Central northeastern Portuguese explained

Central northeastern Portuguese
Nativename:	Dialeto nordestino central
Pronunciation:	pronounced as /pt/
States:	Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Pernambuco (except Recife metropolitan area and Zona da Mata), Ceará (South and South-Central, region also known popularly as "Cariri"), Bahia (North and North-Central, in the São Francisco River Valley), southeastern of Piauí and southwest of Maranhão
Speakers:	50 million
Date:	no date
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Italic
Fam3:	Latin
Fam4:	Romance
Fam5:	Western
Fam6:	Ibero-Romance
Fam7:	West Iberian
Fam8:	Galician-Portuguese
Fam9:	Portuguese
Fam10:	Vernacular Brazilian
Isoexception:	dialect
Lingua:	51-AAA-am
Notice:	IPA
Glotto:	none

The central northeastern dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (Portuguese: dialeto nordestino central) is a dialect spoken in the central part of the Northeast Region, Brazil, in all the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas and Sergipe, much of the state of Pernambuco (except for the Zona da Mata and the Recife metropolitan area), north of Bahia, south of Ceará, southeastern of Piauí and a few regions of Maranhão. It has roughly about 53,000,000 native speakers and varies within the region. This dialect shares similarities between north coast, Baiano and Recifense dialects.

Main features

• Predominant use of voiced (d) and voiceless (t) dental stops before close front unrounded vowel (i) even in final syllables "de" and "te", like presente pronounced as /[pɾɛˈzẽti]/ ("present") and diário pronounced as /[diˈaɾju]/ ("daily").
• Palatalization predominant (but not always recurring) of fricatives pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z// in pronounced as //ʃ// and pronounced as //ʒ// before voiceless (pronounced as /t/) and voiced (pronounced as /d/) alveolar stops, and also, but less often, before the denti-alveolar lateral approximant (pronounced as /l/) and the denti-alveolar nasal (pronounced as /n/), like poste pronounced as /[ˈpɔʃti]/ ("post"), desde pronounced as /[ˈdeʒdi]/ ("from", "since"), os navios pronounced as /[uʒ naˈviws]/ ('the ships"), and dois lados pronounced as /[ˈdojʒ ˈladʊs]/ ("two sides").
• Debuccalization of syllable-final pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z// in colloquial speech (in a number of words and with varying frequency according to the place) to the glottal fricatives [h] and [ɦ] (when in the end of words, this only happens if there's another word following it, but if it doesn't, the pronunciations of these consonants are the standard ones), like mesmo pronounced as /[ˈmeɦmʊ]/ ("same") and eu fiz tudo pronounced as /[ˈew ˈfih 'tudʊ]/ (being more common pronounced as /[ˈew ˈfiʃ 'tudʊ]/).
• Debuccalization of the letter "v" (normally pronounced as pronounced as /[v]/) in colloquial speech to the voiced glottal fricative pronounced as /[ɦ]/, in some of the verbal forms (those starting with "v") of the verbs "Ir" ("to go"), "Vir" ("to come") and "Ver" ("to see"), like Vamo? pronounced as /[ˈɦɐ̃mʊ̥]/ or pronounced as /[ˈɦɐ̃m]/ ("Let's go?"), Tu vem? pronounced as /[ˈtu ˈɦẽj̃]/ ("Are you coming?") and Vai te embora! pronounced as /[ˈɦaj ˈtĩˈbɔ(ː)ɾɐ]/ ("(You) Go away!").
• In "des", "dis", "tes" or "tis" syllables, there are voiced alveolar sibilant affricate (pronounced as /d͡z/) and voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate (pronounced as /t͡s/): idades pronounced as /[iˈdad͡z]/ ("ages", "years") and partes pronounced as /[ˈpaht͡s]/ ("parts").
• Voiced glottal fricative (pronounced as /ɦ/) and voiceless glottal fricative (pronounced as /h/) are present in the sound of the letter "r" (the first between syllables, but never with an "r" starting a non-initial syllable alone, because these do pronounced as //ɾ//, and the second at the beginning of words or digraph "rr"). None of the two phonemes occur at the end of words. Examples: corda pronounced as /[ˈkɔɦdɐ]/ ("rope"), rabo pronounced as /[ˈɦabu]/ ("tail" - also locally in Brazilian Northeast "buttocks") and barragem pronounced as /[baˈɦaʒẽj̃]/ ("dam"), querer pronounced as /[keˈɾe]/ ("to want").
• Opening of the pre-tonic vowels pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //o// to pronounced as //ɛ// and pronounced as //ɔ// most of these syllables with vowels: rebolar pronounced as /[hɛbɔˈla]/ ("throw away").

