, of which the main are the alveolar trill [r] in Portugal and Africa, and the voiceless velar fricative [x] or the voiceless glottal fricative [h], in Brazil. See also Guttural R in Portuguese.
- The rhotic phonemes /ʁ/ and /ɾ/ only contrast between vowels. At the start of a syllable, only the former occurs, and elsewhere most dialects use the latter. However, several Brazilian dialects, including the dialect of Rio de Janeiro, use /ʁ/ at the end of syllables.
- Word final rhotics may be silent when the last syllables is stressed, in casual speech, especially in Brazil (states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro) and some African countries.
- At the end of syllables, the sibilants occur in complementary distribution. In most of Brazil, they are alveolar: /s/ is used before voiceless consonants or at the end of words, while /z/ is used before voiced consonants: e.g. isto /'istu/, turismo /tu'rizmu/. (This is like in English.) However, in most of Portugal, and in Rio de Janeiro and some northeastern states of Brazil, syllable-final sibilants are postalveolar: the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ is used before a voiceless consonant or at the end of a word, and the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ is used before a voiced consonant: isto /'iʃtu/, turismo /tu'riʒmu/.
- The traditional pronunciation of the letter x between vowels is /ʃ/, but in loan words from Latin or Greek it may be read in other ways: /ks/ (the most common), /z/ (in words that begin with ex- or hex- followed by a vowel, and in compounds made from such words), or /s/ (in a very small number of words, such as trouxe and próximo).
[edit] Diacritics and accented letters
Portuguese makes use of six diacritics.
The cedilla indicates that ç is pronounced /s/ (due to a historical palatalization). By convention, s is written instead of etymological ç at the beginning of words.
The acute accent and the circumflex accent indicate that a vowel is stressed, and also the quality of the accented vowel, more precisely its height: á, é, and ó are low vowels (except in the word endings -ém, -éns), while â, ê, and ô are high vowels. They also distinguish a few homographs: cf. para "for" with pára "it stops", por "by" with pôr "to put".
The tilde marks nasal vowels before other vowels, at the end of words, before final -s, and in some compounds, like romãzeira "pomegranate tree", from romã "pomegranate", and vãmente "vainly", from vã "vain". It usually coincides with the stressed vowel, unless there is an acute or circumflex accent elsewhere in the word, or if the word is compound, e.g. órgão "organ", irmã + zinha ("sister" + diminutive suffix) = irmãzinha "little sister".
The grave accent marks the contraction of two consecutive vowels in adjacent words (crasis), normally the preposition a and an article or a demonstrative pronoun: a + aquela = àquela "at that", a + a = à "at the", and so on. It does not indicate stress.
The trema indicates that the letter u is pronounced, exceptionally, in the graphemes gue, gui, que, qui; e.g. agüentar "to bear", freqüência "frequency", argüição "questioning", qüinqüelíngüe "in five languages" (conjectured to be the Portuguese word with most diacritics). It is only used in Brazil, and increasingly omitted (some newspapers and many people don't use it).
| Accented letter | Usual pronunciation |
|---|---|
| à | /a/ |
| á | /a/ |
| â | /ɐ, ɐ̃/ |
| ã | /ɐ̃/ |
| ç | /s/ |
| é | /ɛ/ |
| ê | /e, ẽ/ |
| í | /i, ĩ/ |
| ó | /ɔ/ |
| ô | /o, õ/ |
| õ | /õ/ |
| ú | /u, ũ/ |
| ü | /u/ |
The graphemes â, ê and ô typically represent oral vowels, but before m or n followed by another consonant they are nasalized. Elsewhere, nasal vowels are indicated with a tilde (ã, õ).
See further down the page, for the word final graphemes -ém, -êm, -éns.
[edit] Status of K, W, Y
The letter y was never used consistently in medieval Portuguese. During the Renaissance, some authors reintroduced it in words of Latin or Greek origin, for etymology, or as a semivowel in falling diphthongs, like in Spanish. The Portuguese spelling reform of 1911, and the later spelling convention signed between Portugal and Brazil in 1931, however, abolished etymological spellings and decreed that semivowel y should be written i, since it is an allophone of the vowel /i/.
The letters k and w were always uncommon in Portuguese spelling, although they appeared occasionally in some proper nouns. Nevertheless, the use of these three letters is allowed in hybrid words derived from foreign names, such as keynesiano and newtoniano, listed even in the most authoritative Portuguese dictionaries. They are sorted as in English.
