The use of diacritics is one of the most diffficult topics in
****tuguese spelling. The text below is a summary of the main rules
governing diacritic use in Brazilian ****tuguese spelling, highlighting
the differences when appropriate with European ****tuguese and
Spanish.
Use of diacritics in ****tuguese
-----------------------------------------------
Modern ****tuguese spelling uses the following diacritic marks:
1=2E) Acute accent : =E1, =E9, =ED ,=F3, =FA.
2=2E) Cir***flex : =E2, =EA, =F4.
3=2E) Grave accent: =E0 (formerly also =E8, abolished by the 1971
spelling reform).
4=2E) Tilde: =E3, =F5.
5=2E) Diaeresis: =FC (used in Brazilian ****tuguese only; to be abolished
soon when the 1990 Luso-Brazilian orthographic agreement comes into
force).
6=2E) Cedilla: =E7.
Diacritics are used in ****tuguese mostly to mark the quality of a
vowel and to indicate irregular or unpredictable stress patterns.
Secondarily, they could be used to mark the occurrence of an hiatus in
the stressed syllable (e.g. "sa=EDda, "ju=EDzo", "conte=FAdo", but not
for
example in "rainha" or "moinho") . For the letters 'e' and 'o', an
accute accent indicates that the vowel is open-mid (respectively
SAMPA /E/ and /O/), whereas the cir***flex indicates that the vowel is
close-mid (SAMPA /e/ and /o/). Note that, in the case of 'e', that is
exactly the opposite of the rule used in French spelling (where /E/ is
represented by '=EA' or '=E8' and /e/ is represented by '=E9').
Note 1: Generally speaking, stressed "e" or "o" are usually realized
as open-mid vowels in ****tuguese and, accordingly, when marked,
normally get an acute accent. The exceptions are: (1) paroxytone words
followed by a syllable ending in a high vowel (e.g. "novo" pronounced
SAMPA [novu] versus "novos" pronounced respectively [nOvus] or [nOvu$]
and "nova" pronounced [nOv6] or [nOv@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
); and (2) when the stressed
vowels are nasalized. The latter situation occurs in the digraphs ''-
en' and '-on' (e.g "p=EAnsil" and "c=F4nsul") or, in Brazilian ****tuguese
only, when the stressed vowel is followed by "m" or "n" at the
beginning of the next syllable, e.g "g=EAnero" (EP g=E9nero) , "f=EAmur"
(EP
f=E9mur), and "t=F4nico" (EP t=F3nico). The vowel in the digraph '-an' and
a stressed 'a' followed by a nasal consonant at the beginning of the
following syllable are never open, being pronounced SAMPA /a~/ in the
former case and SAMPA /6/ in the latter. Accordingly, whenever marked,
the letter 'a' always gets a cir***flex in those situations, e.g.
"=E2nsia", "t=E2mara", "c=E2mara", "ignor=E2ncia".
Note 2: In the "paulistano" dialect, the BP rule of nasalization of
stressed "o" in syllable-final position when followed by a nasal
consonant in the beginning of the next symbol may be occasionally
violated. Note for example the S=E3o Paulo pronunciation of
"nome" ([nOmi]) and "fome" ([fOmi]). That is irrelevant however to the
present discussion on the use of diacritics.
According to the general principal of using diacritics to mark
irregular stress patterns, the the following rules apply in
****tuguese:
a) Vowels in the stressed syllable of proparoxytone words are marked
by diacritics. Unlike in Spanish however, that rule also extends to
the so-called "apparent proparoxytones" which end in pseudo-hiatuses
that are actually indistinguishable in pronunciation from rising
diphtongs. Ex: =E1rvore, =F4nibus (BP), p=E1ssaro, etc. but also
fam=EDli=
a,
contem****=E2neo, f=E9rias, ci=EAncia, par=F3dia, m=E1goa, Amaz=F4nia,
g=EAm=
eo,
am=E1veis, f=F3sseis, etc.
b) Vowels in the stressed syllable of paroxytone words are marked by
diacritics when the word ends in '-r' (e.g "a=E7=FAcar"), '-x' (e.g
"t=F3rax"), '-n' (e.g. "h=EDfen", but not '-ns', hence "hifens",
"homens"), '-l' (e.g. "male=E1vel", "f=F3ssil") , '-=E3o(s)' (e.g.
"=F3rg=
=E3o",
"=F3rf=E3os", "b=EAn=E7=E3o"), '-um/uns' (e.g "=E1lbum", "f=F3runs"),
'-i(s=
)' (e.g.
"j=FAri") , or '-ps' (e.g. "b=EDceps").
c) Oxytone or monosyllabic words ending in '-a(s)', '-e(s)', or '-
o(s)' are marked by diacritics. Ex: f=E9, caf=E9, beb=EA, d=E1, p=E1,
m=E1,
metr=F4, bab=E1, p=F3, cip=F3, p=E9, d=EA, av=F3 (f.), av=F4 (m.), etc..
No=
t that,
unlike in Spanish, oxytone or monosyllabic words ending in "i" or "u"
are never marked by diacritics unless a hiatus is present, hence
standard ****tuguese spelling Peru, tatu, lambari, urubu, etc. but
ba=FA , Ja=FA, ca=ED (1st person past ind. of "cair"), etc.
d) In oxytone words ending in the nasal diphtong '-em' and its
inflected form 'ens', an accute accent is used to mark the first 'e'
in '-em/ens', e.g. "armaz=E9ns", "ref=E9m".
e) Open 'o' or 'e' in the diphtongs '-oi', '-eu' and '-ei' are marked
by diacritics when they occur in monosyllabic words or the stressed
syllable of oxytone words. Ex: s=F3is, anz=F3is, c=E9u, far=F3is,
pinc=E9is.
