LSRL 26: The Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese

The Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese

James P. Giangola


Faced with Portuguese words and phrases in writing, how does one pronounce them as a Brazilian would? Unfortunately for non-native speakers, the Portuguese spelling system presumes prior knowledge of particular phonological and morphological principles, unlike the more closely phonetic sound-spelling system of Spanish. The Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese addresses this problem. Sound-spelling correspondence rules are exemplified via carefully organized word sets accompanied by phonetic transcriptions.

This resource is intended for students of Portuguese and the Romance language family, linguists, speech technology scientists, business people, travelers, and anyone interested in knowing what it is that Brazilians do to sound Brazilian. It is thorough in its coverage of formal, colloquial, and non-standard patterns. Content ranges from the pronunciation of specific consonants, vowels, and diphthongs, to syllabification, connected speech, word stress, and rhythm. In addition, one chapter reviews written accent rules, another a spelling reform that has been proposed but not yet legislated. Two word-list appendices are devoted to the single most difficult area of pronunciation for non-native-speakers: stressed e and o. Two other appendices focus on non-standard, regional patterns.

ISBN 9783895864469. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 26. 248pp. 2001.