Help:IPA/Portuguese

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Portuguese on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Portuguese in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Shortcuts

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 Template:IPA 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 in 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.

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

Consonants
IPA		Examples	English approximation
EP	BP	Examples	English approximation
b	b	beiço, âmbar, sob	about
β	b	cabeça, sobre^[1]	EP: between baby and bevy BP: about
ð	d	cedo, idade^[1]	EP: other BP: today
d	d	dedo, lenda	today
d	dʒ	digo, advérbio, balde^[2]	EP: today BP: jig
f		fado, café	face
ɡ	ɡ	gato, signo, bingo, guerra	again
ɣ	ɡ	fogo, figueira^[1]	EP: between ago and ahold BP: again
k		cor, dica, quente, kiwi	scan
l	l	lua, alô	toll
l	w	mal^[3]	EP: toll BP: tow
ʎ		lhe, velho	million
m		mês, somo	might
n		não, sono	not
ɲ		nhoque, sonho	canyon
p		pó, sopa, apto	spouse
ʁ	ʁ	rio, carro, enrascado^[4]^[5]	French rouge
ɾ	ʁ	pôr, porto, por favor^[4]^[5]	EP: atom (GA) BP: French rouge
ɾ	ɾ	frio, caro, por acaso^[4]^[5]	atom (GA)
s	s	saco, isso, braço, máximo	sack
ʃ	s	escola, as portas, dez, texto^[6]	EP: sheep BP: sack
ʃ	ʃ	chave, achar, xarope, baixo, sushi	sheep
tʃ	tʃ	tchau, atchim	chip
t	tʃ	tipo, ritmo, ponte^[2]	EP: stand BP: chip
t	t	tempo, átomo	stand
v		vela, livro	vest
ʒ	ʒ	já, gente	pleasure
ʒ	z	rasgo, os meus^[6]	EP: pleasure BP: zebra
z	z	casa, os amigos, doze, existir	zebra

Semivowels^[7]
IPA		Examples	English approximation
EP	BP	Examples	English approximation
j		saia, pais, yeti, yoga	you
w		frequente, quão, mau, Cauã, western	want

Stressed vowels
IPA		Examples	English approximation
EP	BP	Examples	English approximation
a	a	alzheimer, Jaime,^[8] dá, lámen	father
a	ɐ	falámos, falamos,^[9] andaime^[8]	EP: father BP: strut
ɐ	ɐ	falamos, câmera, bug	strut
ɐ	e	abelha, venho, jeito^[10]	EP: strut BP: case (Scottish)
e		meto, sê	case (Scottish)
ɛ		prémio (EP), prêmio (BP)	EP: set BP: case (Scottish)
ɛ	ɛ	meta, sé, Émerson, cafezinho	set
i		si, dia, país, suíço, rainha,^[11] diesel	seat
ɔ	ɔ	formosa, formosos, avó, somente	off
ɔ	o	António (EP), Antônio (BP)	EP: off BP: story
o	o	avô, formoso, alô	story
o	ow	Sousa^[12]	EP: story BP: goal
u		rua, lúcido, saúde	cool
Unstressed vowels
ɐ	ɐ	taça, manhã^[13]	about
ɐ	a	maior, aquele, da	EP: about BP: grandma
a	a	Camões, caveira	grandma
ɛ	e	incrível, segmento	EP: access BP: case (Scottish)
ɨ	e	semáforo^[14]	EP: emission BP: case (Scottish)
ɨ	i	jure, pequeno, se^[14]	EP: emission BP: seat
i	i	júri, meandro, e, doe^[15]	seat
o	ow	Gouveia^[12]	story
ɔ	o	hospital	EP: royale BP: story
u	o	sortudo	EP: outlook BP: story
u	u	evacuar, boneco, vi-o, voo, frio^[15], os	outlook

Suprasegmentals
Stress and syllabification
IPA		Examples	Explanation
EP	BP	Examples	Explanation
ˈ		João [ʒuˈɐ̃w]	lexical stress
ˌ		Vila-Chã [ˌvilɐˈʃɐ̃]	secondary stress
.		Rio [ˈʁi.u]	syllable break
Diacritics
◌̃		Chã [ˈʃɐ̃]^[16]	nasal vowel

