Portuguese orthography

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Jump to: navigation, search The orthography of Portuguese is based on the Latin alphabet, and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla, to denote stress, vowel height, nasali ation, and other sound changes! "ccented letters and digraphs are not counted as separate characters for collation purposes! " full list of sounds, diphthongs, and their main spellings, is given at #ortuguese phonology! For the main values of each letter and digraph, see #ortuguese alphabet! This article addresses the less trivial details of the spelling of #ortuguese, as well as other issues of orthography, such as accentuation!
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see $uestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of %nicode characters!

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( )verview * +ounds with more than one spelling o *!( ,elar plosives *!(!( -otes o *!* .hotics *!*!( -otes o *!/ +ibilants o *!0 -asal vowels and diphthongs o *!1 +emivowels / 2orphological considerations 0 3tymological considerations 1 4iacritics o 1!( +tress 1!(!( 2onosyllables 1!(!* #olysyllables 5 +yllabification and collation 6 )ther symbols o 6!( "postrophe o 6!* 7yphen o 6!/ 8uotation marks 9 :ra ilian vs! 3uropean spelling ; +ee also (< .eferences (( 3xternal links

[edit] Overview
The spelling of #ortuguese is largely phonemic, but some phonemes can be spelled in more than one way! =n ambiguous cases, the correct spelling is determined through a combination of etymology with morphology and common tradition, so there is not a perfect one>to>one correspondence between sounds

and letters or digraphs! ?nowing the main inflectional paradigms of #ortuguese, and being ac$uainted with the orthography of other languages of Western 3urope, can be helpful in this regard! =n the remainder of this article, the phrase @at the end of a syllable@ can be understood as @before a consonant, or at the end of a word@!

[edit] ounds with more than one spelling

2ost consonants have the same values as in the =nternational #honetic "lphabet, except for the palatals // and //, which are spelled lh and nh, respectively, and the following velars, rhotics, and sibilants:

[edit] !elar plosives

Phoneme /k/ // "efault pelling c, $&plosive note (' g $%amples #efore e or i pelling $%amples $uente, a$ui guerra, guitarra

casa, $uatro $u gato, grAo gu

[edit] &otes
(! ' in some Latinisms

[edit] (hotics
The alveolar tap // is always spelled as a single r! The other rhotic phoneme of #ortuguese, which may be pronounced as a trill /r/ or as one of the fricatives /x/, //, or /h/, according to the idiolect of the speaker, is either written rr or r, as described below! For this phoneme, the phrase @at the start of a syllable@ can be understood as @at the beginning of words and after /l/, /n/, /z/, //@! tart of syllable&rhotic note (' pelling $%amples rosa, tenro #etween vowels pelling $%amples rr carro r $nd of syllable&rhotic note *' pelling $%amples sorte, mar

Phoneme / ~ x ~ h r ~ r/ [edit] &otes

(! ' only when it is the first sound in the syllable Bin which case it is always followed by a vowelC! For instance, a word like prato is pronounced with a tap, // *! ' in some dialectsD in the others, the r is usually a tap at the end of syllables

[edit] ibilants
For the following phonemes, the phrase @at the start of a syllable@ can be understood as @at the start of a word, or between a consonant and a vowel, in that order@! Phoneme tart of syllable) #etween vowels $nd of syllable

pelling /s/ s, c/

$%amples sapo, psi$ue, maEA, cedo umbido, ero

pelling

$%amples

pelling $%amples
5

assado, passe, ss, E*, c/, x0 aEorda, alperce s, x1, prFximo , s, x6 pra o, a eite, rosa, :rasil, exemplo s, x9,

isto, externo, pa turismo, ex>mulher, feli mente isto, externo, pa turismo, ex>mulher, feli mente