[edit] Personal names
Family names are exempt from the above restrictions. Thus, a foreigner who emigrates to a Portuguese speaking country and whose family name has one of these letters does not have to change its spelling.
In Brazil, these letters are also widely accepted for given names, in all official records and documents. In fact, those three letters are quite popular in made-up first and middle names, such as Waldirci and Deyvide, or in the names of Japanese-Brazilians, such as Satiko and Yojiro. Family names have often retained their pre-1940 spellings — in particular, final y was retained in many names of native (chiefly Tupi-Guarani) origin, such as Guaracy.
However, the use of diacritics in personal names is generally restricted to the letter-diacritic combinations above, and often also by the applicable Portuguese spelling rules. So, for example, a Brazilian birth registrar may accept Niccoló, Schwartz, or Agüeiro; but he is likely to object to Niccolò, Nuñez, Molière, or Gödel, and possibly even to Çambel or Qadi.
Portugal is more restrictive than Brazil in what concerns given names. They must be either portuguese or adapted to the portuguese orthography and sound, and should also be easily discerned as either a masculine or feminine name by a portuguese speaker. There are lists of previously accepted names, and names not included therein must be subject to consultation of the national director of registries.[1]
[edit] Digraphs
| Digraph | Usual pronunciation |
|---|---|
| ch | /ʃ/ |
| gu | /g/ before e or i, /gu/ elsewhere |
| lh | /ʎ/ |
| nh | /ɲ/ |
| ou | /o/ |
| qu | /k/ before e or i, /ku/ elsewhere |
| rr | /ʁ ~ h ~ x ~ r/ |
| ss | /s/ |
The digraphs lh and nh, of Occitan origin, denote palatal consonants which do not exist in English, but can be approximated by li, ni in words such as million, onion, pronounced quickly.
In older Portuguese, ou represented the falling diphthong [ou̯], and it is still pronounced that way in some dialects, but most speakers nowadays reduce it to the close-mid back rounded vowel [o].
The digraphs rr and ss are only used between vowels.
Apart from the graphemes listed in this table, there are other sequences of letters which have special pronunciations at syllable or word boundaries, due to assimilation; see the notes about the pronunciation of consecutive sibilants, at Portuguese phonology: fricatives.
[edit] Graphemes with special values at the end of words
The following graphemes represent nasal diphthongs at the end of words, or before final -s. Some of the pronunciations have dialectal variants.
| Grapheme | Pronunciation | Context |
|---|---|---|
| -am | /ɐ̃ũ/ | word final |
| -em, -ém | /ẽĩ ~ ɐ̃ĩ/ | word final |
| -en-, -én- | /ẽĩ ~ ɐ̃ĩ/ | before final s (e.g. parabéns). |
| -êm | /'ẽĩẽĩ ~ 'ɐ̃ĩɐ̃ĩ ~ ẽĩ/ | word final |
All accented graphemes are stressed. Final -am, which appears in polysyllabic verbs, is always unstressed. The pronunciation given above for -en- is also found in a few compound words, such as bendito (bem + dito), homenzinho (homem + zinho), and Benfica.
[edit] Notes on spelling
As the presentation above shows, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters in Portuguese. In ambiguous cases, the correct spelling is determined through a combination of etymology with analogy and common tradition. The majority of the Portuguese lexicon is derived from Latin, Greek, or Arabic, so in principle this would require some knowledge of those languages. However, Greek words are latinized before being incorporated into the language, and many words of Latin or Greek origin have easily recognizable cognates in English and other western European languages which are spelled according to similar principles. For instance, glória, "glory", glorioso, "glorious", herança "inheritance", real "real/royal". Some general guidelines for spelling are given below:
- c/ç vs. s-/-ss-: The letters c (before e, i) and ç (before a, o, u) are usually derived from Latin c or t(i), or from s in non-European languages, such as Arabic and Amerindian languages. They correspond to Spanish z or c. The letter s (at the beginning of words, or between a consonant and a vowel) and the digraph ss (between vowels) correspond to Latin s or ss, and to Spanish s. At the beginning of words, however, s is written instead of etymological ç, by convention.
- e vs. i and o vs. u: The semivowel in an oral diphthong is spelled with i or u (ai, ei, oi, ui; au, eu, iu, ou). Nasal diphthongs are spelled with e or o at the end of words (-ãe, -ão, -õe).
- g vs. j: Etymological g changes into j before a, o, u, and verbs whose infinitive ends in -jar have j in all their inflections. Thus, viagem "voyage" (noun), but viajem "travel" (3rd. pers. plur. of the present subjunctive of the verb viajar).
