Uruguayan Portuguese

Uruguayan Portuguese
Português uruguaio
Native to	Northern Uruguay, near Brazilian border
Native speakers	An estimated 350,000 people (date missing)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Galician-Portuguese Portuguese Uruguayan Portuguese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	51-AAA-am[2]

Border of Peace between Rivera and Livramento.

Uruguayan Portuguese, also known as Fronteiriço, is a variety of Portuguese with influences from Spanish. It is spoken in northern Uruguay, near Brazilian border, mainly in region of the twin cities of Rivera (Uruguay) and Santana do Livramento (Brazil). This section of the frontier is called Frontera de la Paz (Border of Peace), because there is no legal obstacle to crossing the border between the two countries.

The varieties of Uruguayan Portuguese share many similarities with countryside dialects of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, such as the denasalization of final unstressed nasal vowels, replacement of lateral palatal /ʎ/ with semivowel /j/, failure to apply the raising rule to final unstressed /e/, alveolar trill /r/, instead of the guttural R, and lateral realization of coda /l/ instead of L-vocalization.^[3]

Recent changes in Uruguayan Portuguese is the urbanization of this variety, acquiring characteristics from urban Brazilian Portuguese, such as distinction between /ʎ/ and /j/, affrication of /t/ and /d/ before /i/ and /ĩ/, and other features of Brazilian broadcast media.^[4]

History

The origin of Portuguese in Uruguay can be traced back to the time of the dominion of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, and the Empire of Brazil. In those times, the ownership of those lands were not very well defined, passing back and forth from the hands of one crown to the other.

Portuguese was the only language spoken throughout northern Uruguay until the end of the 19th century. To assure the homogeneity of the newly formed country, the government made an effort to impose the Spanish language into lusophones communities through educational policies and language planning, and the bilingualism became widespread and diglossic.^[5]

The varieties of Uruguayan Portuguese varies in dialect continuum which range from Rioplatense Spanish to Brazilian Portuguese. Nevertheless, it has one variant which is the most used, and could be taken as a case study: this variant is geographically located on the area having the cities of Rivera and Santana do Livramento as its center, and expanding over a strip of several kilometers parallel to the border, including territory of both nations.

Phonology and orthography

The Riverense language doesn't possess a formally defined orthography, but in this article an orthography of Portuñol will be presented in order to enable its phonemes to be represented in the most accurate and consistent possible way, highlighting the phonologic features of this language variety. It should be noted that not all Portuñol-speaking persons use the same pronunciation for the same words (as is the case with most languages). Nevertheless, the script that is chosen is very representative of the most frequent and distinctive features.

The chosen representation is the closest to the one that would be used if we tried to transcribe the phonemes to the Spanish language (because this is the language taught to Uruguayans, which is the nationality of the majority of speakers of this dialect), except for the phonemes that can't be represented through the Spanish alphabet, like, for example the nasal vowels.

Spanish vowels

The Spanish vowels are the ones which are pronounced like the five vowels of the Spanish language (they also exist in Portuguese):

letter	IPA	Portuñol	Pronunciation (IPA)	Spanish (Rioplatense dialect)	Portuguese	English
a	a	papa	[ˈpapa]	papa	batata	potato
		catarata	[kataˈɾata]	catarata	catarata / queda d'água	waterfall
e	e	peshe	[ˈpeʃe]	pez	peixe	fish
		detergente	[deterˈχente]	detergente	detergente	detergent
i	i, j	cisco	[ˈsisko]	basura	lixo	garbage
		niño	[ˈniɲo]	nido	ninho	nest
		ciá	[sja]	cenar	jantar/cear	to have dinner
o	o	ontonte	[onˈtonte]	anteayer	anteontem	day before yesterday
		oio	[ˈojo]	ojo	olho	eye
		poso	[ˈposo]	pozo	poço	well
u	u, w	yururú	[ʒuɾuˈɾu]	triste, melancólico	triste, melancólico/jururu	sad, melancholic
		nu	[nu]	en el	no / em	in the (m.)
		acuá	[aˈkwa]	ladrar	latir/ladrar	to bark

Portuguese vowels

These vowels are found in Portuguese, but not in Spanish.