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c 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, a nasal vowel, or (for /d/) /l/, when they are stops [b, d, ɡ], not dissimilar from English b, d, g (Mateus & d'Andrade 2000:11).
^ ^a ^b In most varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, /d, t/ are affricated to [dʒ, tʃ] before the close front vowels /i, ĩ/.
^ Final /l/ is vocalized to [w] in Standard Brazilian Portuguese.
^ ^a ^b ^c The fricative /ʁ/ has a considerable variation in Brazil, often being a voiceless velar [x] or glottal fricative [h], or the voiced variants [ɣ ~ ɦ] in standard speech. Uvular variants such as [χ] and [ʁ] that are typical of Portugal also occur in Brazil. See also Guttural R in Portuguese.
^ ^a ^b ^c The rhotic consonants /ɾ/ ⟨r⟩ and /ʁ/ ⟨rr⟩ contrast only between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution, with /ʁ/ occurring word-initially, after ⟨l⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨s⟩ and in compounds; /ɾ/ is found elsewhere. In the word-final position, they are neutralized in favor of /ɾ/ in Portugal and some Brazilian dialects and in favor of /ʁ/ in most Brazilian dialects (which is how it is transcribed in this guide).
^ ^a ^b The four coronal fricatives /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/ are neutralized at the end of a syllable. They are voiced before a voiced consonant or a vowel and voiceless elsewhere. In Standard European Portuguese, they are postalveolar [ʃ, ʒ] before consonants and only [ʃ] before pauses; before vowels, only the voiced alveolar [z] appears. In Brazilian Portuguese, the typical pronunciation in all positions is alveolar [s, z], but in some dialects they are postalveolar as in Portugal.
^ 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].
^ ^a ^b Most Brazilian dialects have the close /ɐ/ in the stressed diphthong spelled ⟨ai⟩ before /m/ and /n/. In many dialects it is also nasalized. Many speakers of those dialects, including broadcast media, use the open /a/ for some words like Jaime and Roraima.
^ First-person plural past tense in European Portuguese has the open /a/, and present tense has the close /ɐ/. Both conjugated with the close /ɐ/ in Brazilian Portuguese
^ In Standard Lisbon Portuguese, /e/ merges with /ɐ/ when it comes before palatal sounds.
^ There are no diphthongs before palatal consonants, so hiatuses are not indicated before /ɲ/ (e.g. rainha /ʁaˈiɲɐ/).
^ ^a ^b The [ow] diphthong does not exist in Standard Lisbon Portuguese, having been monophthongized to [o] (see Cruz-Ferreira 1999:128, 130).
^ In Brazilian Portuguese, pre-stressed [ɐ] is obligatory only before /ɲ/ and has a tendency to be raised before other nasal consonants. In many dialects, nasalization is obligatory also before /ɲ/.
^ ^a ^b /ɨ/ is often deleted in European Portuguese.
^ ^a ^b 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).
^ Nasal vowels in Portuguese are /ɐ̃/, /ẽ/, /ĩ/, /õ/ and /ũ/

References

Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1999). "Portuguese (European)". In International Phonetic Association (ed.). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 126–130. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000). The Phonology of Portuguese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-823581-X.

External link

Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa com Acordo Ortográfico. An on-line dictionary with IPA phonetic transcription. (in Portuguese)
Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa anterior ao Acordo Ortográfico de 1990. An online dictionary of European Portuguese that corresponds to the Orthography used before the Orthographic Agreement of 1990.

[Lenition-1] 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, a nasal vowel, or (for /d/) /l/, when they are stops [b, d, ɡ], not dissimilar from English b, d, g (Mateus & d'Andrade 2000:11).

[affrication-2] In most varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, /d, t/ are affricated to [dʒ, tʃ] before the close front vowels /i, ĩ/.

[l-3] Final /l/ is vocalized to [w] in Standard Brazilian Portuguese.

[guttural_r-4] The fricative /ʁ/ has a considerable variation in Brazil, often being a voiceless velar [x] or glottal fricative [h], or the voiced variants [ɣ ~ ɦ] in standard speech. Uvular variants such as [χ] and [ʁ] that are typical of Portugal also occur in Brazil. See also Guttural R in Portuguese.

[rhotics-5] The rhotic consonants /ɾ/ ⟨r⟩ and /ʁ/ ⟨rr⟩ contrast only between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution, with /ʁ/ occurring word-initially, after ⟨l⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨s⟩ and in compounds; /ɾ/ is found elsewhere. In the word-final position, they are neutralized in favor of /ɾ/ in Portugal and some Brazilian dialects and in favor of /ʁ/ in most Brazilian dialects (which is how it is transcribed in this guide).

[palatalization_of_fricatives-6] The four coronal fricatives /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/ are neutralized at the end of a syllable. They are voiced before a voiced consonant or a vowel and voiceless elsewhere. In Standard European Portuguese, they are postalveolar [ʃ, ʒ] before consonants and only [ʃ] before pauses; before vowels, only the voiced alveolar [z] appears. In Brazilian Portuguese, the typical pronunciation in all positions is alveolar [s, z], but in some dialects they are postalveolar as in Portugal.

[7] 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].

[closed_ai-8] Most Brazilian dialects have the close /ɐ/ in the stressed diphthong spelled ⟨ai⟩ before /m/ and /n/. In many dialects it is also nasalized. Many speakers of those dialects, including broadcast media, use the open /a/ for some words like Jaime and Roraima.

[9] First-person plural past tense in European Portuguese has the open /a/, and present tense has the close /ɐ/. Both conjugated with the close /ɐ/ in Brazilian Portuguese

[10] In Standard Lisbon Portuguese, /e/ merges with /ɐ/ when it comes before palatal sounds.

[11] There are no diphthongs before palatal consonants, so hiatuses are not indicated before /ɲ/ (e.g. rainha /ʁaˈiɲɐ/).

[ow-12] The [ow] diphthong does not exist in Standard Lisbon Portuguese, having been monophthongized to [o] (see Cruz-Ferreira 1999:128, 130).

[13] In Brazilian Portuguese, pre-stressed [ɐ] is obligatory only before /ɲ/ and has a tendency to be raised before other nasal consonants. In many dialects, nasalization is obligatory also before /ɲ/.

[highschwa-14] /ɨ/ is often deleted in European Portuguese.

[unstressed_hiatus-15] 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).

[16] Nasal vowels in Portuguese are /ɐ̃/, /ẽ/, /ĩ/, /õ/ and /ũ/

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

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See also

Notes

References

External link