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Being a Romance language, why does Portuguese – in specific European Portuguese – sound so Slavic?!
Despite being geographically distant and belonging to different language families, Portuguese seems to share certain phonological features with Slavic languages, which leads to the question: what are those features exactly?
In this blog post, I will point out four phonological traits of European Portuguese that help explain its resemblance to Slavic languages. Read on.
Closed vowel sounds
Like several Slavic languages, closed vowel sounds are a prominent feature of European Portuguese.
Being a stressed-time language (as opposed to syllable-timed like other Romance languages), Portuguese produces fairly consistent time gaps between stressed syllables.
That, in turn, implies vowel reduction in unstressed syllables so they can fit into those relatively fixed time slots between stressed ones.
It’s more simple than it sounds. Vowel reduction means that vowels become hastily pronounced, thus leading to closed vowel sounds (to allow unstressed syllables to fit into those fixed time slots mentioned above).
Like Portuguese, Slavic languages are dominantly stressed-timed and, therefore, have a high frequency of damped, closed vowel sounds.
Portuguese and Slavic languages share a rich vowel system that includes nasalized vowels (note that nasal vowels are uncommon in other Romance languages).
This nasalization gives the Portuguese language a distinctive, resonant quality setting it apart from other Romance languages. Accordingly, such nasal quality adds to the resemblance between Portuguese and Slavic languages.
European Portuguese is rich in fricative sounds, namely the /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ sounds, as in shade or measure respectively.
(Fricative sounds are produced when the airflow passing through one’s vocal tract is constrained by a narrow passage. For the examples above, that narrow canal is formed by your tongue being pushed up against your hard palate.)
What’s more, these sounds are also a hallmark of Slavic languages. Thus, one more reason why Portuguese resembles the latter.
The dark L
Finally, the so-called dark L is salient in Portuguese and Slavic languages.
You must be wondering what the dark L sounds like, right?
Well, the dark L is thicker than the “normal” L-sound. For instance, compare the L-sounds in the words Lisbon and malware. Can you hear the difference? That’s exactly right: Lisbon has the “normal” one, whereas malware renders a fatter, darker sound – the dark L.
In sum, the similarity between Portuguese and Slavic languages can be attributed to a few shared phonological features. In this short post, I briefly touched on four of them, that is, the noticeable presence of closed vowel sounds, nasal sounds, fricative sounds, and the dark L.
If you want to dive deeper into this topic, I highly recommend this article.
Stay tuned for upcoming courses, reads, and other novelties.
Hakuna kozi zilizopangwa kwa sasa. Jaza fomu hapa chini na nitakujulisha tarehe mpya zitakapotolewa. Kuwa lugha ya Kiromantiki, kwa nini Kireno <unk> katika Kireno maalum cha Ulaya <unk> sauti hivyo Kislavonia?! Licha ya kuwa mbali kijiografia na kuwa katika familia tofauti za lugha, lugha ya Kireno inaonekana kuwa na sifa fulani za sauti pamoja na lugha za Kislavonia, na hilo huongoza kwenye swali: ni nini hasa sifa hizo? Katika chapisho hili la blogi, nitaonyesha sifa nne za fonolojia za Kireno cha Ulaya ambazo husaidia kuelezea kufanana kwake na lugha za Kislavonia. Soma zaidi. Sauti za vokali zilizofungwa Kama ilivyo katika lugha kadhaa za Kislavonia, sauti za vokali zilizofungwa ni sehemu muhimu ya Kireno cha Ulaya. Kwa kuwa lugha ya Kireno ina wakati uliokaziwa (kinyume na lugha nyingine za Kiromani zenye wakati uliokazwa kwa silabi), lugha hiyo hutokeza vipindi vya wakati vilivyo sawa kati ya silabi zilizookolewa. Hilo, kwa upande wake, humaanisha kupunguzwa kwa vokali katika silabi zisizo na mkazo ili ziweze kuingizwa katika vipindi hivyo vya wakati vilivyowekwa kwa kiasi kati ya zile zilizo na mkazo. Ni rahisi zaidi kuliko inavyoonekana. Kupunguzwa kwa vokali humaanisha kwamba vokali hutamkwa haraka, na hivyo kusababisha sauti za vokali zilizofungwa (ili kuruhusu silabi zisizo na mkazo ziwe katika vipindi vya wakati vilivyotajwa hapo juu). Kama vile Kireno, lugha za Kislavonia zina msukumo mwingi wa kusisitiza na, kwa hiyo, zina mzunguko mkubwa wa sauti za vokali zilizofungwa. Lugha za Kireno na Kislavonia zina mfumo tajiri wa vokali ambao unatia ndani vokali za pua (tazama kwamba vokali za pua si za kawaida katika lugha nyingine za Kiromantiki). Uwezo huo wa kutazama mambo kwa jicho hutoa sifa ya kipekee ya lugha ya Kireno ambayo huitofautisha na lugha nyingine za Kiromantiki. Kwa hiyo, sifa hiyo ya pua huongeza kufanana kati ya lugha za Kireno na lugha za Kislavonia. Lugha ya Kireno ina sauti nyingi za fricative, yaani sauti za Ulaya <unk> na <unk>, kama vile katika kivuli au kipimo kwa mtiririko huo. (Sauti za fricative hutokezwa wakati mtiririko wa hewa unaopita kupitia njia ya sauti ya mtu unazuiwa na njia nyembamba. Kwa mfano, mdomo huo mwembamba hutengenezwa kwa ulimi wako kukandamizwa juu dhidi ya mdomo wako mgumu.) Isitoshe, sauti hizo pia ni sifa ya lugha za Kislavonia. Hivyo, sababu nyingine kwa nini Kireno hufanana na lugha ya mwisho. Mwishowe, neno L lenye rangi nyeusi linapatikana sana katika lugha za Kireno na Kislavonia. "Hakika unajiuliza, ""L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L- Naam, giza L ni nene kuliko <unk>normal<unk> L-sauti. Kwa mfano, linganisha sauti za L katika maneno Lisbon na programu hasidi. Je, waweza kusikia tofauti? Hiyo ni haki kabisa: Lisbon ina moja ya "kawaida", wakati programu hasidi hutoa mafuta, sauti giza <unk> giza L. Kwa muhtasari, kufanana kati ya Kireno na lugha za Kislavonia inaweza kuwa kutokana na baadhi ya pamoja sifa phonological. Katika makala hii fupi, nimezungumzia kwa ufupi nne kati ya hizo, yaani, uwepo wa sauti za sauti zilizofungwa, sauti za pua, sauti za msuguano, na L nyeusi. Endelea kusikiliza kwa ajili ya kozi zijazo, kusoma, na novelty nyingine.