Template:pt-IPA/documentation

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Documentation for Template:pt-IPA. [edit]
This page contains usage information, categories, interwiki links and other content describing the template.

Introduction

Usage:

===Pronunciation===
{{pt-IPA}}

or:

===Pronunciation===
{{pt-IPA|fiksar}}

In cases when the template is not capable of generating the correct pronunciation, you can explicitly state the dialects:

===Pronunciation===
{{pt-IPA|br=abecedáryo|pt=àbssdário}}

The module can accommodate multiple pronunciations for a given dialect:

===Pronunciation===
{{pt-IPA|br=+|pt=àmém,àmén}}

Special features

Introduction

The general principle behind this module is to allow a single respelling to be used as much as possible for both Portugal and Brazil, despite the dramatic differences in pronunciation between the two dialects. To support this, various symbols are defined that have an effect in only one of the two dialects.

For example, unstressed a e o in Portugal are normally pronounced as reduced vowels /ɐ ɨ u/, but sometimes as open vowels /a ɛ ɔ/, and sometimes (less frequently) as close vowels /ɐ e o/. The corresponding words in Brazil are usually pronounced with full vowels /a e o/ regardless of the particular quality in Portugal. To support this, unmarked symbols a e o request the default unstressed pronunciation (usually reduced), while we provide special symbols à è ò to indicate unstressed open vowels in Portugal and special symbols ā ē ō to indicate unstressed close vowels in Portugal. All three sets of symbols map to the same pronunciation in Brazil.

Conversely, in Brazil there are frequently multiple ways of pronouncing unstressed vowels /e i o u/ in hiatus (i.e. directly before another vowel), where a single word often admits multiple pronunciations, while in Portugal these are fairly consistently pronounced as glides /j w/. We provide various symbols to support the variation in Brazil, which all map to glides in Portugal.

Various specific situations are described in more detail below.

Indicating vowel quality

  • Acute accent á é í ó ú indicates stressed vowels, and in addition, in combination with non-high vowels á é ó indicates an open quality /a ɛ ɔ/.
  • Circumflex accent â ê ô indicates stressed close vowels /ɐ e o/.
  • Grave accent à è ò indicates unstressed open vowels /a ɛ ɔ/ in Portugal but has no effect in Brazil.
  • Dot-under ạ ẹ ọ indicates unstressed open vowels /a ɛ ɔ/ in both Portugal and Brazil (e.g. in fofoca, forrobodó respelled fọfóca, fọrrọbọdó).
  • Macron ā ē ō indicates unstressed close vowels /ɐ e o/ in Portugal but has no effect in Brazil. Note that ā is rarely necessary, but is useful in cases like saudade respelled sāudade.
  • Dot-under + circumflex ậ ệ ộ indicates unstressed close vowels /ɐ e o/ in both Brazil and Portugal; however, this should rarely be necessary, as unstressed /e o/ are the default in Brazil.

In most circumstances, vowel quality must be indicated on any stressed e or o; if not, an error will be thrown. The following are the exceptions where this is not necessary:

  1. When followed by a nasal consonant (m n nh), regardless of whether this nasal consonant is in turn followed by a vowel. In this case, the vowel quality defaults to close. For example, lenha, mente and bom respelled as-is are interpreted as if respelled lênha, mênte and bôm.
  2. In a diphthong ei eu oi ou. These are as if respelled êi êu ôi ôu, in keeping with their most common interpretation.
  3. For o specifically, if it is directly followed by another vowel, in which case it defaults to close. For example, boa and voo respelled as-is are interpreted as if respelled bôa and vôo.
  4. In the common suffixes -dor, -tor, -sor and their corresponding feminine and plural forms, where the o defaults to close.
  5. In the common suffix -oso, where the o defaults to close. The corresponding feminine and plural suffixes -osa, -osos and -osas are also handled automatically, but in these cases the o defaults to open, as the suffix is metaphonic.

Stressed a defaults to open /a/ unless directly followed by a nasal consonant (m, n or nh), in which case it defaults to close /ɐ/, as in cama.

