History of the Portuguese language
Encyclopedia
The Portuguese language
developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin
brought there by Roman
soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. It began to diverge from other Romance languages
after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions
in the 5th century, and started to be used in written documents around the 9th century. By the 13th century it had become a mature language, with its own literature, called by modern linguists Galician-Portuguese
. In all aspects—phonology
, morphology
, lexicon
and syntax
—it is essentially the result of an organic evolution of Vulgar Latin
, with fairly minor influences from other languages.
brought with them Latin, from which all Romance languages descend. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous civilizations. Later, the inhabitants of the cities of Lusitania and rest of Romanized Iberia were recognized as citizens of Rome.
Roman control of the western part of Hispania was not consolidated until the campaigns of Augustus in 26 BC. Although the western territories to the south of the Tagus River were only conquered after the victory of Licinius Crassus in the year 93 BC, very few traces of the native languages persist in modern Portuguese. After 200 years of wars first with the Carthaginians and then the local inhabitants, emperor Augustus
conquered the whole peninsula, which was named Hispania
. He then divided it into three provinces
, Hispania Tarraconensis
, Hispania Baetica
, and Lusitania
, the latter of which included most of modern Portugal. In the 3rd century, emperor Diocletian
split Tarraconensis into three, creating the adjacent province of Gallaecia
, which geographically enclosed the remaining part of Portugal, and modern-day Galicia (in the northwestern region of Spain).
A.D. and 711
, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by peoples of Germanic origin
, known by the Romans as Barbarians. The Barbarians (mainly Suevi and Visigoths) largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, since the Roman schools and administration were closed and Europe entered the Dark Ages
, the Latin Vulgar language was left free to evolve on its own and the uniformity of the Peninsula was soon disrupted. In the western part of the Peninsula (today's Northern Portugal and Galicia), Vulgar Latin gained some local characteristics and in that region the Suevi settled, leading to the formation of the "Lusitanian Romance Language". The Germanic languages influenced Portuguese in words linked to the military, such as guerra ("war") or laverca (lark
).
From 711
, with the Moorish
invasion of the Peninsula, Arabic
was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, the population continued to speak their Romance dialects, known collectively as Mozarabic; so that when the Moors were overthrown, the influence that they had exerted on the language was small. Its main effect was in the lexicon: modern Portuguese still has a large number of words of Arabic origin, about 900, especially relating to food, agriculture and crafts, which have no cognates in other Romance languages, except Spanish. But there is no loan word in the lexicon related to human feelings, all being of Latin origin. The Arabic influence is also visible in placenames throughout the Southern provinces, such as Algarve, Alfama
, or Fátima
.
The earliest surviving records of a distinctively Portuguese language are administrative documents from the 9th century which contain bits of Romance interspersed in texts written essentially in Latin. Today this phase is known as "Proto-Portuguese" (spoken in the period between the 9th to the 12th century).
, which at the start of the High Middle Ages
included the northern part of present-day Portugal
. It appears to have been used regularly in the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula
—as the language for lyric
song. It was employed by poets from throughout the non-Basque medieval Christian kingdoms of the peninsula; including Leon
ese, Castilian
, Aragon
ese and Catalan
. It is also the language used in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
. These songs were traditionally attributed to Alfonso X, a Castilian king, though more recent work shows that they must have been composed in collaboration with many translators, poets and musicians. Later, when Castilian
started to be written in Castilian realms, Galicia fell under the influence of Castilian, and the southern variant of Galician-Portuguese became the language of Portugal.
, into which Galicia was incorporated at the time, with Afonso Henriques as its first king. In 1290, king Diniz
created the first Portuguese University in Lisbon (the Estudo Geral) and decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" (i.e. Vulgar Latin
) should be used in preference to Latin
and known as the "Portuguese language". In 1296, Portuguese was adopted by the Royal Chancellary and was used not only in poetry but also when writing law and in notaries. In the first period of "Old Portuguese" (from 12th to the 14th century), the language came gradually to be used in official documents.
, in 1516.
"Modern Portuguese" developed from the early 16th century to the present. During the Renaissance
, scholars and writers borrowed many words from classical Latin
and ancient Greek
, which increased the complexity of the Portuguese lexicon
.