/z/

//

ch, x

chuva, cherne, ch, x xarope, xisto Gogo, Gipe, gente

fecho, duche, s, x1, caixa, mexilhAo aGuda, paGem, agenda

//
( *

G, g/

G, g/

s, x9,

including consonant clusters that belong to a single syllable, like psique before a, o, u! H never starts or ends a word! / before e, i 0 only in a very small number of words derived from Latin, such as trouxe and prximo 1 only in words derived from Latin or Ireek, preceded by e and followed by one of the voiceless consonants c, p, s, t 5 only at the end of words and in rare compounds 6 only in a few words derived from Latin or Ireek that begin with ex- or hex- followed by a vowel, and in compounds made from such words 9 only in a few compound words

-ote that there are two main groups of accents in #ortuguese, one in which the sibilants are alveolar at the end of syllables B/s/ or /z/C, and another in which they are postalveolar B// or //C! =n this position, the sibilants occur in complementary distribution, voiced before voiced consonants, and voiceless before voiceless consonants or at the end of utterances!

[edit] &asal vowels and diphthongs

-asal vowels are normally indicated with a tilde before other vowels! :efore consonants, they are usually spelled by writing a silent m or n next to the vowel itself! "t the end of words, most nasal vowels are indicated by a trailing silent m! The low central vowel //, however, is spelled at the end of words, before word>final s, and in compounds! *onophthongs "iphthongs pelling ound ound pelling #efore a consonant +ord final // an, am, Jn, Jm // >A>( Ae, Ai* // en, em, Kn, Km /w/ > Ao, >am // in, im, Ln, Lm / ~ / >em, >Mm, >en>, >Mn> >im // on, om, Nn, Nm / ~ / >Km >om // un, um, On, Om // >um Pe
( *

also before word>final s the spelling i appears in non>final syllables, in a small number of words such as cibra

The letter m is conventionally written before b or p or at the end of words Balso in a few compound words such as comummenteC, and n is written before other consonants! =n the plural, the ending -m changes into -nsD for example bem, rim, bom, um Q bens, rins, bons, uns! +ome learned words end with -n Bwhich is usually pronounced in 3uropean #ortugueseC!

-asali ation of u is left unmarked in the six words muito, muita, muitos, muitas, mui, ruim Bthe latter one only in :ra ilian #ortugueseC! The word endings -am, -em, -en(+s), with or without an accent mark on the vowel, represent nasal diphthongs derived from various Latin endings, often -ant, -unt or -en(t)-! Final -am, which appears in polysyllabic verbs, is always unstressed! The grapheme -en- is also pronounced as a nasal diphthong in a few compound words, such as bendito Bbem R ditoC, homenzinho Bhomem R zinhoC, and Benfica!

[edit] emivowels
The semivowel in an oral BfallingC diphthong is spelled with i or u Bai, ei, oi, uiD au, eu, iu, ouC! -asal diphthongs are spelled with e or o at the end of words B-e, -o, -eD -es, -os, -esC!

[edit] *orphological considerations

,erbs whose infinitive ends in -jar have j in the whole conGugation! Thus, iagem @voyage@ BnounC, but iaGem B/rd! pers! plur! of the present subGunctive of the verb iaGar @to travel@C! ,erbs whose thematic vowel becomes a stressed i in one of their inflections are spelled with an i in the whole conGugation, as are other words of the same family! Thus, crio B= createC implies criar Bto createC and criatura BcreatureC! ,erbs whose thematic vowel becomes a stressed ei in one of their inflections are spelled with an e in the whole conGugation, as are other words of the same family! Thus, nomeio B= nominateC implies nomear Bto nominateC and nomea!o BnominationC!

[edit] $tymological considerations

The maGority of the #ortuguese lexicon is derived from Latin, Ireek, and some "rabic, so in principle this would re$uire some knowledge of those languages! 7owever, Ireek words are Latini ed before being incorporated into the language, and many words of Latin or Ireek origin have easily recogni able cognates in 3nglish and other western 3uropean languages which are spelled according to similar principles! For instance, "lria, @glory@, "lorioso, @glorious@, heran!a @inheritance@, real @realSroyal@! +ome general guidelines for spelling are given below:

CU vs. QU, where u is pronounced syllabically it is written with c, as in cueca [kuk BunderwearC, and where it represents a labiali ed velar plosive, it is written with q, as in quando [kw!u BwhenC! G vs. J, etymological " changes into j before a, o, u! H, this letter is silentD it appears only at the start of a word for etymology or by convention, in a few interGections, and as part of the digraphs ch, lh, nh! Latin or Ireek ch, ph, rh, th, and # are usually converted into c$qu, f, r, t, and i, respectively! O vs. OU, in many words has the variant oi, normally corresponds to Latin and "rabic au or al, and more rarely to Latin ap, oc! S-SS vs. C-, the letter s and the digraph ss correspond to Latin s, ss, or ns, and to +panish s! The graphemes c Bbefore e or iC and ! Bbefore a, o, uC are usually derived from Latin c or t(i), or from s in non>3uropean languages, such as "rabic and "merindian languages! They correspond to

+panish z or c! "t the beginning of words, however, s is written instead of etymological !, by convention!

Z vs. S between vowels, the letter z corresponds to Latin c BRe, iC or t(i), to Ireek or "rabic z! =ntervocalic s corresponds to Latin s! X vs. CH, the letter x derives from Latin x or s, or from "rabic sh, and usually corresponds to +panish j! The digraph ch Bbefore vowelsC derives from Latin cl, fl, pl or from French ch, and corresponds to +panish ll or ch! S vs. X vs. Z at the end of syllables, s is the most common spelling for all sibilants! The letter x appears, preceded by e and followed by one of the voiceless consonants c, p, s, t, in some words derived from Latin or Ireek! The letter z occurs only at the end of oxytone words and in compounds derived from them, corresponding to Latin x, c BRe, iC or to "rabic z!

[edit] "iacritics
#ortuguese makes use of six diacritics! The cedilla indicates that ! is pronounced /s/ Bdue to a historical palatali ationC! :y convention, s is written instead of etymological ! at the beginning of words! The acute accent and the circumflex accent indicate that a vowel is stressed, and also the $uality of the accented vowel, more precisely its height: %, &, and are low vowels Bexcept in nasal vowelsC, while ', (, and ) are high vowels! They also distinguish a few homographs: cf! para @for@ with p%ra @it stops@, por @by@ with p)r @to put@! The tilde marks nasal vowels before glides such as in cibra and na!o, at the end of words, before final -s, and in some compounds, like romzeira @pomegranate tree@, from rom @pomegranate@, and mente @vainly@, from @vain@! =t usually coincides with the stressed vowel, unless there is an acute or circumflex accent elsewhere in the word, or if the word is compound, e!g! Fr"o @organ@, irmA R inha B@sister@ R diminutive suffixC T irm inha @little sister@! The grave accent marks the contraction of two consecutive vowels in adGacent words BcrasisC, normally the preposition a and an article or a demonstrative pronoun: a R aquela T *quela @at that@, a R a T * @at the@, and so on! =t does not indicate stress! The graphemes ', ( and ) typically represent oral vowels, but before m or n followed by another consonant they are nasal vowel! 3lsewhere, nasal vowels are indicated with a tilde B, C!

[edit] tress
:elow are the general rules for the use of the acute accent and the circumflex in #ortuguese! #rimary stress may fall on any of the three final syllables of a word, but occurs mainly on the last two! " word is called oxytone if it is stressed on its last syllable, paroxytone if stress falls on the syllable before the last Bthe penultC, and proparoxytone if stress falls on the third syllable from the end Bthe antepenultC! 2ost words are stressed on the penult! "ll words stressed on the antepenult take an accent mark! Words with two or more syllables, stressed on their last syllable, is not accented if ending with any consonant letter but m and s, or when ending in -i, -is, -im, -u, -us, -um, except in hiatuses as in a!a+, but the paroxytones words may be accented when ended in those cases for differentiating from oxytones words, as in l%pis!

[edit] *onosyllables 2onosyllables are typically not accented, but those whose last vowel is a, e, or o, possibly followed by final -s or final -m, may re$uire an accent mark!