Semiopen vowels

They are like the vowels e and o, but pronounced in a more open way, closer to an a.

letter	IPA	Portuñol	Pronunciation (IPA)	Spanish	Portuguese	English
é	ɛ	té	[tɛ]	té	chá	tea
		pél	[pɛl]	piel	pele	skin
		véia	[ˈvɛja]	vieja	velha	old (f.)
ó	ɔ	fófóca	[fɔˈfɔka]	chisme	fofoca	gossip
		póso	[ˈpɔso]	puedo	posso	(I) can

Distinguishing the open-mid vowels (é, ó) is very important because they can completely change the meaning of a word, like in the following examples:

avó [aˈvɔ] (grandmother) and avô [aˈvo] (grandfather)

véio [ˈvɛjo] (old (m.)) and veio [ˈvejo] (he came - from the verb ví [to come])

véia [ˈvɛja] (old (f.)) and veia [ˈveja] (vein)

póso [ˈpɔso] ((I) can) and poso [ˈposo] (well)

Nasal vowels

The nasal vowels are the vowels which are produced by expiring the air partly through the nose and partly through the mouth. They don't exist in Spanish and therefore are generally derived from Portuguese words.

IPA	letters	Portuñol	Pronunciation (IPA)	Spanish	Portuguese	English
ã	ã	masã	[maˈsã]	manzana	maçã	apple
		lã	[lã]	lana	lã	wool
		sã	[sã]	sana (adj.)	sã	healthy (f.)
	an (*)	cansha	[ˈkãʃa]	cancha	campo desportivo	sports ground
ẽ	en (*)	pênsaũ	[ˈpẽsaw̃]	piensan	pensam	(they) think
ĩ	in (**)	intonce	[ĩˈtõse]	entonces	então	then
õ	õ	garsõ	[ɡarˈsõ]	mozo (de bar o restaurante)	garçom/empregado de mesa	waiter (bar, restaurant)
		tõ	[tõ]	tono	tom	tone
	on (*)	intonce	[ĩˈtõse]	entonces	então	then
ũ, w̃	ũ	ũ	[ũ]	uno	um	one (m.)
		cũtigo	[kũˈtiɣo]	contigo	contigo	with you
		niñũa	[niˈɲũa]	ninguna	nenhuma	no one (f.)
		maũ	[maw̃]	mano	mão	hand

(*) before s, sh, y, z, ce, ci.

(**) before s, sh, y, z, ce, ci, or when it is the first syllable and is not followed by ga, gue, gui, go, gu, ca, que, qui, co, cu or k.

Distinguishing nasal vowels is very important, because they can completely change the meaning of the word, like in the following examples:

paũ [ˈpaw̃] (bread) and pau [ˈpaw] (stick)

nũ [nũ] (in a (m.)) and nu [nu] (in the (m.))

nũa [ˈnũ.a] (in a (f.)) and núa [ˈnu.a] (naked (f.))

ũ [ũ] (one, a (m.)) and u [u] (the (m.))

cũ [kũ] (with) and cu [ˈku] (anus - vulgar term)

ũs [ũs] (some (m.)) and us [us] (the (m.pl.))

