Portuguese Phonology 6

Portuguese Phonetics and Phonology
8. Sibilants and connected speech
1. Modern Portuguese sibilants

contrast of dental and palatal sibilants

assa - acha - asa - haja
palatal  in syllable-final position (internal, interverbal)
assimilating in voicing to following consonant
dental z as liaison consonant (word-final becoming
syllable-initial by resyllabification)
cp
resyllabification of /r/ and /l/
ser e estar, sal e pimenta,
sibilant sandhi
voz - voz alta - voz baiza
vozes - vozes altas - vozes baixas
phonological analysis: final sibilant is
or
/S/ (unspecified for voice)
/z/ /underlyingly voiced)
(these could be distinguished in underlying forms, to contrast arroz - carros
/aRoz/ - /kaRo+S/
More recent sandhi effects:
progressive assimilation
às sete [a], os sapatos []
assimilation triggered by loss of : as escolas conservative EP
[()],
young EP
[]
2.
Brazilian variation
Rio as EP cp SPaulo etc /s z/ in syllable-final position
voicing adjustment distinct from palatalisation
Collins Dictonary, claim that - and - distinct ( vós [vvoz [v) would
imply palatalisation without voicing adjustment
diphthongisation of vowels before -(faz=[], dez=[])
Willis 1993 sociolinguistic survey:
(#)C
 ##

Belo
Horizonte
0%
0%
São Paulo
Curitiba
João
Pessoa
30%
10%
Salvador
Recife
0%
0%
Porto
Alegre
0%
0%
50%
20%
74%
37%
Rio de
Janeiro
90%
85%
0%
0%
?? only in



?? only in



0%
0%
90%
50%
50%
70%
3. Vowel sequences: hiatus, contraction, elision, semivocalisation, epenthesis
Hiatus: sequence of two successive vowels, as separate syllables
Contraction (crase) sequences of unstressed vowels merge
o humor
[]
a Amália
toma-a
unstressed vowels followed by stressed vowels
o uso
a anta
Diphthong formation in similar contexts
voo [vou] vs vou [vo]
dou o carro [dou]
Elision
unstressed vowels effaced when followed by (stressed) vowels
gosto de andar
no mundo antigo
Semivocalisation
unstressed /i u/ followed by vowels form rising diphthongs
gosto de Évora
eu sei que o compraram
Epenthesis
é, é
[]
o ovo []
NB: Do not confuse phonetic sandhi with
a) morphological sandhi por~pelo; a+a=à, de o=do etc
b) metrical elision/synaloepha
Pa-ra o in-ter-va-lo em que es-te-ja a al-ma i-mer-sa 18 phonological sylls
Pa-ra o in-ter-va-lo em que esteja a alma imersa
11 metrical sylls (decassílabo grave).
F. Pessoa, Mensagem
S. Parkinson 'Portuguese' in The Romance Languages ed Harris and Vincent
M. Herslund
'Portuguese sandhi-phenomena' in Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of
Europe ed. H. Andersen, 1986 [xerox available]
G. Holtus (ed) Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol VI.2, Galegisch, Portugiesisch,
(1994). (Articles on Portuguese and Galician phonology)
R. C. Willis, 'Las principales variedades de pronunciación brasileña culta', Actas del
primer congreso anglo-hispano, ed R. Penny , 1993, 287-94,
M. A. C. da Mota, ‘A variação linguística, ainda e sempre’, Actas do XX Encontro
Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística), ed. Inês Duarte and
Isabel Leiria, Lisbon, APL-Colibri, 2005, 127-38