Nasalization

  • Tilde ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ can be used to indicate a nasalized vowel, as in standard Portuguese spelling. Some properties of nasalized vowels:
    • Nasalized vowels are pronounced close (as if written with a circumflex accent) unless specifically indicated as open using ã́ ẽ́ ṍ.
    • Nasal diphthongs ãe ão õe ũi have special handling, as in standard Portuguese spelling.
    • Nasalized vowels written with a tilde are normally stressed, but an explicit acute or circumflex accent elsewhere takes precedence (as in bênção, or respellings such as Bãejamím for one possible Portugal pronunciation of Benjamim).
    • As with standard Portuguese spelling, nasalized vowels can also be indicated using m or n followed by a consonant, or m at the end of a word. In Brazil, n at the end of a word also indicates nasalization, but it indicates /n/ in Portugal without nasalization of the preceding vowel. Use mm in respelling to indicate coda /m/, and nn to indicate coda /n/.

Stress assignment

The following should be noted (all of which is consistent with standard Portuguese spelling rules):

  • Primary stress on a word can be indicated by placing an acute accent or circumflex on the stressed vowel. The choice of accent indicates the quality of the vowel in the case of a e o, while an acute accent should always be used on i u. See above for the specifics of vowel quality.
  • Nasal vowels indicated with a tilde (see above) bear primary stress in the absence of an acute or circumflex accent elsewhere in the word. In the case of multiple tildes in a single word (e.g. pãozão, aviãozão), the last vowel with tilde bears the primary stress.
  • In the absence of any acute accent, circumflex or tilde, the standard stress assignment rules apply. Approximately speaking, the following final syllables are unstressed: -a -e -o -as -es -os -am -em -ans -ens. If a word ends in any of these sequences, the second-to-last syllable bears primary stress; otherwise the last syllable bears primary stress.
  • Epenthetic syllables in Brazil involving /i/ spelled using i^, i^^ or i*, such as in digno (worthy) respelled dighi^no and punk (punk) respelled panki^, do not affect stress assignment. Effectively, the stress assignment algorithm behaves as if the syllables are not present.

In addition, the following special rules apply:

  • If there are multiple primary stresses indicated, all but the last are converted to secondary stress. This is the standard way of notating secondary stress in a word; in particular, a grave accent does not indicate secondary stress (see above).
  • In the rare circumstance where the above rule does not suffice for secondary stress (e.g. if the secondary stress comes after the primary stress), use line-under to explicitly indicate secondary stress: a̱ e̱ i̱ o̱ u̱. The quality of a e o marked in this fashion is open /a ɛ ɔ/. To indicate close /ɐ e o/, use â̱ ê̱ ô̱.
  • There is special handling of the suffixes -mente, -zinho(s) and -zinha(s). Essentially, these endings automatically have a -- inserted before them (see below for the exact meaning of this separator). This means that both the suffix and the preceding component get primary stresses assigned, and that an explicit primary stress on the preceding component does not indicate primary stress on the entire word, but only on that portion (which is eventually converted to secondary stress by the rule above about multiple primary stresses). This means, for example, that the respelling fácilmente for facilmente does not indicate primary stress on the a, but rather secondary stress, with primary stress on the first e in -mente. Similarly, a respelling like abertamente for abertamente will throw an error, as the first e bears stress but does not have its quality indicated; a respelling like abértamente must be used. To defeat this behavior, add an explicit accent on the suffix. For example, dormente should be respelled dormênte, and vizinho should be respelled vizínho.