As with most European vernacular languages, the standardization of the Portuguese language was propelled by the development of the printing press
. In 1536 Fernão de Oliveira
published his Grammatica da lingoagem portuguesa in Lisbon, the first Portuguese grammar
. The work of this heterodox Dominican priest, philologist and mariner was soon followed. In 1540, João de Barros
crown officer published his Gramática da Língua Portuguesa along with moral dialogues and basics of the Catholic Church to help teaching young aristocrats. This second work, illustrated with woodcuts, is considered the world's first printed illustrated text book.
, Africa
and The Americas. Today most Portuguese speakers live in Brazil. By the 16th century it had become a lingua franca
in Asia and Africa, used not only for colonial administration and trade but also for communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. In Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka
) several kings became fluent speakers of Portuguese, and nobles often took Portuguese names. The spread of the language was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people (also very common in other areas of the world) and its association with the Catholic
missionary
efforts, which led to its being called Cristão ("Christian
") in many places. The Nippo Jisho
, a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written in 1603, was a product of Jesuit
missionary activity in Japan
. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, despite the severe measures taken by the Dutch
to abolish it in Ceylon and Indonesia
.
Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India
, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The language has largely changed in these communities and has evolved through the centuries into several Portuguese creoles
. Also, a considerable number of words of Portuguese origin are found in Tetum, the national language of East Timor
, such as lee "to read" (from ler), aprende "to learn
" (from aprender) and tenke "to have to" (from tem que). Portuguese words entered the lexicons of many other languages, such as pan "bread
" (from pão) in Japanese
(see Japanese words of Portuguese origin
), sepatu "shoe
" (from sapato) in Indonesian
, keju "cheese
" (from queijo), in Malay
and meza "table
" (from mesa) in Swahili
.
and in syntax
, Portuguese represents an organic transformation of Latin
without the direct intervention of any foreign language. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin, and almost 90% of its vocabulary is still derived from the language of Rome. Some of the changes began during the Empire
, others took place later. A few words remained virtually unchanged, like carro,
taberna ("tavern"), or even returned to a form close to the original, such as coxa ("thigh").
Learned Latinism
s were formed in the late Middle Ages, due to the use of Church Latin by the Catholic Church, and during the Renaissance
, when Classical antiquity
in general, and Literary Latin
in particular, enjoyed great prestige. Thus, for example, Latin AURUM, which had originated ouro ("gold") and dourado ("golden"), was re-introduced as the adjective áureo ("golden"). In the same way, LOCALEM ("place"), which had evolved to lugar, was later re-introduced as the more erudite local. Many erudite Greek
words and combining elements were also introduced or re-introduced in this way. Because of this, many Latin words are still familiar to Portuguese speakers.
N.B.: In the Latin examples below, we have used all-capitals so as to be in line with how the ancient language was actually written. Note also that the letter V was the vowel we know today as U, and that the C was always pronounced [k], so CENTUM was originally pronounced [ˈkentũ]. Later Latinisms are marked with (L).
Palatalization
of voiceless stops—the consonants [k] and [t] assimilated with the high vowels [e] and [i], and with the semivowel [j].
A more ancient evolution was
Voicing
—some consonants did not disappear but rather evolved with voiceless stops becoming voiced stops and voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives in certain positions:
Assimilation
—consonant clusters, especially double consonants, were simplified:
Elision
—the consonants [l] and [n] of Vulgar Latin
were deleted between vowels, after which sometimes the vowels around them coalesced, or an epenthetic semivowel was introduced between them.
Palatalization
of liquids and nasals—the consonants [l] and [n] assimilated with the semivowel [j], producing the palatals lh [ʎ] and nh [ɲ]:
Regressive Nasalization
—before [m] or [n] which were elided, or in syllable coda
, some vowels became nasal. This happened between the 6th and the 7th centuries, possibly influenced by Celtic languages previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula
. This change produced one of the most striking phonological differences between Portuguese and Spanish. The history of nasal vowels in hiatus with a previous or following vowel is complex, depending on the identity of the two vowels and the position of the stress.
1. If the vowels were near each other, they collapsed into a single vowel (nasal or oral, according to the nasality of the stressed vowel):
2. Otherwise, if the second vowel was more closed, the result was usually a nasal diphthong:
3. If the second vowel was more open, or as open, nasalization was lost:
4. If the first vowel was [i], however, nasalization evolved to a palatal nasal
consonant, inserted between the two vowels:
Progressive Nasalization
—The spread of nasalization forward from a nasal consonant, especially [m].