The verb p)r is accented, to be distinguished from the preposition por! The /rd! person plural forms of the verbs ter and ir, t(m and (m, are accented to be distinguished from the /rd! person singular of the same verbs, tem, em! )ther monosyllables ending in -em are not accented! 2onosyllables ending in -o or -os with the vowel pronounced /u/ Bas in 3nglish @do@C, or in -e or -es with the vowel pronounced /"/ Bas in 3nglish @be@C or /#/ Bapproximately as in 3nglish @roses@C, are not accented! )therwise, they are accented! 2onosyllables containing only the vowel a take an acute accent, except for the contractions of the preposition a with the articles a, as, which take the grave accent, *, *s, and for the following clitic articles, pronouns, prepositions, or contractions, which are not accented: a, da, la, lha, ma, na, taD as, das, las, lhas, mas, nas, tas! -ote that most of these words have a masculine e$uivalent ending in -o(s), also not accented: o(s), do(s), lo(s), lho(s), mo(s), no(s), to(s)!

[edit] Polysyllables

The endings -a, -e, -o, -as, -es, -os, -am, -em, -ens are unstressed! The stressed vowel of words with such endings is assumed to be the first one before the ending itself: bonita, bonitas, gente, iveram, seria, serias BverbsC, seriam! =f the word happens to be stressed elsewhere, then it re$uires an accent mark: ser%, ser%s, at&, s&ria, s&rias BadGectivesC, ,n%cio, -maz)nia$-maznia! The endings -em and -ens take the acute accent when stressed Bcont&m, con &nsC, except in /rd! person plural forms of verbs derived from ter and ir, which take the circumflex Bcont(m, con (mC! Words with other endings are regarded as oxytone by default: iver, jardim, ivi, bambu, pensais, pensei, pensou! They re$uire an accent when they are stressed on a syllable other than their last: t%xi, f%cil, am% eis! .ising diphthongs Bwhich may also be pronounced as hiatusesC containing stressed i or stressed u are accented, so that they will not be pronounced as falling diphthongs! 3xceptions are those where the stressed vowel forms a syllable with a letter other than s! Thus, ra+zes Bsyllabified as ra+-zesC, inclu+do Bu-+C, and sa+ste Ba-+sC are accented, but raiz Bra-izC, sairmos Ba-irC and saiu Ba-iuC are not! BThere are a few more exceptions, not discussed here!C The stressed diphthongs ei, eu, oi take an acute accent on the first vowel whenever it is low!

"side from these cases, there are a few more words that take an accent, usually to disambiguate fre$uent homographs such as pode Bpresent tense of the verb poderC and p)de Bpast tense of the same verbC, or para BprepositionC and para BverbC! -ote also that the accentuation rules of #ortuguese are somewhat different from those of +panish!

[edit] yllabification and collation

#ortuguese syllabification rules re$uire a syllable break between double letters cc, c!, mm, nn, rr, ss, or other combinations of letters which may be pronounced as a single sound, e!g! fric-ci-o-nar, pro-ces-so, car-ro, ex-ce(p)-to, ex-su-dar! )nly the digraphs ch, lh, nh, "u, qu, and ou are indivisible! "ll digraphs are however broken down into their constituent letters for the purposes of collation, aloud spelling, and in crossword pu les!

[edit] Other symbols

[edit] Apostrophe

The apostrophe BUC appears as part of certain phrases, usually to indicate the elision of a vowel in the contraction of a preposition with the word that follows it: de R %"ua T d.%"ua! =t is used almost exclusively in poetry!

[edit] .yphen
The hyphen B>C is used to make compound words, especially animal names like papa"aio-de-raboermelho @red>tailed parrot@! =t is also extensively used to append clitic pronouns to the verb, as in queroo @= want it@ BenclisisC, or even to embed them within the verb, as in le aria R te R os T le ar-tos-ia @= would take them to you@ BmesoclisisC! #roclitic pronouns are not connected graphically to the verb: no o quero @= do not want it@! 3ach element in such compounds is treated as an individual word for accentuation purposes!