Symbols indicating other Brazil-Portugal differences (vowel raising, glides, epenthesis)

  • The symbol i* indicates an epenthetic unstressed /i/ in Brazil (and has no effect on determination of the stressed vowel) but no vowel in Portugal.
  • The symbol i^ not preceding or following a vowel indicates either an epenthetic unstressed /i/ in Brazil or no vowel (but still causes palatalization of /t/ and /d/) and indicates no vowel in Portugal.
  • The symbol i^ preceding or following a vowel indicates either an unstressed /i/ in hiatus or a /j/ in Brazil and is the same as i in Portugal. Note that the behavior of i^ preceding a vowel is actually the default currently for handling i in hiatus in Brazil. Using i^ following a vowel is principally useful in the sequence ui^. This maps to either u.i or uy in Brazil but to ui in Portugal (which ends up pronounced /wi/). This gives the correct pronunciation for words like distribuição.
  • The symbol i^^ is like i^ (in both meanings) but with the two possibilities listed in the opposite order.
  • The symbol u^ indicates either an unstressed /u/ in hiatus or a /w/ in Brazil and is the same as u in Portugal.
  • The symbol u^^ is like u^ but with the two possibilities listed in the opposite order.
  • The symbol e^ indicates either an unstressed e or i in Brazil and is the same as e in Portugal.
  • The symbol e^^ is like e^ but with the two possibilities listed in the opposite order.
  • The symbol o^ indicates either an unstressed o or u in Brazil and is the same as o in Portugal.
  • The symbol o^^ is like o^ but with the two possibilities listed in the opposite order.
  • The symbol des^ at the beginning of a word or component indicates either des++ or dis++ in Brazil and is the same des in Portugal.
  • The symbol des^^ is like des^ but with the two possibilities listed in the opposite order.
  • The symbol ê* is like ê in Brazil but é in Portugal. This is useful especially before nasal consonants, e.g. gene (gene) respelled gê*ne.
  • The symbol é* is like é in Brazil but ê in Portugal. This is useful especially in the diphthong ei, e.g. geleia (jelly, jam) respelled gelé*ia.
  • The symbol ô* is like ô in Brazil but ó in Portugal. This is useful especially before nasal consonants, e.g. carbono (carbon) respelled carbô*no.
  • The symbol ó* is like ó in Brazil but ô in Portugal. This is useful especially in the diphthong oi, e.g. apoio (I support) respelled apó*io.

Some mnemonics to help you remember these codes:

  1. ^ indicates that there are two possible outputs in Brazil, the first of which is generally the same as the vowel directly preceding. For example, the first possible output for i^ and u^ in hiatus is /i/ and /u/ respectively. Similarly, the first possible output for e^ and o^ is /e/ and /o/ respectively.
  2. ^^ is the same as ^ but the two outputs are given in opposite order.
  3. * indicates a single output in Brazil that differs from the corresponding Portugal output, where the Brazil output is always the vowel exactly as written. Hence, i* means /i/ in Brazil (and nothing in Portugal). Similarly, ê* ô* é* ó* mean exactly those vowels in Brazil, but the "height-opposite" vowels in Portugal.

Multiple components of a word

  • Use - to treat several components of a word as separate words. Each component is normally assigned its own stress (although all but the last stress will be converted to a secondary stress, consistent with handling of multiple word stresses elsewhere), and letters at component boundaries are treated as if at word boundaries. This follows standard Portuguese spelling practices; compare arco-íris, batata-da-terra, etc.
  • -- is similar to - but a few word-final transformations do not apply to the component preceding the --; for example, in Brazil, written a in this position is /a/ not /ɐ/, and optional /(j)/ insertion after a stressed vowel and before /s/ does not apply. This is intended for suffixes like -mente, -zinho/-zinha, -zão, etc., which require this behavior. Note that -mente, -zinho(s) and -zinha(s) automatically add -- before them; but you will need to manually add it in words like cafezeiro (respelled café--zeiro), boazona (respelled boa--zona), etc.
  • : is somewhat like - and --, but final -o and -e in the preceding component are not raised to /u/ and /i/ respectively in Brazil, as they are with - and --. This is useful especially for prefixes with secondary stress, e.g. eletrodoméstico respelled elétrò:doméstico; idiossincrasia respelled ídiò:sincrasia; antiferromagnético respelled ânti:férrò:màghi^nético. Note that in words like these, the final -o of the prefix is frequently pronounced /ɔ/ in Portugal and requires ò for this reason.
  • + can be used before suffixes like -inho and -íssimo, and behaves like : but with the following differences: (1) sress on the component preceding + is undisplayed rather than being converted into secondary stress; (2) syllabification is transparent to +. Hence e.g. rapazinho can be respelled rapaz+inho, and vozinha can be respelled vóz+inha, and the correct pronunciation will be generated.
  • ++ is like + but no stress assignment happens at all to the component preceding it. It is intended for unstressed prefixes such as des-; letters at the beginning of the following component will be treated as word-initial. In fact, the special notation des^ uses ++ internally.