Epenthesis
—the insertion of a sound to break up a combination of vowels which was difficult to pronounce:
Examples such as the former two have been used by some authors to argue that the digraph nh was a nasal glide in medieval Portuguese, and thus its pronunciation in most dialects of Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe is the original one
Dissimilation
—Modification of a sound by the influence of neighbouring sounds; similar became different over time, so as to ease pronunciation.
1. Between vowels:
2. Between consonants:
Metathesis
—a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word.
Semi-vowel metathesis:
Consonant metathesis in [l] and [r]:
Vowel metathesis:
; but in most places, these seven sounds have been reduced to four.
Everywhere except in the above-mentioned parts of Tras-os-Montes, the lamino-alveolar and apico-alveolar fricatives merged. (This appears to have happened no earlier than the seventeenth century, on the evidence of the spelling system used by Alexandre de Rhodes to represent Middle Vietnamese.) In northern Portugal and Galicia, they became apico-alveolars (as in the central and northern peninsular Spanish pronunciation of /s/). In most of Brazil, they became lamino-alveolar consonants (as in the English pronunciation of /s/ and /z/). In central and southern Portugal (and in Rio de Janeiro
and surrounding areas, due to the relocation of the Portuguese nobility here in the early 1800's), they merged as lamino-alveolars before vowels, but as palato-alveolar /ʃ ʒ/ elsewhere. Meanwhile, /tʃ/ eventually lost its affrication and merged with /ʃ/, although /tʃ/ is maintained throughout Tras-os-Montes.
It appears that the sound written ‹v› was at one point during the medieval period pronounced as a voiced bilabial fricative
[β]. Subsequently, it either changed into a labiodental fricative [v] (as in central and southern Portugal, and hence in Brazil), or merged into /b/ (as in northern Portugal and Galicia, similarly to modern Spanish). Also similarly to modern Spanish, the voiced stops /b d g/ eventually became pronounced as fricatives [β ð ɣ] between vowels and after consonants, other than in the clusters /nd/ /ld/ /ng/ /mb/ (the nasals were presumably still pronounced in these clusters, rather than simply reflected as a nasal vowel). However, this change happened after the colonization of Brazil, and never affected Brazilian Portuguese
.
Final unstressed /a/ was subsequently raised to /ɐ/. Final /o/ was eventually raised to /u/ in both Portugal and Brazil, but independently. Final unstressed /e/ was likewise raised to /i/ in Brazil, but shifted to /ɨ/ in Portugal (now barely pronounced). In Portugal (but not in Brazil), these changes have come to affect almost all unstressed instances of /a/ /o/ /e/; but not /ou/ (which now appears as /o/), nor the former sequences /aa/ /ee/ /oo/ (which now appear as /a/ /ɛ/ /ɔ/ respectively), nor in syllables closed by stop consonants (e.g. in secção "section", optar "to choose"). Hence in Portugal pesar "to weigh" /pɨzaɾ/ but pregar "to preach" /prɛgaɾ/ (former preegar < PRAEDICĀRE); morar "to live" /muɾaɾ/, but corado "blushing" /kɔɾadu/ (former coorado < COLŌRĀTUM), roubar "to rob" /ʁobaɾ/. (In Brazil these appear as /pezax/, /pregax/, /moɾax/, /koɾadu/, /xo(u)bax/.) Recently in Rio de Janeiro (and rapidly spreading to other parts of Brazil), /t/ and /d/ have been affricated to /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ before /i/, including /i/ from earlier unstressed /e/.
Old Portuguese had a large number of occurrences of hiatus (two vowels next to each other with no consonant in between), as a result of the loss of Latin /l n d g/ between vowels. In the transition to modern Portuguese, these were resolved in a complex but largely regular fashion, either remaining, compressing into a single vowel, turning into a diphthong, or gaining an epenthetic consonant such as /v/ or /ɲ/; see above.
Portuguese traditionally had two alveolar rhotic consonants, a flap /ɾ/ and trill /r/, as in Spanish. Some parts of Portugal still maintain these sounds, but in most areas, the trill /r/ has passed into a uvular fricative /ʁ/, apparently under the influence of French. In most parts of Brazil, however, /r/ has become an unvoiced fricative /x/ (variously [x χ h]), and all instances of /ɾ/ not preceding a vowel have been likewise affected. (When final, this sound is usually not pronounced at all.)
