Portuguese Grammar

Gramática Portuguesa

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What is Phonology?

Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages. Put more formally, phonology is the study of the categorical organization of speech sounds in languages; how speech sounds are organized in the mind and used to convey meaning. In this section of the website, we will describe the most common phonological processes and introduce the concepts of underlying representations for sounds versus what is actually produced, the surface form.

Speech sounds are also called phonemes. A phoneme is defined as the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in meaning. Some phonemes are represented with single letters and some phonemes are represented with two letters or maybe more. This is the case of the phoneme /z/, which can be represented by the letters z, s, x. Examples 

zebra = zebra 

casamento = marriage 

exílio = exile 

 Remember that a phoneme is not the same as a letter! Phonemes are speech sounds. Letters are used to represent sounds. This will be especially important when we begin counting the phonemes in words. For example, the word tóxico has six letters, but 7 phonemes:/t/ó/k/s/i/c/o/. As we move through this module, keep this in mind. 

Therefore, the letter is the graphic representation of the phoneme. In the word sapo, for example, the letter s represents the phoneme /s/  in the word casa, the letter s represents the phoneme /z/.

In some cases, the same letter can represent more than one phoneme. The letter x, for example, can represent:

– the phoneme sê: texto = text

– the phoneme zê:  exibir = display

– the phoneme chê: enxame = swarm

– the phoneme  ks: táxi = taxi

The letters m and n, in certain words, do not represent phonemes.for examples:

Campo = 5 letters

/k/ /ã/ /p/ /o/ = 4 phonemes

Atento =6 letters

/a/ /t/ // /t/ /o/ = 5 phonemes

In these words, the letters (m and n) indicate the nasalization of the vowels that precede them.

When they do not perform a nasalization function, the letters M and N become phonemes.

Soma = 4 letters

/s/ /o/ /m/ /a/ = 4 phonemes

Navio = 5 letters

/n/ /a/ /v/ /i/ /o/ = 5 phonemes

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