Other symbols

  • + stands for the pagename (see example above).
  • # indicates an optional hiatus in both Portugal and Brazil, as in diabetes (diabetes) respelled di#abétes. In this example, this respelling is equivalent to writing di.abétes,dyabétes for both Portugal and Brazil. (This differs from the symbol combinations written above using ^ and ^^, which apply only to Brazil.)
  • Use . to indicate an explicit syllable division, particularly between vowels, as in enraizar (to take root) respelled enra.izar. Under normal circumstances, do not use this to override the default syllabification algorithm; instead, contact User:Benwing2 to suggest changes to that algorithm.
  • ü after g and q before a front vowel (e i y) indicates that the u should be pronounced as /w/ rather than being silent, as in linguista (linguist) respelled lingüistaand frequência (frequency) respelled freqüência.
  • Use , to separate multiple possible pronunciations. Note, however, that this is only recognized if no space follows the comma; otherwise, the comma is considered to be embedded in the respelling and is treated as a foot boundary, as in rei morto, rei posto (the king is dead, long live the king).

Inline modifiers

You can attach inline modifiers to a given pronunciation using the format RESPELLING<MOD:TEXT><MOD:TEXT>.... For example, to attach a qualifier colloquial to a given pronunciation, use a syntax as follows (for pizza):

{{pt-IPA|br=pitsa,pítissa<q:colloquial>|pt=piza,pitsa}}

which generates

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈpit.sɐ/, (colloquial) /ˈpi.t͡ʃi.sɐ/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈpit.sa/, (colloquial) /ˈpi.t͡ʃi.sa/

Note how the Brazil pronunciation with respelling pítissa is tagged as colloquial. Currently the following inline modifiers are recognized:

Modifier Meaning
q: Qualifier placed before the pronunciation it is attached to.
ref: Reference placed after the pronunciation it is attached to. If you use this, make sure to place a ===References=== section near the bottom, whose contents use <references />. The syntax is as described for the |refN= argument to {{IPA}} and {{it-IPA}}. In general, specify the text of the reference directly following ref:. To specify a name for a given reference, use <<name:NAME>> directly after the reference text and inside of the inline modifier; this is as if <ref name="NAME">...</ref> were used. To use a previously named footnote a second time, use only <ref:<<name:NAME>>> with an empty reference text; this is as if <ref name="NAME" /> were used. You can also group references using <<group:GROUP>> after the reference text.
bullets: Specify the number of bullets preceding the line for this dialect variant (defaults to 1). If given, this should follow all comma-separated terms.
pre: Specify text to precede the formatted pronunciation line. If given, this should follow all comma-separated terms.
post: Specify text to follow the formatted pronunciation line. If given, this should follow all comma-separated terms.

An example of using a reference is with menu:

{{pt-IPA|pt=menu<q:normative>,mènu<q:common but considered incorrect><ref:>}}

===References===
<references />

which generates

  • (Portugal) IPA(key): (normative) /mɨˈnu/, (common but considered incorrect) /mɛˈnu/[1]

References

Substitution notation

For long (especially multiword) terms requiring just one or two respelling indications, it can be annoying to have to repeat the entire term in the respelling. To make respelling such terms easier, substitution notation is supported. The syntax is easiest illustrated using an example, e.g. for análise de ativação (activation analysis):

{{pt-IPA|}}

which generates

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /aˈna.li.zi d͡ʒi a.t͡ʃi.vaˈsɐ̃w̃/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /aˈna.li.ze de a.t͡ʃi.vaˈsɐ̃w̃/
 

Here, the substitution notation stands for the full respelling análise de àtivação. The general format is to use a bracketed expression in place of the respelling, where inside of the brackets is one or more substitutions, semicolon-separated and of the form FROM:TO, where FROM is a portion of the original spelling and TO is the corresponding respelling. Substitutions are implemented left-to-right, and the FROM portion of each substitution must match the original spelling in at least one place or an error is thrown.

