Re: Brazilian Portuguese (was: Primary Interjections - Universals?)

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# >         My pleasure, Steg. Just send me any doubts you have.
# >         (I've taken this off-list 'cause some people may find it
# > too
# > off-topic. Feel free to take it on-list again.)
# > --
# > Gustavo Eulalio <guga@...>
# -
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# Thanks!  the first confusing thing was the |r|... how come the |r| in
# "capoeira" is pronounced as some kind of alveolar tap, but the |r| in
# "rolê" (if i spelled it correctly) is pronounced like some kind of /h/ or
# /x/ sound?  Is that the equivalent of the Spanish trilled initial |r| and
# medial |rr|?  Also, is the |ei| in "capoeira" supposed to be /ej/ or /e/
# or /Ej/ or some other similar sound?  And |d| and |t| in front of front
# vowels (or just /i/?) are [tS] and [dZ], right?
#

In the dialect of brazilian (northeastern, fortaleza) i learneed <r> is
pronounced /h/ word-initially, /x/ syllable finally. <rr> is always /h/.
<r> in any other position is the tap.

rio = [hiu] "river"
bar = [bax] "bar"
bairro = [baIhu] "neighborhood"
caipoeira = [kaIpoeIr&]

I hear tell that some people in the rural part of Sao Paulo state pronounce
<r> as the american <r>. My teacher insisted that there was no overt
pronunciation of final <r>, rather just lengthening of the final vowel, But
i heard otherwise. If you listen to any music of Daniela Mercury, she really
*really* pronounces her final <r>'s as [x].

Depending on how you learned to transcribe diphtongs, <ei> is either
[eI] or [ej] or [ei]. But it is clearly not [e]. There is a very distinct
movement from mid-front-ish to high-front.

<t> and <d> before phonetic (not just phonemic) [i] are pronounced [tS] and
[dZ], respectively.

thus:

dia = [dZi&] "day"
de = [dZi] "of"
da = [da] "of the"
Tim = [tSi~]  My name.

/e/ becomes [i] when it occurs word-final, and in some other instances (i cant
define which right now), and typically [i] is inserted or apended to generally
make syllables adhere to a fairly strict (C)V structure.

thus:

advogado = [adZivogadu] "lawyer"
Pitt = [PitSi]  Common name for The University of Pittsburgh

Just my non-native take on things... I'm sure a native speaker may
be able to shed more light.

-tim

http://www.zece.com/conlang/

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