Consonants

In the next table, when there is a reference to Spanish, it refers to the Rioplatense Spanish dialect, and where there is a reference to Portuguese, it refers to Brazilian Portuguese and more specifically the Gaúcho dialect (from the Brazilian Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul).

letter	IPA	name	description	examples and counter-examples (eng=English, esp=Spanish, port=Portuguese)
b	b, β	be	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish and Portuguese. It is always a bilabial.	brabo [ˈbɾaβo] (eng. angry, esp. enojado/bravo, port. zangado/bravo).
c	k, s	ce	It is used the same as in Spanish and Portuguese when before a vowel or a consonant different from h,. That is, it represents the phoneme [k] when it is followed by the vowels a, o, u, ã, õ, ũ, ó, another consonant than h; and it represents the phoneme [s] when it is located before the vowels e, i, é.	cacimba [kaˈsimba] (eng. hole with drinkable water, esp. cachimba, port. cacimba).
ch	tʃ	ce hache, che	It is always used as in Spanish and is equivalent to tch in Portuguese.	che [tʃe] (esp. che, port. tchê), bombacha [bomˈbatʃa] (underpants), bombasha [bomˈbaʃa] (gaucho's trousers).
d	d, ð	de	Used the same as in Spanish. It never represents, as in some regions of Brazil, the affricate [dʒ].	diploide [diˈplojðe] (eng. diploid, esp. diploide, port. diplóide [dʒiˈplɔjdʒi]).
f	f	efe	The same phoneme as in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
g	a, ɣ, χ	ge	It represents the same sound as in Spanish and Portuguese when located before a consonant or the vowels a, o, u, ã, õ, ũ, ó. It represents the same sound as the Spanish j (similar to English h) when located before the vowels e, i, é.	gagueyá [ɡaɣeˈʒa] (eng. to stammer, esp. tartamudear, port. gaguejar), geología [χeoloˈχia] (eng, geology, esp. geología, port. geologia).
h		hache	Silent, except when it follows a c or an s. In Portuñol, it is preferred not to use h when it is not present in the original word in Spanish or Portuguese.	hoye [ˈoʒe] (eng. today, esp. hoy, port. hoje), oso [ˈoso] (eng. bone, esp. hueso, port. osso)
j	χ	jota	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish (similar to English h).	jirafa [χiˈɾafa] sounds like Spanish and yirafa [ʒiˈɾafa] sounds like Portuguese (eng. giraffe, esp. jirafa, port. girafa)
k	k	ka	Represents the same phoneme as in Spanish and Portuguese (and English).
l	l	ele	Represents the same phoneme as in Spanish or European Portuguese. In Brazilian Portuguese, an l at the end of a word sounds like an [u] or [w]; in Fronterizo this never happens.	Brazil [bɾaˈzil] (eng. Brazil, esp. and port. Brasil)
m	m	eme	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish (voiced bilabial nasal). In Portuguese, an m denotes many different sounds, depending on the preceding vowels.
n	n, ŋ	ene	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish, except the cases exposed in the nasal vowels section.	amên [aˈmen] (eng. amen, esp. amén), amêñ [aˈmeɲ] (eng. amen, port. amém), inté [ĩˈtɛ] (eng. see you later, esp. hasta luego, port. até mais), sanga [ˈsaŋɡa] (eng. ditch, esp. zanja, port. valeta)
ñ	ɲ	eñe	Is the same phoneme as in Spanish (in Portuguese a similar sound is represented by the digraph nh).	niño [ˈniɲo] (eng. nest, esp. nido, port. ninho), carpiñ [kaɾˈpiɲ] (eng. sock, esp. calcetín, port. meia), muñto [ˈmuɲto] (eng. a lot of, esp. mucho, port. muito), ruñ [ruɲ] (eng. wicked, bad or rotten, esp. malo, port. ruim)
p	p	pe	Represents the same phoneme as in Spanish and Portuguese (and English).
q	k	cu	Represents the same phoneme as in Spanish and Portuguese (and English). It is always followed by a u.
r	ɲ, ɾ	erre, ere	It represents the same pair of phonemes as in Spanish.
s	s, z	ese	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish; except when at the end of a word and the following word begins with a vowel, or when located before a voiced consonant. In these cases it is phonetically equivalent to the Portuguese z [z].	asesino [aseˈsino] (eng. murderer, esp. asesino, port. assassino), read like in Portuguese it would be azezino [azeˈzino], a non-existent word in Portuñol; más flaco [masˈflako] (eng. skinnier, esp. más flaco, port. mais magro), más gordo [mazˈɣordo] (eng. fatter, esp. más gordo, port. mais gordo)
sh	ʃ	ese hache, she	It represents the same phoneme that is represented by the digraph ch in Portuguese (that is, the English sh)	shuva [ˈʃuva] (eng. rain, esp. lluvia, port. chuva); aflósha [aˈflɔʃa] (eng. don't disturb, esp. no molestes, port. não perturbe)
t	t	te	It represents the same phoneme as in Spanish and is never affricate.	tímidamente [ˈtimiðaˈmente] (eng. shyly, esp, tímidamente, port. timidamente [ˌtʃimidɐˈmẽtʃi]).
v	v	ve	It represents the same phoneme as in Portuguese and English, that is, a voiced labiodental fricative or more rarely a voiced bilabial fricative.	vaso [ˈvaso] (eng. glass, esp. vaso, port. copo). When used as in Spanish, it becomes baso [ˈbaso] (eng. spleen, esp. bazo)
w	w	doblevê	It is used in the words derived from English, but it is convenient to follow the orthographic rules of Portuñol, for the words that are already part of this language.	whisky or uísqui [ˈwiski], show or shou [ʃow]
x	ks	equis, shis	It represents the consonant cluster [ks].	exelente [ekseˈlente] (eng. excellent, esp. and port. excelente)
y	ʒ, j	ye, í griega	As in Rioplatense Spanish, it is postalveolar (as the s in measure); except when at the end of a world which finishes with a diphthong or a triphthong, in which case the sound is the same of Spanish or Portuguese i.	yurá [ʒuˈɾa] (eng. to swear, esp. jurar; port. jurar); Uruguay [uɾuˈɣwaj] (port. Uruguai); yacaré [ʒakaˈɾɛ] (eng. South American alligator, esp. yacaré, port. jacaré)
z	z	ceta	It represents the same phoneme as in Portuguese and English.	caza [ˈkaza] (eng. house, esp. casa, port. casa); casa [ˈkasa] (eng. hunting, esp. caza, port. caça)
zy	z, zʒ, ʒ	ceta ye	It is used in some words that have a phoneme which varies continuously between z and y (depending on the speaker).	cuazye [ˈkwazʒe] (eng. almost, esp. casi, port. quase); ezyemplo [ezˈʒemplo] (eng. example, esp. ejemplo, port. exemplo).