An example using two substitutions is for transtorno de personalidade antissocial (antisocial personality disorder), which can be written as follows using substitution notation:

{{pt-IPA|}}

which generates

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃sˈtoʁ.nu d͡ʒi peʁ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.so.siˈaw/ , (faster pronunciation) /tɾɐ̃sˈtoʁ.nu d͡ʒi peʁ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.soˈsjaw/
    • (São Paulo) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃sˈtoɾ.nu d͡ʒi peɾ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.so.siˈaw/ , (faster pronunciation) /tɾɐ̃sˈtoɾ.nu d͡ʒi peɾ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.soˈsjaw/
    • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃ʃˈtoʁ.nu d͡ʒi peʁ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.so.siˈaw/ , (faster pronunciation) /tɾɐ̃ʃˈtoʁ.nu d͡ʒi peʁ.so.na.liˈda.d͡ʒi ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.soˈsjaw/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃sˈtoɻ.no de peɻ.so.na.liˈda.de ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.so.siˈaw/ , (faster pronunciation) /tɾɐ̃sˈtoɻ.no de peɻ.so.na.liˈda.de ˌɐ̃.t͡ʃi.soˈsjaw/
 
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃ʃˈtoɾ.nu dɨ pɨɾ.su.nɐ.liˌdaˌd‿ɐ̃.ti.suˈsjal/
    • (Southern Portugal) IPA(key): /tɾɐ̃ʃˈtoɾ.nu dɨ pɨɾ.su.nɐ.liˌdaˌd‿ɐ̃.ti.suˈsja.li/

Note the use of a semicolon to separate the two substitutions, and the fact that the embedded colon in the second substitution is not problematic.

Substitution expressions can be combined with regular respellings, given inline modifiers, etc. For example, for antigo eslavo eclesiástico (Old Church Slavonic), the initial e of eclesiástico can be either respelled as-is or using ē, indicating two possible pronunciations /e/ and /i/ in Portugal. To specify this, use the following:

{{pt-IPA|,+}}

which generates

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu izˈla.vu e.kle.ziˈas.t͡ʃi.ku/ , (faster pronunciation) /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu izˈla.vu e.kleˈzjas.t͡ʃi.ku/, /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu ezˈla.vu e.kle.ziˈas.t͡ʃi.ku/ , (faster pronunciation) /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu ezˈla.vu e.kleˈzjas.t͡ʃi.ku/
    • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu iʒˈla.vu e.kle.ziˈaʃ.t͡ʃi.ku/ , (faster pronunciation) /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu iʒˈla.vu e.kleˈzjaʃ.t͡ʃi.ku/, /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu eʒˈla.vu e.kle.ziˈaʃ.t͡ʃi.ku/ , (faster pronunciation) /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡu eʒˈla.vu e.kleˈzjaʃ.t͡ʃi.ku/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡo ezˈla.vo e.kle.ziˈas.t͡ʃi.ko/ , (faster pronunciation) /ɐ̃ˈt͡ʃi.ɡo ezˈla.vo e.kleˈzjas.t͡ʃi.ko/
 
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /ɐ̃ˈti.ɡu (i)ʒˈla.vu e.klɨˈzjaʃ.ti.ku/ , /ɐ̃ˈti.ɡu (i)ʒˈla.vu i.klɨˈzjaʃ.ti.ku/
    • (Northern Portugal) IPA(key): /ɐ̃ˈti.ɡu (i)ʒˈla.bu e.klɨˈzjaʃ.ti.ku/ , /ɐ̃ˈti.ɡu (i)ʒˈla.bu i.klɨˈzjaʃ.ti.ku/

Prefixes and suffixes

Prefixes (words ending in a hyphen) are always treated as lacking primary stress. Any stressed vowels are given secondary stress. Suffixes (words beginning with a hyphen), however, are usually stressed as normal. To specify the pronunciation of an unstressed suffix such as -a or -fago, put a dot over the vowel that would be stressed, using the symbols ȧ ė i̇ ȯ u̇. For example, for -fago, use

{{pt-IPA|-fȧgo}}

which generates

 

Note the lack of a stress marker and the occurrence of /ɐ/ in Portugal.