/l/ when not before a vowel became heavily velarized in Portuguese. This still remains in Portugal, but in Brazil has progressed further, merging into /w/.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
brought there by Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. It began to diverge from other Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
in the 5th century, and started to be used in written documents around the 9th century. By the 13th century it had become a mature language, with its own literature, called by modern linguists Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...
. In all aspects—phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
—it is essentially the result of an organic evolution of Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
, with fairly minor influences from other languages.
Romanization
Arriving on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, the ancient RomansAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
brought with them Latin, from which all Romance languages descend. The language was spread by arriving Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants, who built Roman cities mostly near the settlements of previous civilizations. Later, the inhabitants of the cities of Lusitania and rest of Romanized Iberia were recognized as citizens of Rome.
Roman control of the western part of Hispania was not consolidated until the campaigns of Augustus in 26 BC. Although the western territories to the south of the Tagus River were only conquered after the victory of Licinius Crassus in the year 93 BC, very few traces of the native languages persist in modern Portuguese. After 200 years of wars first with the Carthaginians and then the local inhabitants, emperor Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
conquered the whole peninsula, which was named Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
. He then divided it into three provinces
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
, Hispania Tarraconensis
Hispania Tarraconensis
Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the Mediterranean coast of Spain along with the central plateau. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was the province of Hispania Baetica...
, Hispania Baetica
Hispania Baetica
Hispania Baetica was one of three Imperial Roman provinces in Hispania, . Hispania Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis. Baetica was part of Al-Andalus under the Moors in the 8th century and approximately corresponds to modern Andalucia...
, and Lusitania
Lusitania
Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...
, the latter of which included most of modern Portugal. In the 3rd century, emperor Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
split Tarraconensis into three, creating the adjacent province of Gallaecia
Gallaecia
Gallaecia or Callaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania...
, which geographically enclosed the remaining part of Portugal, and modern-day Galicia (in the northwestern region of Spain).
Iberian Romance
Between 409409
Year 409 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius...
A.D. and 711
711
Year 711 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 711 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* April 30 – Ummayad troops led by...
, as the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by peoples of Germanic origin
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, known by the Romans as Barbarians. The Barbarians (mainly Suevi and Visigoths) largely absorbed the Roman culture and language of the peninsula; however, since the Roman schools and administration were closed and Europe entered the Dark Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
, the Latin Vulgar language was left free to evolve on its own and the uniformity of the Peninsula was soon disrupted. In the western part of the Peninsula (today's Northern Portugal and Galicia), Vulgar Latin gained some local characteristics and in that region the Suevi settled, leading to the formation of the "Lusitanian Romance Language". The Germanic languages influenced Portuguese in words linked to the military, such as guerra ("war") or laverca (lark
Lark
Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. All species occur in the Old World, and in northern and eastern Australia; only one, the Shore Lark, has spread to North America, where it is called the Horned Lark...
).
From 711
711
Year 711 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 711 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* April 30 – Ummayad troops led by...
, with the Moorish
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
invasion of the Peninsula, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
was adopted as the administrative language in the conquered regions. However, the population continued to speak their Romance dialects, known collectively as Mozarabic; so that when the Moors were overthrown, the influence that they had exerted on the language was small. Its main effect was in the lexicon: modern Portuguese still has a large number of words of Arabic origin, about 900, especially relating to food, agriculture and crafts, which have no cognates in other Romance languages, except Spanish. But there is no loan word in the lexicon related to human feelings, all being of Latin origin. The Arabic influence is also visible in placenames throughout the Southern provinces, such as Algarve, Alfama
Alfama
Alfama is the oldest district of Lisbon, spreading on the slope between the Castle of Lisbon and the Tejo river. Its name comes from the Arabic Al-hamma, meaning fountains or baths...
, or Fátima
Fatima
-People:* Fatima , a female given name of Arabic origin* Fatima bint Muhammad, daughter of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad* Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah...
.
Proto-Portuguese
| Excerpt of medieval Portuguese poetry |
|---|
| Das que vejo |
| non desejo |
| outra senhor se vós non, |
| e desejo |
| tan sobejo, |
| mataria um leon, |
| senhor do meu coraçon: |
| fin roseta, |
| bela sobre toda fror, |
| fin roseta, |
| non me meta |
| en tal coita voss'amor! |
| João de Lobeira (1270?–1330?) |
The earliest surviving records of a distinctively Portuguese language are administrative documents from the 9th century which contain bits of Romance interspersed in texts written essentially in Latin. Today this phase is known as "Proto-Portuguese" (spoken in the period between the 9th to the 12th century).