IPA for Central northeastern Portuguese

This key also serves, for the most part, to the north coast and recifense dialects. But the dialects cited here do not have the phoneme /d͡z/ and /t͡s/, characteristic of the central northeastern dialect. Recifense dialect usually palatalizes fricatives in any syllabic consonant meeting (including the end of words) and not only before /d/ and /t/. Moreover, in certain regions of southeastern of Piauí and Maranhão west coast also a greater or lesser palatalization of fricatives may occur under the influence of Amazonian dialects (northern and Amazon Plateau), and even the absence of such palatalization. That is, in some areas the sound is alveolar (/s/ and /z/), and in others postalveolar /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. In north coast dialect, also virtually no dental stops before /i/, /j/ or /ĩ/, and in its place they use postalveolar affricates (/d͡ʒ/ and /t͡ʃ/). In contrast, the central northeastern dialect has almost exclusive predominance of dental stops before /i/, /j/ or /ĩ/. And the postalveolar affricates are used only in the following cases: in words of foreign origin in the Portuguese language, especially English; in words denoting slang and regionalisms; and phonemes are present in the standard variety of Brazilian Portuguese, are also often in television media to replace the dental stops (though never in common parlance).

Consonants

	Graphemes	Examples	English approximation
b	b	bucho [ˈbuʃu], bloco [ˈblɔku], bruto [ˈbɾutu]	best
d	d	dar [ˈda], depósito [dɛˈpɔzitu]	down
d ^1	d	dia [ˈdiɐ], açude [aˈsudi]	dear, dream
d͡z ^2	des, dis	idades [iˈdad͡z]	roughly like: minds
f	f	feio [ˈfeju]	family
g	g, gu	galinha [ɡaˈlĩȷ̃ɐ], guisado [ɡiˈzadu]	get
ɦ ^3	r	rei [ˈɦej], corda [ˈkɔɦdɐ], marmota [maɦˈmɔtɐ]	behind
h ^4	r, rr	arte [ˈahti], cartão [kahˈtɐ̃w]	hot, high
ʒ ^5	g, j, s, z	jumento [ʒuˈmẽtu], gente [ˈʒẽti], desde [ˈdeʒdi]	rouge
k	c, qu	caju [kaˈʒu], querer [keˈɾe]	keep, call
l	l	lombo [ˈlõbu]	let
ɫ ^7	l	ligar [ɫiˈɡa], lindo [ˈɫĩdu]	feeling
ʎ	lh, li	filho [ˈfiʎu], família [fɐˈmiʎɐ]	roughly like: million
m	m	macho [ˈmaʃu]	environment
n	n	neto [ˈnɛtu]	sonic
ɲ ~ ȷ̃	nh, ni	farinha [faˈɾĩȷ̃ɐ], alumínio [aluˈmĩɲu]	roughly like: canyon
p	p	poço [ˈposu]	peace
ɾ	r	arengar [aɾẽˈɡa], comprar [kõˈpɾa]	ladder in American English
s	c, ç, s, xc, z	sebo [ˈsebu], pensa [ˈpẽsɐ], caça [ˈkasɐ], exceção [ɛsɛˈsɐ̃w̃], cearense [sɪaˈɾẽsi], rapaz [haˈpajs]	sale
t	t	tamanco [tɐˈmɐ̃ku], terra [ˈtɛɦɐ]	time
t ^1	t	tia [ˈtiɐ], noite [ˈnojti]	team
t͡s ^2	tes, tis	artes [ˈaht͡s]	roughly like: saints
ʃ ^8	ch, s, x, z	caixote [ka[j]ˈʃɔti], chave [ˈʃavi], abestado [abeʃˈtadu]	shop
z	z	zangado [zɐ̃ˈɡadu]	zero