Deduplication

If the same pronunciation is generated twice for a given dialect (including with the same qualifiers and references, if any), only the first occurrence is displayed. This is useful, for example, when there are two Portugal pronunciation variants but only one Brazil pronunciation, such as for hemorragia (hemorrhage); use

{{pt-IPA|hèmorragia,+}}

which generates

 

Here, + expands to the pagename hemorragia, which differs from the first respelling only in the latter having è instead of e. Both variants map to the same sound /e/ in Brazil, so the two Portugal variants end up pronounced the same and are deduplicated.

Epenthetic /i/ in Brazil

Brazilian Portuguese is known for having an unwritten epenthetic /i/ inserted to break up difficult-to-pronounce consonant clusters. A well-known example is advogado (lawyer), frequently pronounced as if written adivogado. Words with epenthetic /i/ often admit alternative pronunciations where the vowel is not pronounced on the surface (but is still present in a latent sense because it triggers palatalization of /t d/ to /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/). To indicate such a vowel, use one of the following symbols (all of which generate no vowel in Portugal dialects):

If the vowel is always present
  • If the vowel is always present, use i*. This is typically the case, for example, with mn clusters such as in amnésia (amnesia), which are not normally supported in Brazil (and in fact are one source of spelling differences between Brazil and Portugal, cf. Portugal amnistia (amnesty), spelled anistia in Brazil). (Another such cluster is brr, such as in ab-rogação (abrogation).) For example, for gimnosperma (gymnosperm), write

{{pt-IPA|gimi*nòspérma}}

which generates

 

Here i* specifies a mandatory epenthetic /i/ in Brazil that is not present in Portugal; meanwhile, ò specifies an unpredictable unstressed open /ɔ/ that is not present in Brazil (which has normal /o/).

Similarly for ab-rogação, write

{{pt-IPA|abi*rrogação}}

which generates

 

If the vowel is usually present, but sometimes isn't
  • If the vowel is usually present, but sometimes isn't, use i^. This is the case for most consonant clusters where the second consonant is a stop, fricative or nasal, i.e. any consonant other than /l/, single /ɾ/ , or a glide /j/ or /w/. (There are a few exceptions; see the next item.) An example is pneu (tire); write

{{pt-IPA|pi^neu}}

which generates

 

Another example of note is digno (worthy); write

{{pt-IPA|dighi^no}}

which generates

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒi.ɡi.nu/, /ˈd͡ʒiɡ.nu/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒiɡ.no/, /ˈd͡ʒi.ɡi.no/

Two things should be noted here. One is the use of gh to get hard /ɡ/; this is the recommended way of respelling in this situation. (gu would not work for Portugal, where the respelling diguno would be generated.) Similarly for a cluster with c, use respelling with k, e.g. respell acne (acne) as aki^ne. The other is the lack of a stress mark in the respelling. This is because the epenthetic /i/ that is generated is ignored for stress assignment purposes (but is treated as a normal vowel for all other purposes, e.g. palatalization of t d, softening of c g, and syllabification).

If the vowel is usually not present, but sometimes is
  • If the vowel is usually not present, but sometimes is, use i^^. This happens commonly with /kt/, /ps/, /pt/, /bs/ and /bt/ clusters (exceptions are /ps/ and /bs/ clusters followed by another consonant, such as substantivo).