[edit] /uotation mar0s

=n 3uropean #ortuguese, as in many other 3uropean languages, angular $uotation marks are used for general $uotations in literature: V=sto M um exemplo de como fa er uma citaEAo em portuguKs europeu!W /0his is an example of ho1 to ma2e a quotation in 3uropean 4ortu"uese5/ "lthough "merican>style BXYZC or :ritish>style BU!!!UC $uotation marks are sometimes used as well, especially in less formal types of writing Bdue to being more easily produced in keyboardsC or inside nested $uotations, they are less common in careful writing! =n :ra ilian #ortuguese, only "merican and :ritish>style $uote marks are used! @=sto M um exemplo de como fa er uma citaEAo em portuguKs brasileiro!@ /0his is an example of ho1 to ma2e a quotation in Brazilian 4ortu"uese5/ =n both varieties of the language, dashes are normally used for direct speech, rather than $uotation marks: [ "borreEo>me tanto [ disse ela! [ -Ao tenho culpa disso [ retor$uiu ele! 6,7m so bored,8 she said5 60hat7s not m# fault,8 he shot bac25

[edit] #ra1ilian vs. $uropean spelling

+ritten varieties
Further information: +pelling reforms of #ortuguese
Portugal Africa Asia an2nimo ,4nus facto ideia acEAo direcEAo elMctrico Fptimo fre$uente voo #ra1il translation

Different pronunciation an3nimo ,5nus fato id4ia aEAo direEAo elMtrico Ftimo Diacritics fre$6ente v3o fre$uent flight anonymous ,enus fact idea action direction electric very good

Silent consonants

"s of *<<1, #ortuguese has two orthographic standards:

The :ra ilian orthography, official in :ra il! The 3uropean orthography, official in #ortugal, 2acau, and the five "frican #ortuguese language countries!

=n 3ast Timor, both orthographies are currently being taught in schools! The table to the right illustrates typical differences between the two orthographies! +ome are due to different pronunciations, but others are merely graphic! The main ones are:

4resence or absence of certain consonants: The letters c and p appear in some words before c, ! or t in one orthography, but are absent from the other! -ormally, the letter is written down in the 3uropean spelling, but not in the :ra ilian spelling! =n most cases, it is not pronounced in any variety of the language! 9ifferent use of diacritics: the :ra ilian spelling has a, ( or ) followed by m or n before a vowel, in several words where the 3uropean orthography has %, & or , due to different pronunciation! The diaeresis mark is used in :ra ilian spelling to indicate that the letter u is pronounced rather than silent in the digraphs ": and q: when they are followed by e or iD the 3uropean spelling no longer uses it! The :ra ilian orthography distinguishes between stressed &i and stressed ei, which are pronounced differently in :ra ilian #ortugueseD in 3uropean #ortuguese, both diphthongs are pronounced the same way, and &i appears only in some oxytone plural nouns and adGectives, by convention!

[edit] ee also

"cademia :rasileira de Letras 4ifferences between +panish and #ortuguese #ortuguese alphabet, for the main spelling>to>sound correspondences

#ortuguese names #ortuguese phonology, for the main sound>to>spelling correspondences +pelling reforms of #ortuguese The ,ietnamese orthography, partly based on the orthography of #ortuguese, through the work of (5th century \atholic missionaries! Wikipedia in #ortuguese: )rtografia da lLngua portuguesa Wikipedia in #ortuguese: "cordo )rtogr]fico de (;;<

[edit] (eferences

:ergstr^m, 2agnus _ .eis, -eves 4rontu%rio ;rto"r%fico 3ditorial -otLcias, *<<0! 3strela, 3dite - questo orto"r%fica < =eforma e acordos da l+n"ua portu"uesa B(;;/C 3ditorial -otLcias Formul]rio )rtogr]fico B;rtho"raphic >ormC published by the :ra ilian "cademy of Letters in (;0/ > the present day spelling rules in :ra il Text of the decree of the :ra ilian government, in (;6(, amending the orthography adopted in (;0/