• ¹After the vowels /i/ or /ĩ/ and semivowel /j/.
• ²Used in plural words ending in "des", "dis", "tes" and "tis".
• ³Between the end and the beginning of syllables.
• ⁴At the beginning of words and the digraph "rr".
• ⁵Also in palatalization of /z/ before /d/.
• ⁶Phonetic junction between /k/ and /s/.
• ⁷Allophone of /l/ before /i/ and /ĩ/.
• ⁸Also in palatalization of /s/ before /t/.

Marginal phonemes

	Examples	English approximation
dʒ ^1	jeans [ˈd͡ʒĩs], diabo [ˈd͡ʒabu], tédio [ˈtɛd͡ʒu]	change
tʃ ^1	tchau [ˈt͡ʃaw], capuccino [kapuˈt͡ʃĩnu], moléstia [mʊˈlɛʃt͡ʃa]	cheese

• ¹ Only in words of foreign origin in the Portuguese language, in words denoting slang, regionalisms and optionally the grapheme "di" and "ti" that are in post-tonic syllables with rising diphthongs (and never in all locations, depending on local state changes to state where it is spoken dialect), and phonemes are present in the standard variety of Brazilian Portuguese, are also often in television media to replace the dental stops (though never in common parlance).

Vowels and semivowels

	Graphemes	Examples	English approximation
a	a	arroz [aˈhojs]	car (GA) or time
ɐ	a	cama [ˈkɐ̃mɐ]	nut
ɐ̃	a, am, an, ã	manhã [mɐˈj̃ɐ̃], arrumação [ahumaˈsɐ̃w], dança [ˈdɐ̃sɐ], bamba [ˈbɐ̃bɐ]	nasal /ɐ/
e	e, ê	loteria [loteˈɾiɐ], glacê [ɡlaˈse]	says
ɛ	e, é	serra [ˈsɛhɐ], pé [ˈpɛ]	set
ẽ	e, em, en	pente [ˈpẽ(j)ti], exemplo [eˈzẽplu], energia [ẽnɛɦˈʒiɐ]	nasal /e/
i	e, i	repentista [hɛpẽ(j̃)ˈtiʃtɐ], país [paˈiz], tarde [ˈtaɦdi]	emission or see
ɪ ^1	e	segunda [sɪˈɡũdɐ], escola [ɪsˈkɔlɐ], menino [mɪˈnĩnu]	big
ĩ	i, im, in	cinto [ˈsĩtu], vinho [ˈvĩɲu]	nasal /i/
o	o, ô	rolinha [hoˈlĩɲɐ], sopro [ˈsopɾu], vô [ˈvo]	sole
ɔ	o, ó	rebolar [hɛbɔˈla]	ball or lot
õ	om, on, õ	arrombado [ahõˈbadu], cone [ˈkõni]	nasal /o/
u	u, ú	jurubeba [ʒuɾuˈbɛbɐ], juá [ʒuˈa],	food
ʊ ^1	o	botão [bʊˈtɐ̃w̃], boneco [bʊˈnɛku]	good
ũ	um, un	lundu [lũˈdu], mussum [muˈsũ]	nasal /u/
j	i, nh	jeito [ˈʒejtu], série [ˈsɛɾji]	you or boy
w	l, u	pau [ˈpaw], alto [ˈawtu], guarda [ˈɡwaɦdɐ], quase [ˈkwazi]	want or low

• ¹Substitution for unstressed vowels /e/ and /o/.