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
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, advérbio, 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 toll
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 r, porto, por favor[4][5] EP: atom (GA)
BP: French rouge
ɾ frio, caro, por acaso[4][5] atom (GA)
s s saco, isso, braço, máximo sack
ʃ escola, as portas, dez, texto[6] 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, wolfeíta vest
ʒ ʒ já, gente pleasure
z rasgo, os meus[6] EP: pleasure
BP: zebra
z casa, os amigos, doze, existir zebra
 
Semivowels[7]
IPA Examples English approximation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
j saia, pais, yeti, yoga you
w frequente, quão, mau, Cauã, western want
Stressed vowels
IPA Examples English approximation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
a a alzheimer, Jaime,[8] dá, lámen father
ɐ falámos, falamos,[9] andaime[8] EP: father
BP: strut
ɐ falamos, câmera, bug strut
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 meta, sé, Émerson, cafezinho set
i si, dia, país, suíço, rainha,[11] diesel seat
ɔ ɔ formosa, formosos, avó, somente off
o António (EP), Antônio (BP) EP: off
BP: story
o avô, formoso, alô story
ow Sousa[12] EP: story
BP: goal
u rua, lúcido, saúde cool
Unstressed vowels
ɐ ɐ taça, manhã[13] about
a maior, aquele, da EP: about
BP: grandma
a Camões, caveira grandma
ɛ e incrível, segmento EP: access
BP: case (Scottish)
ɨ semáforo[14] EP: emission
BP: case (Scottish)
i jure, pequeno, se[14] EP: emission
BP: seat
i dypingita, júri, meandro, e, doe[15] seat
o ow Gouveia[12] story
ɔ o hospital EP: royale
BP: story
u sortudo EP: outlook
BP: story
u evacuar, boneco, vi-o, voo, frio[15], os outlook
 
Suprasegmentals
Stress and syllabification
IPA Examples Explanation
Portugal
EP
Brazil
BP
ˈ João [ʒuˈɐ̃w] lexical stress
ˌ Vila-Chã [ˌvilɐˈʃɐ̃] secondary stress
. Rio [ˈʁi.u] syllable break
Diacritics
◌̃ Chã [ˈʃɐ̃][16] nasal vowel

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ 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).
  2. ^ a b In most varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, /d, t/ are affricated to [, ] before the close front vowels /i, ĩ/.
  3. ^ Final /l/ is vocalized to [w] in Standard Brazilian Portuguese.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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).
  6. ^ 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.
  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].
  8. ^ 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.
  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/).
  12. ^ a b 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/.
  14. ^ a b /ɨ/ is often deleted in European Portuguese.
  15. ^ 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).
  16. ^ Nasal vowels in Portuguese are /ɐ̃/, /ẽ/, /ĩ/, /õ/ and /ũ/

References

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  • 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.
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