Galician-Portuguese period
What modern scholars call Galician-Portuguese was originally the native language of the medieval region of Kingdom of GaliciaKingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
, which at the start of the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
included the northern part of present-day Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. It appears to have been used regularly in the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
—as the language for lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
song. It was employed by poets from throughout the non-Basque medieval Christian kingdoms of the peninsula; including Leon
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
ese, Castilian
Castile (historical region)
A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
, Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
ese and Catalan
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. It is also the language used in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Cantigas de Santa Maria
The Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio and often attributed to him....
. These songs were traditionally attributed to Alfonso X, a Castilian king, though more recent work shows that they must have been composed in collaboration with many translators, poets and musicians. Later, when Castilian
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
started to be written in Castilian realms, Galicia fell under the influence of Castilian, and the southern variant of Galician-Portuguese became the language of Portugal.
Separation of Portugal from Galicia
Portugal was formally recognized as an independent kingdom in 1143 by the Kingdom of LeónKingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, into which Galicia was incorporated at the time, with Afonso Henriques as its first king. In 1290, king Diniz
Denis of Portugal
Dinis , called the Farmer King , was the sixth King of Portugal and the Algarve. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile and grandson of king Alfonso X of Castile , Dinis succeeded his father in 1279.-Biography:As heir to the throne, Infante Dinis was...
created the first Portuguese University in Lisbon (the Estudo Geral) and decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" (i.e. Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
) should be used in preference to Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and known as the "Portuguese language". In 1296, Portuguese was adopted by the Royal Chancellary and was used not only in poetry but also when writing law and in notaries. In the first period of "Old Portuguese" (from 12th to the 14th century), the language came gradually to be used in official documents.
Modern Portuguese standardization during the renaissance
The end of "Old Portuguese" was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de ResendeGarcia de Resende
Garcia de Resende was a Portuguese poet and editor. He served John II as a page and private secretary, and later became a knight in the Order of Christ...
, in 1516.
"Modern Portuguese" developed from the early 16th century to the present. During the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, scholars and writers borrowed many words from classical Latin
Classical Latin
Classical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
and ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, which increased the complexity of the Portuguese lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
.
As with most European vernacular languages, the standardization of the Portuguese language was propelled by the development of the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
. In 1536 Fernão de Oliveira
Fernão de Oliveira
Fernão de Oliveira , sometimes named Fernando de Oliveira, was a Portuguese grammarian, dominican friar, historian, cartographer, naval pilot and theorist on naval warfare and shipbuilding...
published his Grammatica da lingoagem portuguesa in Lisbon, the first Portuguese grammar
Portuguese grammar
Portuguese grammar, the morphology and syntax of the Portuguese language, is similar to the grammar of most other Romance languages—especially that of Spanish, and even more so to that of Galician...
. The work of this heterodox Dominican priest, philologist and mariner was soon followed. In 1540, João de Barros
João de Barros
João de Barros , called the Portuguese Livy, is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia , a history of the Portuguese in India and Asia.-Early years:...
crown officer published his Gramática da Língua Portuguesa along with moral dialogues and basics of the Catholic Church to help teaching young aristocrats. This second work, illustrated with woodcuts, is considered the world's first printed illustrated text book.
Expansion during the age of discovery
In the second period of Old Portuguese, between the 14th and the 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the Portuguese language spread to many regions of AsiaAsia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and The Americas. Today most Portuguese speakers live in Brazil. By the 16th century it had become a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in Asia and Africa, used not only for colonial administration and trade but also for communication between local officials and Europeans of all nationalities. In Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) several kings became fluent speakers of Portuguese, and nobles often took Portuguese names. The spread of the language was helped by mixed marriages between Portuguese and local people (also very common in other areas of the world) and its association with the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
efforts, which led to its being called Cristão ("Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
") in many places. The Nippo Jisho
Nippo Jisho
The Nippo Jisho or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist...
, a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written in 1603, was a product of Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
missionary activity in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, despite the severe measures taken by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to abolish it in Ceylon and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
Some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The language has largely changed in these communities and has evolved through the centuries into several Portuguese creoles
Portuguese Creole
Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have been significantly influenced by Portuguese.- Origins :Portuguese overseas exploration in the 15th and 16th century's led to the establishment of a Portuguese Empire with trading posts, forts and colonies in the Americas, Asia and Africa...