- The letter h is silent; it appears only at the start of a word for etymology or tradition, in a few interjections, and as part of the digraphs ch, lh, nh.
- o vs. ou: The digraph ou (which in many words has the variant oi) normally corresponds to Latin and Arabic au or al, and more rarely to Latin ap, oc.
- x- vs. ch: The letter x is derived from Latin x or s, or from Arabic sh. The digraph ch (before vowels) derives from Latin cl, fl, pl or from French ch, and corresponds to Spanish ll or ch.
- z vs. -s-: The letter z corresponds to Latin c (+e, i) or t(i), to Greek or Arabic z, and to Spanish z/c. Intervocalic s corresponds to Latin and Spanish s.
- -s vs. -x vs. -z: At the end of syllables, s is the most common spelling for all sibilants. The letter x appears, preceded by e and followed by one of the voiceless consonants c, p, s, t, in some words derived from Latin or Greek. The letter z occurs only at the end of oxytone words and in compounds derived from them, corresponding to Latin c (+e, i) or to Arabic z.
[edit] Other symbols
[edit] Apostrophe
The apostrophe (') appears as part of certain phrases, usually to indicate the loss of a vowel in the contraction of a preposition with the word that follows it: de + amigo = d'amigo. It is used almost exclusively in poetry.
[edit] Hyphen
The hyphen (-) is used to make compound words, especially animal names like papagaio-de-rabo-vermelho "red-tailed parrot". It is also extensively used to append clitic pronouns to the verb, as in quero-o "I want it" (enclisis), or even to embed them within the verb, as in levaria + te + os = levar-tos-ia "I would take them to you" (mesoclisis). Proclitic pronouns are not connected graphically to the verb: não o quero "I do not want it".
[edit] Hyphenation
Portuguese hyphenation rules require a syllable break between double letters cc, cç, mm, nn, rr, ss, or other combinations of letters which may be pronounced as a single sound, e.g. fric-ci-o-nar, pro-ces-so, car-ro, ex-ce(p)-to, ex-su-dar. Only the digraphs ch, lh, nh, gu, qu, and ou are indivisible. All digraphs are however broken down into their constituent letters for the purposes of collation, aloud spelling, and in crossword puzzles.
[edit] Stress and accentuation
Below are the general rules for the use of the acute accent and the circumflex in Portuguese. Primary stress may fall on any of the three final syllables of a word, but occurs mainly on the last two. A word is called oxytone if it is stressed on its last syllable, paroxytone if stress falls on the syllable before the last (the penult), and proparoxytone if stress falls on the third syllable from the end (the antepenult). Most words are stressed on the penult.
[edit] Monosyllables
Monosyllables are typically not accented, but those that end in -a, -as, -e, -es, -o, -os, or -em may require an accent mark.
- Monosyllables ending in -o or -os are not accented if the final o is pronounced /u/ (as in English "do"). Otherwise, they are accented.
- Monosyllables ending in -e or -es are not accented if the final e is pronounced /i/ (as in English "be") or /ɨ/ (approximately as in English "roses"). Otherwise, they are accented.
- The following clitic articles, pronouns, prepositions, or contractions are not accented: a, as, da, das, la, las, lha, lhas, ma, mas, na, nas, ta, tas. Note that most of these words have a masculine equivalent ending in -o(s), which is also not accented: o(s), do(s), lo(s), lho(s), mo(s), no(s), to(s). All other monosyllabic words that end in -a or -as take an acute accent on the final a, except for the contractions of the preposition a with the articles a, as, which take the grave accent, à, às.
- The third-person plural forms of the verbs ter and vir, têm and vêm, are accented to be distinguished from the third-person singular of the same verbs, tem, vem. Other monosyllables ending in -em are not accented.
- The verb pôr is accented, to be distinguished from the preposition por.
[edit] Polysyllables
The accentuation of words with two or more syllables is usually determined by their ending:
- Most words ending in -i, -u, -is, -us (a high vowel, in strict sense), -ã, -im, -om, -um, -ãs, -ins, -ons, -uns (a simple nasal vowel), -ãe, -ão, -õe, -ães, -ãos, -ões (some nasal diphthongs), or a consonant other than -s or -m, are stressed on their last syllable. Therefore, words with these endings only require a graphic accent if they are stressed on the penult or the antepenult.