Vowels in hiatus

A hiatus is an occurrence of two vowels next to each other with no consonant between them. (In Portuguese, diphthongs such as au ei õe are not normally considered instances of hiatus, but instead of considered single phonemes.) The current treatment of hiatuses is as follows:

  • In Portugal, an unstressed e or i directly followed by another vowel is treated as a glide /j/. Likewise an unstressed o or u directly followed by another vowel is treated as a glide /w/. An exception is the sequences (as in ateísta, veículo, etc.) and e.i (as in europeizar respelled europe.izar), which are treated as if spelled and a.i, respectively, consistent with normal Central Portugal pronunciation.
  • In Brazil, all vowels in hiatus are currently treated as-is, so that e.g. paciência renders as /pa.siˈẽ.si.ɐ/ and passear renders as /pa.seˈa(ʁ)/. This is subject to change. To explicitly notate a glide, use y or w. To explicitly notate a hiatus, put a . between the vowels. To notate multiple possibilities, use circumflex symbols as described above.

Special handling of certain consonants in certain contexts

l
  • "Coda l" (i.e. written l when not occurring before a vowel) generates in Brazil and in Portugal.
  • Before coda l in Portugal, vowels generally have an open pronunciation, even when unstressed. Specifically, al becomes , as in saltar (to jump); el becomes , as in túnel (tunnel) and beldade (beauty); and ol generates two outputs, and (representing regional and per-speaker variation), as in Moldávia (Moldova).
r
  • The pronunciation of written r varies greatly between Brazil and Portugal and within different dialects in each case.
  • There are three varieties of r, which we will term strong r, weak r and coda r. Strong r and weak r contrast between vowels, where strong r is written as double rr whereas weak r is written as single r, as in e.g. carro (car) vs. caro (dear). Elsewhere, only one variety occurs. Specifically, strong and weak r only occur before vowels, while coda r occurs elsewhere (before a consonant or at the end of a word). Strong r occurs at the beginning of a word, as well as after a nasal vowel (as in genro (son-in-law)), an l (as in chilrear (to chirp)), and an s (as in Israel (Israel)). Weak r occurs after all other consonants.
  • The following generalizations describe the most common pronunciation of strong, weak and coda r:
    1. Weak r is a flap everywhere.
    2. Strong r is usually a guttural sound, conventionally notated as /ʁ/ in phonemic notation. In Portugal, this actually corresponds to the normal pronunciation , but in Brazil this conventional notation (even though we follow it) is highly misleading as it does not at all represent the actual pronunciation of this sound in most dialects. Rather, the most common pronunciation is (sometimes a uvular , as in Rio de Janeiro). Hence, we use as the phonetic representation of strong r in "general Brazilian".
    3. Coda r is pronounced the same as weak r in Portugal and some Brazilian dialects (e.g. standard São Paulo city), but the same as strong r in most Brazilian dialects; this is what we use for "general Brazilian". Meanwhile, some Brazilian dialects have a unique sound for coda r that is different from both strong and weak r. For example, the typical "Caipira" accent (found in several rural areas of Brazil) uses an American R , while São Paulo state tends to use a British R .
  • Coda r in Brazil following any of the stressed vowels /a ɛ e i/ is by default written as optional, i.e. (ʁ), (ɾ) or the like. This expresses the fact that most such words are verbs, and coda r in verbs is frequently omitted. This does not apply to non-verbs, which must be respelled with rh to prevent this. For example, angular, colher and emir should be respelled angularh, colhérh and emirh respectively.
  • Before word-final r in Portugal, unstressed vowels are rendered as open /a ɛ ɔ/, representing their most common pronunciation, as in dólar (dollar), líder (leader), júnior (junior). This also applies before a component boundary; in particular, prefixes inter-, hiper-, super- respelled ínter:, híper:, súper: automatically get /ɛ/ before the final r.
s

The letter s can have multiple possible pronunciations.

