Uruguayan Portuguese

Uruguayan Portuguese
português uruguaio
Native to	North-eastern Uruguay, near Brazilian border
Native speakers	24,000 (2013)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Galician-Portuguese Portuguese Uruguayan Portuguese
Writing system	Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Portuguese Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	51-AAA-am
IETF	pt-UY

Uruguayan Portuguese (português uruguaio, locally [poɾtuˈɣes uɾuˈɣwajo]), also known as fronteiriço (locally [fɾõteˈɾiso]) and Riverense, and referred to by its speakers as portunhol (locally [poɾtuˈɲɔɫ]), is a variety of Portuguese with heavy influence from Rioplatense Spanish. It is spoken in north-eastern Uruguay, near the Brazilian border, mainly in the 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 the 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/, no raising of final unstressed /e/, alveolar trill /r/ instead of the guttural R, and lateral realization of coda /l/ instead of L-vocalization.

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

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 was not very well defined, passing back and forth from the hands of one crown to the other. Before its independence after the Cisplatine War in 1828, Uruguay was one of the provinces of the Empire of Brazil.

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 lusophone communities through educational policies and language planning, and bilingualism became widespread and diglossic.

Phonology

Vowels

Uruguayan Portuguese (IPA)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Spanish (Rioplatense dialect)	Brazilian Portuguese	English
a	[ˈpapa]	papa	batata	potato
	[kataˈɾata]	catarata	catarata / queda d'água	waterfall
e	[ˈpeʃe]	pez	peixe	fish
	[deterˈχente]	detergente	detergente	detergent
i	[ˈsisko]	basura	lixo	garbage
	[ˈniɲo]	nido	ninho	nest
j	[sja]	cenar	jantar/cear	to have dinner
o	[onˈtonte]	anteayer	anteontem	day before yesterday
	[ˈojo]	ojo	olho	eye
	[ˈposo]	pozo	poço	well
u	[ʒuɾuˈɾu]	triste, melancólico	triste, melancólico/jururu	sad, melancholic
	[nu]	en el	no / em	in the (m.)
w	[aˈkwa]	ladrar	latir/ladrar	to bark
ɛ	[tɛ]	té	chá	tea
	[pɛl]	piel	pele	skin
	[ˈvɛja]	vieja	velha	old (f.)
ɔ	[fɔˈfɔka]	chisme	fofoca	gossip
	[ˈpɔso]	puedo	posso	(I) can
ã	[maˈsã]	manzana	maçã	apple
	[lã]	lana	lã	wool
	[sã]	sana (adj.)	sã	healthy (f.)
	[ˈkãʃa]	cancha	campo desportivo	sports ground
ẽ	[ˈpẽsaw̃]	piensan	pensam	(they) think
ĩ	[ĩˈtõse]	entonces	então	then
õ	[ɡarˈsõ]	mozo (de bar o restaurante)	garçom/empregado de mesa	waiter (bar, restaurant)
	[tõ]	tono	tom	tone
	[ĩˈtõse]	entonces	então	then
ũ	[ũ]	uno	um	one (m.)
	[kũˈtiɣo]	contigo	contigo	with you
	[niˈɲũa]	ninguna	nenhuma	no one (f.)
w̃	[maw̃]	mano	mão	hand

See also

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese

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)
• Douglas, Kendra. 2004. Uruguayan Portuguese in Artigas: Tri-dimensionality of transitional local varieties in contact with Spanish and Portuguese standards. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Ph.D. dissertation.
• 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. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) (PDF)
• Nicolás Brian, Claudia Brovetto, Javier Geymonat, Portugués del Uruguay y educación bilingüe
• Penny, Ralph (2000). Variation and Change in Spanish. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521780452. [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, S2CID 144351313

External links

• Page about Uruguayan Portunhol (in Portuguese) at Unicamp - University of Campinas, São Paulo (in Portuguese)
• Adolfo Elizaincín website
• (in Interlingua, English, Portuguese, and 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