. Also, a considerable number of words of Portuguese origin are found in Tetum, the national language of East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, such as lee "to read" (from ler), aprende "to learn
Learning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
" (from aprender) and tenke "to have to" (from tem que). Portuguese words entered the lexicons of many other languages, such as pan "bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
" (from pão) in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
(see Japanese words of Portuguese origin
Japanese words of Portuguese origin
Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when Portuguese Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas, Western science, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period ....
), sepatu "shoe
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
" (from sapato) in Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, keju "cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
" (from queijo), in Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
and meza "table
Table (furniture)
A table is a form of furniture with a flat and satisfactory horizontal upper surface used to support objects of interest, for storage, show, and/or manipulation...
" (from mesa) in Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
.
Historical sound changes
Both in morphologyMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and in syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, Portuguese represents an organic transformation of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
without the direct intervention of any foreign language. The sounds, grammatical forms, and syntactical types, with a few exceptions, are derived from Latin, and almost 90% of its vocabulary is still derived from the language of Rome. Some of the changes began during the Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, others took place later. A few words remained virtually unchanged, like carro,
taberna ("tavern"), or even returned to a form close to the original, such as coxa ("thigh").
Learned Latinism
Latinism
A Latinism is an idiom, structure, or word derived from or suggestive of the Latin language. For Latinistic words in English, see Latin influence in English....
s were formed in the late Middle Ages, due to the use of Church Latin by the Catholic Church, and during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, when Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
in general, and Literary Latin
Classical Latin
Classical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it...
in particular, enjoyed great prestige. Thus, for example, Latin AURUM, which had originated ouro ("gold") and dourado ("golden"), was re-introduced as the adjective áureo ("golden"). In the same way, LOCALEM ("place"), which had evolved to lugar, was later re-introduced as the more erudite local. Many erudite Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words and combining elements were also introduced or re-introduced in this way. Because of this, many Latin words are still familiar to Portuguese speakers.
N.B.: In the Latin examples below, we have used all-capitals so as to be in line with how the ancient language was actually written. Note also that the letter V was the vowel we know today as U, and that the C was always pronounced [k], so CENTUM was originally pronounced [ˈkentũ]. Later Latinisms are marked with (L).
Palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
of voiceless stops—the consonants [k] and [t] assimilated with the high vowels [e] and [i], and with the semivowel [j].
- CENTUM > [tj]ento > [ts]ento > [s]ento (hundred)
- FACERE > fa[tj]ere > fa[ts]er > fa[dz]er > fa[z]er (to do)
A more ancient evolution was
- FORTIAM > for[ts]a > for[s]a (strength)
Voicing
Phonation
Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
—some consonants did not disappear but rather evolved with voiceless stops becoming voiced stops and voiced stops becoming voiced fricatives in certain positions:
- MUTUM > mudo (mute)
- LACUM > lago (lake)
- FABAM > fava (broadbean)
- LOCUSTAM > lagosta (lobster)
Assimilation
Assimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
—consonant clusters, especially double consonants, were simplified:
- GUTTAM > gota (drop)
- PECCARE > pecar (to sin)
Elision
Elision
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
—the consonants [l] and [n] of Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
were deleted between vowels, after which sometimes the vowels around them coalesced, or an epenthetic semivowel was introduced between them.
- DOLORE > door > dor (pain); (L) doloroso (painful)
- BONUM > bõo > bom (good)
- ANELLUM > ãelo > elo (bond); (L) anel (ring)
- SALIRE > sair (to get out)
- COLARE > coar
- NOTULAM > nódoa (stain)
- CATENAM > cadeia
Palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
of liquids and nasals—the consonants [l] and [n] assimilated with the semivowel [j], producing the palatals lh [ʎ] and nh [ɲ]:
- MULIER > mulher (woman)
- IUNIUM > junho (June)
Regressive Nasalization
Nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
—before [m] or [n] which were elided, or in syllable coda
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
, some vowels became nasal. This happened between the 6th and the 7th centuries, possibly influenced by Celtic languages previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
. This change produced one of the most striking phonological differences between Portuguese and Spanish. The history of nasal vowels in hiatus with a previous or following vowel is complex, depending on the identity of the two vowels and the position of the stress.
1. If the vowels were near each other, they collapsed into a single vowel (nasal or oral, according to the nasality of the stressed vowel):
- BONUM > bõo > bom (good)
- CALENTEM > caẽte > quente (hot)
- GANADU > gãado > gado (cattle)
- LANAM > lãa > lã (wool)
2. Otherwise, if the second vowel was more closed, the result was usually a nasal diphthong:
- MANUM > mão (hand)
- CANEM > cães (dogs)
3. If the second vowel was more open, or as open, nasalization was lost:
- LUNAM > lũa > lua (moon). Exception: VNA > ũa > uma (one)
- BONAM > bõa > boa (good, fem.)
- PLENUM > chẽo > cheio (full)
4. If the first vowel was [i], however, nasalization evolved to a palatal nasal
Palatal nasal
The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J...
consonant, inserted between the two vowels:
- VINUM > vĩo > vinho (wine)
- REGINAM > *ragina > raĩa > rainha (queen)
Progressive Nasalization
Nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
—The spread of nasalization forward from a nasal consonant, especially [m].
- MATREM > made > mae > mãe (mother)
- AD NOCTEM > ãnoite > ãõte > ontem [õtẽĩ] (yesterday).
Epenthesis
Epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
—the insertion of a sound to break up a combination of vowels which was difficult to pronounce:
- ARENA > arẽa > areia (sand); (L) arena (arena)
- GALLINA > gal[ĩ]a > galinha (chicken)
- VINO > v[ĩ]o > vinho (wine)
Examples such as the former two have been used by some authors to argue that the digraph nh was a nasal glide in medieval Portuguese, and thus its pronunciation in most dialects of Brazil and São Tomé and Príncipe is the original one
Dissimilation
Dissimilation
In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar...
—Modification of a sound by the influence of neighbouring sounds; similar became different over time, so as to ease pronunciation.
1. Between vowels:
- LOCUSTAM > lagosta (lobster)
- CAMPANAM > campãa > campa (tomb)
2. Between consonants:
- MEMORARE > nembrar > lembrar (to remember); (L) memorizar (to memorize)
- ANIMAM > alma (soul); (L) animado (animated)
- LOCALEM > logar > lugar; (L) local (place)
Metathesis
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
—a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word.
Semi-vowel metathesis:
- PRIMARIUM > primeiro (first); (L) primário (primary)
Consonant metathesis in [l] and [r]:
- TENEBRAS > teevras > trevas (darkness); this was rare in Portuguese; (L) tenebroso (dark)
Vowel metathesis:
- GENUCULUM > ɡeno[kl]o > ɡẽo[lj]o > joe[ʎ]o (knee)
Medieval sound changes
Old Portuguese had seven sibilants: lamino-alveolar affricates /ts/ (‹c› before ‹e/i›, ‹ç›) elsewhere) and /dz/ (‹z›); apico-alveolar fricatives /s/ (‹s›, or ‹ss› between vowels) and /z/ (‹s› between vowels); palato-alveolar fricatives /ʃ/ (‹x›) and /ʒ/, earlier /dʒ/ (‹j›, also ‹g› before ‹e/i›); and palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/ (‹ch›). This system was identical to the system of Old Spanish, and Portuguese followed the same path as Old Spanish in deaffricating the sibilants /ts/ and /dz/ into lamino-alveolar fricatives that still remained distinct from the apico-alveolar consonants. This produced a system of six fricatives and one affricate, which is still maintained in small parts of northeast Portuguese province of Tras-os-Montes and in the adjacent Mirandese languageMirandese language
The Mirandese language is a Romance language belonging to the Astur-Leonese linguistic group, sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and Vimioso...
; but in most places, these seven sounds have been reduced to four.
Everywhere except in the above-mentioned parts of Tras-os-Montes, the lamino-alveolar and apico-alveolar fricatives merged. (This appears to have happened no earlier than the seventeenth century, on the evidence of the spelling system used by Alexandre de Rhodes to represent Middle Vietnamese.) In northern Portugal and Galicia, they became apico-alveolars (as in the central and northern peninsular Spanish pronunciation of /s/). In most of Brazil, they became lamino-alveolar consonants (as in the English pronunciation of /s/ and /z/). In central and southern Portugal (and in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and surrounding areas, due to the relocation of the Portuguese nobility here in the early 1800's), they merged as lamino-alveolars before vowels, but as palato-alveolar /ʃ ʒ/ elsewhere. Meanwhile, /tʃ/ eventually lost its affrication and merged with /ʃ/, although /tʃ/ is maintained throughout Tras-os-Montes.