- Most other polysyllabic words ending in -a, -e, -o, -as, -es, -os, -am, -em, -ens are stressed on the penult. Words with these endings only require a graphic accent if they are stressed on their last syllable, or on the antepenult. The endings -em and -ens take the acute accent when stressed (contém, convéns), except in 3rd. person plural forms of verbs derived from ter and vir, which take the circumflex (contêm, convêm).
- All words stressed on the antepenult are accented.
- Hiatuses whose second vowel is stressed i or u take an acute mark, so that they will not be pronounced as diphthongs. However, the syllable of the stressed vowel must be -i-, -u-, -is- or -us-. If there is another consonant after the vowel which is not s, there is no need to use the acute accent. E.g., raiz is pronounced ra-iz since it ends with a z not with an s. In contrast the plural form raízes needs an acute accent to avoid the pronunciation rai-zes, since in this case the i is in a syllable by itself (the word is hyphenated as ra-í-zes).
- The stressed diphthongs ei, eu, oi take an acute accent on the first vowel whenever it is low.
Aside from these cases, there are a few more words that take an accent, usually to disambiguate frequent homographs such as pode (present tense of the verb poder) and pôde (past tense of the same verb), or para (preposition) and pára (verb).
Note that the rules for dividing words into syllables in Portuguese are the same as those of Catalan, but different from those of Spanish. For accentuation purposes, consecutive vowels are treated as hiatuses, even though they may be pronounced as rising diphthongs in practice. For example, the words Inácio and Amazônia are split as I-ná-ci-o and A-ma-zô-ni-a, even though their last syllables are often pronounced [si̯u] and [ni̯ɐ], respectively. Thus, these words are counted as proparoxytones, and must be accented. In Spanish, by contrast, the words Ignacio and Amazonia are regarded as paroxytones, I-gna-cio and A-ma-zo-nia, and do not require an accent mark.
[edit] Brazilian vs. European spelling
| Portugal & Africa | Brazil | translation |
|---|---|---|
| Different pronunciation | ||
| anónimo | anônimo | anonymous |
| Vénus | Vênus | Venus |
| facto | fato | fact |
| ideia | idéia | idea |
| Silent consonants | ||
| acção | ação | action |
| direcção | direção | direction |
| eléctrico | elétrico | electric |
| óptimo | ótimo | very good |
| Diacritics | ||
| frequente | freqüente | frequent |
| voo | vôo | flight |
- Related article: Spelling reforms of Portuguese
As of 2005, Portuguese has two orthographic standards:
- The Brazilian orthography, official in Brazil.
- The European orthography, official in Portugal, Macau, and the five African Portuguese language countries.
In East Timor, both orthographies are currently being taught in schools.
The table to the right illustrates typical differences between the two orthographies. Some are due to different pronunciations, but others are merely graphic. The main ones are:
- Presence or absence of certain consonants: The letters c and p appear in some words before c, ç or t in one orthography, but are absent from the other. Normally, the letter is written down in the European spelling, but not in the Brazilian spelling. In most cases, it is not pronounced in any variety of the language.
- Different use of diacritics: the Brazilian spelling has a, ê or ô followed by m or n before a vowel, in several words where the European orthography has á, é or ó, due to different pronunciation. The diaeresis mark is used in Brazilian spelling to indicate that the letter u is pronounced rather than silent in the digraphs gü and qü when they are followed by e or i; the European spelling no longer uses it. The Brazilian orthography distinguishes between stressed éi and stressed ei, which are pronounced differently in Brazilian Portuguese; in European Portuguese, both diphthongs are pronounced the same way, and éi appears only in some oxytone plural nouns and adjectives, by convention.
[edit] References
- Bergström, Magnus & Reis, Neves Prontuário Ortográfico Editorial Notícias, 2004.
- Estrela, Edite A questão ortográfica — Reforma e acordos da língua portuguesa (1993) Editorial Notícias
- Full text of the Pequeno Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa (Abridged Ortographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language) published by the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1943.
- Text of the decree of the Brazilian government, in 1971, amending the ortography adopted in 1943 (no updated version of the PVOLP was published).
- IILP — Orthographic Agreement of 1990 (PDF - in Portuguese)
- Rules concerning personal names in Portugal (in Portuguese)
[edit] See also
- Portuguese phonology
- Spelling reforms of Portuguese
- Portuguese dialects
- Portuguese surnames
- Academia Brasileira de Letras
- Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
[edit] External links
- Omniglot's page on Portuguese Includes a recording with the names of the letters of the alphabet, and all phonemes (Brazilian Portuguese).
- The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal
