Portuguese IV. 2017–18. Phonetics and phonology III
Phonetics and phonology III. Suprasegmentals. Transcriptions
Portuguese IV. An introduction to the structure and history of Portuguese. 2017–18
Víctor Acedo-Matellán University of Oxford
Outline
1 Víctor Acedo-Matellán. University of Oxford
The syllable
Definition and psychological reality Segments are grouped in sequences called syllables:
[a.zɐ] (asa) [koɫ.ʃɐʃ] (colcha) [kõ.pɾɐwɐ ɐ] (compram)
Different facts attest to the psychological reality of syllables. For instance, slips of the tongue frequently involve the swapping of whole syllables:
[gɐ.zu.li.nɐ] / [zɐ.gu.li.nɐ]
Language games require awareness of the syllable structure of words:
[ka.zɐ] → [ka.pɐ.za.pɐ] [fi.gu] → [fi.pi.gu.pu]
[pɛ.dɾa] → [ɛ.dɾɐ.pi]
Constituents Syllables have an internal constituent structure, i.e., they are composed of different constituents organized hierarchically.
All syllables are headed by a nucleus, which in all languages can be a vowel, and in most languages, like Portuguese has to be a vowel —or diphthong:
[a.zɐ] [koɫ.ʃɐʃ] [kõ.pɾɐɐwɐ]
In the unmarked case, nuclei are preceded by a consonant or group of consonants, the onset, which, however, can be absent:
[a.zɐ] [koɫ.ʃɐʃ] [kõ.pɾɐwɐ ɐ]
In the unmarked case, nuclei are not followed by any consonant or group of consonants. But they can be, and this is what we call the coda, which, together with the nucleus, forms the rhyme:
[a.zɐ] [koɫ.ʃɐʃ] [kõ.pɾɐwɐ ɐ]
The onset and the coda are the margins. Portuguese allows complex margins but, like all languages, segments in complex margins are arranged according to the Sonority Principle: the sonority of
2 Portuguese IV. 2017–18. Phonetics and phonology III these segments increases the closer they are to the Nucleus. Relative sonority is established by the Sonority Scale:
vowels (low > medium > high) > glides, > liquids > nasals > fricatives > plosives
fɾo, *ɾfo, pjo, *jpo, ljo, *jlo oɾs, *osɾ
Onsets All consonants can be onsets, but [ɾ] never appears in word-initial position and [ɲ] and [ʎ] are highly restricted in this position.
Plosives can combine with a tap or the alveolar lateral in complex onsets, always respecting the Sonority Principle, and [ttl] and [dt l] are impossible clusters.
Labiodental fricatives can combine with a tap or the alveolar lateral, but [vl] is non-existent and [vɾ] in general does not appear in word-initial position:
[fɾ]io [fl]or pala[vɾ]a
In EP there are exceptional clusters that may even violate the Sonority Principle:
[ptt]ério [ʃp]aço (espaço) [pk]eno (pequeno) [ps]icologia [ʒv]air (esvair) [sg]uro (seguro) [ttm]ese [ʃf]inge (esfinge) [tlf]one (telefone) [gn]omo [ʃt]ar (estar) [ʀmm]orar (rememorar) [dʃpɾd]içar (desperdiçar)
Although phonetically these are the facts, evidence exists that at the phonological level these consonants do not belong to the same syllable. One of the pieces of evidence is crossdialectal comparison: BP inserts [i] either in between the consonants or before them:
[pitt]ério [iʃp]aço (espaço) [pik]eno (pequeno) [pis]icologia [iʒv]air (esvair) [sig]uro (seguro) [ttim]ese [iʃf]inge (esfinge) [tilif]one (telefone) [gin]omo [iʃt]ar (estar)
Analysis with an empty nucleus N, which does not surface in EP and surfaces as [i] in BP:
/p∅.t/ério /∅s.p/aço /p∅.k/eno
Rhymes
Nuclei In addition to simple vowels, nuclei can be complex in admitting a postvocalic glide:
b[oj] 3 Víctor Acedo-Matellán. University of Oxford
d[ew]s
One of the arguments that postvocalic glides are part of the nucleus (and not the coda) is that, unlike coda consonants, they are obligatorily nasal whenever the vowel is nasal:
n[ãwɐ] (não) le[õj]sɐ (leões)
Glides may also appear before vowels (in rising diphthongs) in more colloquial registers:
farmác[ja] s[wɔ]r m[ju]do c[wɛ]cas
But there are reasons to doubt they are part of the nucleus, one of them being that they do not nasalize before a nasal vowel:
cr[jã]çada, *cr[jã]çadaɐ
Thus, at the phonological level these glides are considered high vowels in nucleus position that become part of the onset of the next syllable:
farmá/si.a/ → farmá[[sj]Onset a]
Codas In simple codas we only find /l/, /s/ and the vibrants, with their different realizations:
ca[ɫ]ma ma[ɾ] ~ ma[ʀ] ~ ma[h] ~ ma[x] pe[s]te ~ pe[ʃ]te
At the phonological level many analyses posit that nasal codas are possible; they nasalize the preceding vowel, but do not surface:
f/iN/ → f/iN/ → f[i]
As is the case with complex onsets of the [pk] kind, phonetically complex codas in EP, including a plosive and /s/ can be argued to phonologically involve an empty nucleus, whereby the first consonant is an onset and the second is a coda:
pe/ɾ∅s./pectiva → pe[ɾʃ.]pectiva
Again, BP brings in overt evidence of the underlying nucleus:
pe[ɾis.]pectiva
Suprasegmentals Vowels and consonants are segments, i.e., the discrete phonic units into which a sequence may be broken down. As we have seen, certain sequences of segments are syllables.
Other features superimposed on syllables are suprasegmentals, i.e., phonic features that affect either single segments or a whole syllable. 4 Portuguese IV. 2017–18. Phonetics and phonology III
Stress Stress is the relative prominence of a syllable in comparison with other syllables in a certain domain —which is the word, in Portuguese and English.
Phonetically, stress correlates with a higher pitch (in the fundamental frequency, F0), duration and intensity in Portuguese, at least when words are observed in isolation.
Prima facie, stress in Portuguese is phonologically contrastive, since it distinguishes segmentally identical words:
amaram / amarão
However, since Portuguese —at least EP— also shows vowel reduction conditioned by stress, pairs such as the above one are often also distinguished by their segments at the phonetic level:
[ɐ.ˈma.ɾɐwɐ ɐ] / [ɐ.mɐ.ˈɾɐwɐ ɐ]
There are oxytone, paroxytone or proparoxytone words, depending on whether the stress falls on the last, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable:
jacaˈré / baˈtata / ˈpérola
For nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, the unmarked case (70%) is for stress to fall on the penultimate syllable in those ending in a vowel:
asˈfalto, ˈpato, ˈposte, coˈrrecto, provoˈcante
When they end in a consonant they are oxytones in the unmarked case:
poˈmar, fuˈnil, estraˈgão, subˈtil, feˈliz
The other possible cases —proparoxytonic nouns/adjectives, paroxytonic ones ending in a consonant or diphthong, and oxytonic ones ending in a vowel are generally considered irregular, although the last class is not small:
ˈfósforo, ˈárvore, ˈcómodo ˈnível, ˈjóquei, ˈjovem caˈfé, peˈru, coliˈbri, aˈvó
A way to unify the unmarked cases is by assuming that stress falls on the last syllable of the stem:
asˈfalt (asfalto), ˈpost (poste), poˈmar, caˈfé
Function or grammatical words are usually unstressed. This is the case with definite articles, clitic pronouns, prepositions (of mixed lexical and grammatical status), most conjunctions and simple relative pronouns:
a casa, as casas mi árbol, mis amapolas te dar, dar-te
5 Víctor Acedo-Matellán. University of Oxford
para a casa, com a casa e as casas a casa que tenho
With some exceptions, verbal forms have a columnar stress pattern, i.e., stress is always assigned on the same syllable according to grammatical features like tense, person and number, and irrespective of the verb stem itself: theme vowel for past tenses, TAM morpheme for future and conditional, and, for the present tenses, them vowel for the 1pl and 2pl persons and the last vowel of the stem in the rest of persons:
canˈtaste, coˈmiu, dorˈmisse
cantaˈrás, comeˈremos, dormiˈrão
canˈtamos, coˈmemos, dorˈmis ˈcanto, ˈcomes, ˈdormem
Intonation. Some intonational contours The rate of vibration of the vocal folds determines the pitch of the syllable, correlated with the fundamental frequency or F0 of the sound wave.
In Portuguese —or English— pitch does not distinguish different lexical items —as it does in Chinese, for instance. But it distinguish types of utterances:
Mais. / Mais? / ¡Mais!
This use of pitch is called intonation, a suprasegmental. Types of utterances are thus distinguished by pitch or intonational contours or melodies. Intonation also functions as a chunking procedure, delimiting the boundaries of phrases, and for highlighting (placement of prominence).
The different intonational contours are characterized by tonal events, i.e., pitches associated with certain syllables in the sentence.
Tonal events associated with stressed syllables are pitch accents, while those aligned with phrasal boundaries are boundary tones. Tones are either high (H, tonal peak) or low (L, tonal valley).
Pitch accents are represented with an asterisk after the H/L symbol, marking the stressed syllable, which does not necessarily bear the highest tone (H*); it might bear a tonal valley (L*) or it might show a rise in pitch leading to a tonal peak in the next syllable (L*+H) or follow a tonal peak in the preceding one (H+L*):
(“What about John and Mary?”)
Ca.ˈsa. ram.] H+L*
Boundary tones are represented with a percentage symbol: H% (final high tone), L% (final low tone), etc.
(“What about John and Mary?”)
6 Portuguese IV. 2017–18. Phonetics and phonology III
Ca.ˈsa. ram.] H+L* L%
Simple declarative sentences In this case, the whole sentence constitutes new information (wide focus). The overall contour falls after the first peak (EP).
The last pitch accent has, however, greater prominence: it’s the nuclear accent of the utterance, indicated in boldface. The nuclear accent here also shows a falling pattern, with the tonal peak on the unstressed syllable. The previous pitch accents are prenuclear accents.
EP and BP show differences in their prenuclear accents, but not on their nuclear accent. In EP the prenuclear contour contains just an initial high tone and an accentless stretch up to the nuclear fall. In BP, on the other hand, we find a pitch accent per prosodic word.
Wh-questions In wh-questions the nuclear contour is also H+L* L%. In the case of European Portuguese, the prenuclear contour shows a high plateau similar to that found in statements.
In BP, wh‐ questions are characterized by an extra‐ high pitch in the wh‐ word and a gradual fall over the following syllables, until the last stressed syllable.
Yes-no questions
The nuclear contour distinguishes yes–no questions from statements. In EP, yes–no questions show an obligatory final rise: a nuclear accent of H+L* type followed by a boundary rise (LH%):
In BP, by contrast, yes–no questions end with a rise–fall contour that comprises an accentual rise (L+H) and a L% boundary:
Transcriptions
Generalities A representation of the unpredictable aspects of speech is a phonemic transcription: it includes phonemes:
torres brancas /toɾɾes bɾaNkas/
Phonetic transcriptions represent phones. They can represent more or less predictable (i.e., contextually determined) elements, i.e., they can be narrow or broad, although the difference is not categorical. For instance, we may not want to specify that [t] in Portuguese is dental rather than alveolar:
[ˈto.ʀɨʒ ˈbɾɐ.kɐʃ]ɐ EP
But a narrow phonetic transcription of the EP version of the same passage would like this:
7 Víctor Acedo-Matellán. University of Oxford
[ˈtto.ʀɨʒ ˈbɾɐ.kɐʃ]ɐ EP
Similarly, we may want to provide a further level of phonetic detail according to register: in an unmonitored register in EP we may find vowel deletion:
[ˈttoʀʒ ˈbɾɐkʃ]ɐ EP
Other levels of phonetic detail may include devoicing of vowels or the appearance of a secondary place of articulation in adjacent consonants:
postal [puu ʃtaɫ] EP
quanto [kwɐtɐ w] EP
In general, narrow phonetic transcriptions are tailored to dialect and register, which have to be specified in the transcription.
torres [ˈto.hiʃ] BP: Carioca [ˈto.xis] BP: elsewhere
comer alface [ku.ˈme aw.ˈfa.si] BP: unmonitored [ku.ˈme. ɾaw.ˈfa.si] BP: monitored
Syllabification between words (resyllabification) Important for phonetic transcriptions is the syllabification processes that take place between words in connected speech
A final consonant syllabifies as the onset of a syllable whose nucleus is the initial vowel of the following word:
torres altas [ˈto.ʀɨ ˈzaɫ.tɐʃ] EP
Of course when transcribing BP it should be noted that in some varieties word-final consonants are lost:
comer alface [ku.ˈme aw.ˈfa.si] BP: unmonitored [ku.ˈme. ɾaw.ˈfa.si] BP: monitored
Contiguous vowels belonging to different words may also be syllabified together. Two identical unstressed vowels may fuse, yielding a single syllable:
jane[la bɛɾ]ta to[ʀɨ noɾ]me
8 Portuguese IV. 2017–18. Phonetics and phonology III
If the second vowel is either unstressed /i/ or /u/, the vowels may be in separate syllables or combine to form a diphthong, or the first vowel may be elided:
essa igreja: [sa.i] / [saj] / [si] essa usina: [sa.u] / [saw] / [su]
9