It appears that the sound written ‹v› was at one point during the medieval period pronounced as a voiced bilabial fricative
Voiced bilabial fricative
-See also:* List of phonetics topics...
[β]. Subsequently, it either changed into a labiodental fricative [v] (as in central and southern Portugal, and hence in Brazil), or merged into /b/ (as in northern Portugal and Galicia, similarly to modern Spanish). Also similarly to modern Spanish, the voiced stops /b d g/ eventually became pronounced as fricatives [β ð ɣ] between vowels and after consonants, other than in the clusters /nd/ /ld/ /ng/ /mb/ (the nasals were presumably still pronounced in these clusters, rather than simply reflected as a nasal vowel). However, this change happened after the colonization of Brazil, and never affected Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
.
Final unstressed /a/ was subsequently raised to /ɐ/. Final /o/ was eventually raised to /u/ in both Portugal and Brazil, but independently. Final unstressed /e/ was likewise raised to /i/ in Brazil, but shifted to /ɨ/ in Portugal (now barely pronounced). In Portugal (but not in Brazil), these changes have come to affect almost all unstressed instances of /a/ /o/ /e/; but not /ou/ (which now appears as /o/), nor the former sequences /aa/ /ee/ /oo/ (which now appear as /a/ /ɛ/ /ɔ/ respectively), nor in syllables closed by stop consonants (e.g. in secção "section", optar "to choose"). Hence in Portugal pesar "to weigh" /pɨzaɾ/ but pregar "to preach" /prɛgaɾ/ (former preegar < PRAEDICĀRE); morar "to live" /muɾaɾ/, but corado "blushing" /kɔɾadu/ (former coorado < COLŌRĀTUM), roubar "to rob" /ʁobaɾ/. (In Brazil these appear as /pezax/, /pregax/, /moɾax/, /koɾadu/, /xo(u)bax/.) Recently in Rio de Janeiro (and rapidly spreading to other parts of Brazil), /t/ and /d/ have been affricated to /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ before /i/, including /i/ from earlier unstressed /e/.
Old Portuguese had a large number of occurrences of hiatus (two vowels next to each other with no consonant in between), as a result of the loss of Latin /l n d g/ between vowels. In the transition to modern Portuguese, these were resolved in a complex but largely regular fashion, either remaining, compressing into a single vowel, turning into a diphthong, or gaining an epenthetic consonant such as /v/ or /ɲ/; see above.
Portuguese traditionally had two alveolar rhotic consonants, a flap /ɾ/ and trill /r/, as in Spanish. Some parts of Portugal still maintain these sounds, but in most areas, the trill /r/ has passed into a uvular fricative /ʁ/, apparently under the influence of French. In most parts of Brazil, however, /r/ has become an unvoiced fricative /x/ (variously [x χ h]), and all instances of /ɾ/ not preceding a vowel have been likewise affected. (When final, this sound is usually not pronounced at all.)
/l/ when not before a vowel became heavily velarized in Portuguese. This still remains in Portugal, but in Brazil has progressed further, merging into /w/.
See also
- Differences between Spanish and PortugueseDifferences between Spanish and PortugueseAlthough Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, to the point of having a considerable degree of mutual intelligibility, there are also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other...
- Galician languageGalician languageGalician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
- History of GaliciaHistory of GaliciaThe Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, first by Neanderthals and then by modern humans.-Megalithic culture:Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias, western León, and Zamora formed a single megalithic area since the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages, around 4500–1500...
- History of PortugalHistory of PortugalThe history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...
- History of BrazilHistory of BrazilThe history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then moving south....
- List of English words of Portuguese origin
- Portuguese vocabularyPortuguese vocabularyMost of the Portuguese vocabulary comes from Latin, since Portuguese is a Romance language. However, other languages that came into contact with it have also left their mark...
- Romance languagesRomance languagesThe Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
- Spelling reforms of PortugueseSpelling reforms of PortugueseThis article is about the spelling reforms of the Portuguese language.-Historical background:Portuguese began to be used regularly in documents and poetry around the 12th century...
- Museum of the Portuguese LanguageMuseum of the Portuguese LanguageThe Museum of the Portuguese Language is an interactive Portuguese language — and Linguistics/Language Development in general — museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Estação da Luz train station, in the urban district of the same name...