See also

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese

References

1. Centenas de milhares de uruguaios têm português como língua materna
2. Linguasphere-Register
3. Carvalho (2004:131)
4. Carvalho (2004:144)
5. Carvalho (2004:130)

Bibliography

• CARVALHO, Ana Maria. Variation and diffusion of Uruguayan Portuguese in a bilingual border town, by Ana Maria Carvalho, University of California at Berkeley USA. (PDF)
• Lipski, John M. (2006). "Too close for comfort? The genesis of "portuñol/portunhol"" (PDF). Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. ed. Timothy L. Face and Carol A. Klee, 1-22. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. (PDF)
• Nicolás Brian, Claudia Brovetto, Javier Geymonat, Portugués del Uruguay y educación bilingüe
• Penny, Ralph (2001). "Variation and Change in Spanish". Cambridge University Press. [Contains a section on Portuñol].
• Carvalho, Ana Maria (2004), "I speak like the guys on TV: Palatalization and the urbanization of Uruguayan Portuguese", Language Variation and Change 16 (2): 127–151, doi:10.1017/S0954394504162030

External links

• Page about Uruguayan Portunhol (in Portuguese) at Unicamp - University of Campinas, São Paulo (in Portuguese)
• Adolfo Elizaincín website
• (Interlingua) (English) (Portuguese) (Spanish) Portuñol, a new language that is gaining popularity among people who live close to the borders of Brazil and its neighboring Spanish-speaking countries