  • Between non-nasal vowels (including across a word boundary), single s is /z/ while double ss is /s/. Hence the s in casa (house) is /z/; likewise the first s in os árvores (the trees).
  • Elsewhere before a vowel, s is normally /s/, e.g. word-initially as in sorte (luck) or after a consonant as in verso (verse). This includes when following a nasal vowel, as in cansado (tired). An exception is in -trans-, as in transação (transaction) or intransitivo (intransitive), where it is /z/.
  • When not before a vowel, s is either a hissing sound /s z/ or a hushing sound /ʃ ʒ/, depending on the dialect; Portugal and Rio de Janeiro dialects use hushing sounds, while other Brazilian dialects use hissing sounds. Voiced sounds /z ʒ/ occur before voiced consonants, while unvoiced sounds /s ʃ/ occur elsewhere. An exception is word-initially before a consonant, where /s/ occurs even in Portugal and Rio. All such words are borrowings, often unassimilated or semi-unassimilated, e.g. spyware and staccato.
  • To force /s/ where it would not normally occur, use ss.
  • Note also that the sequence sh represents /ʃ/, as in English.
x

Written x has multiple possible pronunciations in Portuguese: /s/ (as in máximo (maximum), trouxe (I/he brought)), /z/ (as in existir (to exist)), /ʃ/ (as in baixo (low)) or /ks/ (as in fixo (fixed)). Sometimes the same word can have two different pronunciations of x, as in xerox (photocopy, xerox), pronounced /ʃɛˈɾɔks/. The module handles this by defaulting to specific pronunciations in specific circumstances, and requiring respelling in all other cases. Specifically:

  • Initial x- defaults to /ʃ/, as in xadrez (chess), Xangô (name of an orisha in Candomblé and similar religions), xerocar (to xerox).
  • Final -x defaults to /ks/, as in látex (latex), unissex (unisex), Félix (Felix).
  • x following a diphthong defaults to /ʃ/, as in abaixar (to lower), frouxo (loose), peixe (fish).
  • Non-final x in the sequence -nx- defaults to /ʃ/, as in enxame (swarm), enxugar (to wipe).
  • The sequence -ex- followed by a consonant has special handling. The x is pronounced as if written s, and the entire sequence ex in Portugal is pronounced as if written eis. This still applies in written êxC or éxC. Examples: experiência (experience), exsudar (to exude), têxtil (textile).
  • In all other circumstances, x must be respelled ss, z, sh, cs or similar; otherwise an error results.
  • NOTE: When respelling x to generate the sound /ʃ/, it is recommended to use the respelling sh, not ch, because in the future an additional pronunciation line may be added for the Northeast Portugal dialect, where ch is pronounced as /t͡ʃ/ and the words buxo (box (tree)) and bucho (maw) form a minimal /ʃ/-/t͡ʃ/ pair.

Special handling of certain vowels in certain contexts

  • Initial unstressed o- and ho- in Portugal are normally /ɔ/. This also applies after component boundaries such as those indicated by :.
  • Unstressed -ie- and -ee- in Portugal, as in alienado (alienated) and Teerão (Teheran), are normally /jɛ/.

Other comments

  • Under some circumstances, multiple pronunciations are output even when a single respelling is provided. This happens in the following circumstances:
    1. When any of the symbols described above that use a circumflex character ^ are used (only in Brazil).
    2. In Brazil, when a word begins with unstressed en- or em- followed by a consonant. The two outputs have /ẽ/ (indicated as careful pronunciation) and /ĩ/ (indicated as natural pronunciation).
    3. In Brazil, when a word begins with unstressed es- or ex- followed by a consonant (except in cases like excelente). The two outputs have /i/ and /e/, representing regional and per-speaker variation.
    4. In Portugal, when a word has a stressed /o/ in hiatus (directly followed by another vowel). In this case, the second output has a /w/ inserted and is marked regional. For example, boa ends up outputting /ˈbo.ɐ/ and /ˈbo.wɐ/, with the second marked as regional.
    5. In Portugal, when the sequence /ʃs/ is found (as in nascer). The two outputs have /ʃs/ (indicated as careful pronunciation) and /ʃ/ (indicated as natural pronunciation).
    6. In Portugal, when unstressed ol occurs followed by a consonant or word boundary. The two outputs have and , representing regional and per-speaker variation.

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