Vowels Vowel classification Portuguese uses
vowel height to contrast stressed syllables with unstressed syllables; the vowels tend to be raised to when they are unstressed (see
below for details). The dialects of Portugal are characterized by
reducing vowels to a greater extent than others. Falling diphthongs are composed of a vowel followed by one of the high vowels or ; although rising diphthongs occur in the language as well, they can be interpreted as
hiatuses. European Portuguese possesses quite a wide range of vowel allophones: • All vowels are lowered and retracted before . • All vowels are raised and advanced before alveolar, palato-alveolar and palatal consonants. proposes that it is a kind of
crasis rather than phonemic distinction of and . It means that in 'we speak' there is the expected prenasal -raising: , while in 'we spoke' there are phonologically two in crasis: .
Close-mid vowels and
open-mid vowels ( and ) contrast only when they are stressed. In unstressed syllables, they occur in complementary distribution. According to Mateus and d'Andrade (2000:19), in European Portuguese, the stressed only occurs in the following three contexts: • Before a palatal consonant (such as ) • Before the palatal front glide (such as ) • Before a nasal consonant (such as ) In
Greater Lisbon (according to
NUTS III, which does not include
Setúbal) can be centralized before palatal sounds (); e.g. , , , , .
European Portuguese "e caduc" European Portuguese possesses a
near-close near-back unrounded vowel. It occurs in unstressed syllables such as in ('to grip'). • Traditionally, it is pronounced when "e" is unstressed; e.g. , . • However, if "e" is initial, then it is pronounced ; e.g. , . • When "e" is adjacent to another vowel, it becomes ; e.g. . • However, notice that when the
e caduc is preceded by a semi-vowel, it may become , . • For the most part, unstressed "i" is not lowered to . However, when it is adjacent to a palatal consonant, , or to in the preceding/following syllable, it usually does become . E.g. , , , , , . • The Portuguese
e caduc may be elided, becoming in some instances a
syllabic consonant; e.g. , , , , , , , , . There are very few minimal pairs for this sound: some examples include ('to nail') vs. ('to preach'; the latter stemming from earlier < Latin ), ('be!') vs. ('see/cathedral') vs. ('if'), and ('hair') vs. ('I peel off') vs. ('by the' + masc.), after orthographic changes, all these three words are now spelled .
Consonants == Geographic variation ==