Note however the spelling of meu, boi, dei, etc, where close-mid
vowels occur in the diphtong used.
f) In Brazilian ****tuguese only, open-mid /E/ and /O/ are also
indicated by an acute mark in the diphtongs '-oi' and '-ei' when they
occur in the stressed syllable of paroxytone words, e.g. id=E9ia,
gel=E9ia, assembl=E9ia, jib=F3ia, ap=F3io (from the verb "apoiar"). Note
however the spellings e.g "areia", "sereia", "loiro", "peito",
"oito", "cheio", "ameixa" etc. where the absence of the diacritic
indicates that "e" and "o" in the digraphs are pronounced
respectively [e] and [o] instead. All diacritic marks over "ei" and
"oi" in paroxytone words will be abolished though in Brazil when the
1990 orthographic agreement comes into force
g) Note: The following falling diphtongs are never marked by
diacritics in ****tuguese when they appear in word- final position:
'au' (e.g. mau, pau); 'ai' (e.g. mais, vai, cai, pai, sai); "ui" (e.g.
fui); "ou" (e.g. falou). Likewise, the vocalic groups "-io" and "-ia",
pronounced in ****tuguese in word-final position like rising
dipthongs, are never marked by diacritics at the end of a word , hence
the ****tuguese spellings ****tuguese Maria, rio, frio, as opposed to
Spanish Mar=EDa, r=EDo, fr=EDo (note that "rio" is pronounced [Riw] or
[xiw]
in BP).
..
Current ****tuguese spelling also uses the cir***flex or the acute
accent occasionally to differentiate between homophones, e.g. "p=EAra
" (n.) vs "pera" (contraction of prep.+art.) , "p=F3lo" (n.) vs
"polo" (contraction of prep.+art.), "p=EAlo" vs. "pelo" (contraction
of prep_art.), "p=E1ra" (v.) vs "para" (prep.). The number of the
differential diacritics marks used to be much larger prior to the 1971
reform when many of those marks were abolished (e.g "=EAle" , "=EAste",
"c=F4r", "f=F4ra", etc. became "ele", "este", "cor", "fora", etc. ) When
the 1990 spelling reform comes into force, all remaining differential
accents will be also scrapped with the exception of the
differentiation between "pode" (3rd person sing. Pres. Ind. of the
verb "poder" with an open-mid /O/) and "p=F4de" (3rd person sing. Past
Ind. of the verb "poder" with a close-mid /o/) and between "p=F4r" (v.)
and "****" (prep.). The diacritic mark in "d=EAmos" (1st person plural
Past Ind. of the verb "dar" with a close "e") to differentiate from
its Pres. Ind. counterpart "demos" (with an open "e") will be
optional.
Note: In the conjugation of verbs derived from "ter" and
"vir" (e.g. "reter", "conter", "manter", "deter", "convir",
"intervir", etc.), the accute accent and the cir***flex are used in
the diphtong "em" to distinguish respectively the 3rd person singular
and 3rd person plural forms of the verb in the present indicative
tense, e.g. "ele/ela mant=E9m" vs. "eles/elas mant=EAm"; "ele/ela
interv=E9m" vs. "eles/elas interv=EAm".
The tilde, grave, cedilla, and diaresis marks
----------------------------------------------------------------
The tilde mark is used to represent nasal vowels and, with the
exception of a few isolated words (e.g. "c=E3ibra"), occurs exclusively
in the spelling of the stressed nasal diphtong '-=E3o' and its inflected
variants ('=F5es', '=E3es', '=E3os','=E3','=E3s') in word-final position
or
compound words. Ex: irm=E3o, irm=E3os, p=E3o, c=E3o, c=E3es, c=E3ozinho,
p=E3ezinhos, satisfa=E7=E3o, a=E7=F5es, mel=E3o, mel=F5es, alem=E3,
alem=E3=
es, alem=E3s,
r=E3, r=E3s, l=E3, capit=E3o, capit=E3es.
The cedilla mark is used exclusively under the letter 'c' when
followed by 'a', 'o', or 'u' to represent the phoneme /s/ as opposed
to usual (regular) phonemic value /k/. Ex: cabe=E7a, a=E7o, baga=E7o, ber=
=E7o,
etc..
Unlike the cir***flex and the acute accent and unlike in French or
Catalan spelling, the grave accent in ****tuguese indicates neither
stress nor vowel quality. It is used exclusively over the letter 'a'
to indicate the contraction (known in ****tuguese grammar as "crase")
between the definite articles 'a' or 'as' and the preposition 'a', or
the contraction between the preposition 'a' and the initial 'a' in the
demonstrative pronouns "aquele(s)", "aquela(s)", and "aquilo". The
contracted forms are written then respectively "=E0(s)", "=E0quele(s)",
"=E0quelas", and "=E0quilo". Note: Prior to the 1971 spelling reform, the
grave accent was also used in Brazil to indicate secondary stress in
compound words, e.g. "caf=E8zinho", "r=E0pidamente". Following the
reform , those diacritic marks were abolished.
Finally, in Brazilian spelling only, the diaeresis (or "trema") is
used over the letter "u" after "q" or "g" and before "e" or "i" to
indicate that "u" is pronounced e.g. "freq=FCente", "ambig=FCidade", etc;
but "quente", "seguinte" etc., the latter examples with a mute "u".
The diaeresis mark will be abolished in Brazil when the 1990 spelling
refom is implemented.
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