pluiepoco

CHAPTER 3 SYLLABLE SÍLABA

3.1 general notions noções gerais

Syllable is a phonetic unit composed of one or several phones, that is to say, a sound that pronounced through a exhalation of one or a group of letters.

A syllabe can be composed of a monophthong, a monophthong (or compound vowel) plus a consonant, a monophthong (or compound vowel) and several consonants, for example:

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
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pluiepoco

Nana's disappeared.

I don't want to continue any longer.

Where is Nana?

Anyone please find Nana!

Or I will go away too!

If you find her in the end tell her my email to notify me: pluiepoco@sohu.com

I'll leave out!

Byebye FD, Asma, Estrella, Salim, and everyone here.

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
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Nana_Brazil

I am back lollllllllllllllllllll ahahahahahahahahahahhhaaa Mr. Genius! lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllll
are you missing my fights with you????? lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllll

pluiepoco

é be
já already/yet
sei (I) know
sem without
qual which
pneu tyre/tire

Consonant without vowel cannot make a syllable, so it's said that vowel is the nucleus of syllable construction. Since vowels are divided into open and close, syllables are also divided as open syllable (sílaba aberta) and closed syllable (sílaba fechada).

Syllables form word (vocábulo). Sometimes, a word can have different meanings as of whether the syllable is open or closed:

sede (sé) seat/location
sede (sê) thirst

Words can be divided according to the contained number of syllables into:

monosyllable (monossílabo): Sol Sun
disyllable (dissílabo): hoje (ho-je) today
trisyllable (trissílabo): português (por-tu-guês) Portuguese
polysyllable (polissílabo): humanidade (hu-ma-ni-da-de) humanity

In PT, there is a very small number of monosyllables, and a large majority of words with two or more syllables.

3.2 syllabic division divisão silábica

The rules of syllabic division in PT are mainly described as follows:

1. One vocal letter form a syllable, like: a, o, é.
2. One consonant between two vocal letters will form a syllable with the last vocal letter: mesa (me-sa), mapa (ma-pa).
3. Two consonants together (including cc, cç, rr, ss) belong to respective syllables before and after: assunto (as-sun-to), terra (ter-ra); but two consonants together in ending belong to the same syllable: psique (psi-que).
4. Three consonants together are divided as first two before and last one after: instituto (ins-ti-tu-to).
5. Consonant cluster composed of l or r cannot be divided, which form syllable with the vowel after: branco (bran-co), bicicleta (bi-ci-cle-ta); but new words are formed by prefixing ab, ad, sub or others to some words headed by consonant, where the prefix and the proto-word articulated separately belong to two different syllables: sublinhar (sub-li-nhar). (see "§ 2.8 consonant cluster")
6. Digraphs ch, lh, nh cannot be divided: achado (a-cha-do), mulher (mu-lher), senhor (se-nhor).
7. Digraphs qu (qü), gu (gü) cannot be divided from the vowel after: língua (lín-gua), quinta (quin-ta).

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
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Yeahcarl

You are complicating things too hard, I could barely understand what you meant, pluiepoco. Technical language is boring!!!!

Try it like this:
All words in Portuguese have at least one syllable, and the syllables have at least one vowel:

*vowel (a - achado, e - exu, i - iara, o - obá, u - uma)

*consonant + vowel (ba - bateria, be - bebida, bi - bitola, bo - bobo,bu - butijão ; ca - careta, ce - cenoura, ci - cítrico ,...; da - damasco...)

* consonant (b,c,d,f,g,p,t) + consonant (l,r) + vogal (bla,ble,bli,blo,blu;bra; bre,bri,bro,bru; cla,cle,cli,clo,clu; dra,dre,dri,dro,dru; fla,fle,fli,flo,flu; fra,fre,fri,fro,fru; gla,gle,gli,glo,glu; gra,gre,gri,gro,gru; pla,ple,pli,plo,plu; pra,pre,pri,pro,pru; tra,tre,tri,tro,tru)
examples:
bíblia , glande, grande, drágea, pleito, prato, trator

* digraph - consonant (c,l,n) + consonant (h) + vowel
(ch - chama, lh - lhama, nh - nhoque)

* consonant(g,q) + vowel (u) + vowel (gua,gue,gui,guo; qua,que,qui,quo)
examples:
guano, guiana, quarto, querido, quimera, quota

-note:
you may add a consonant (c,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v) to all of them, as long as it is followed by another consoant, making:

* vowel + consonant (ab - abjurar, en - encontro, ...)

*consonant + vowel + consonant
(bac - bactéria, cal - calmo, tam - tampa, tur - turma)

* consonant (b,c,d,f,g,p,t) + consonant (l,r) + vogal + consonant (bran - branco, brim - brim, fral - fralda)

* digraph + consonant - consonant (c,l,n) + consonant (h) + vowel + consonant
(char - charco)

* consonant(g,q) + vowel (u) + vowel + consonant (guar - guarnecer)

I guess it is much easier!!!!

pluiepoco

You are right! of Course, I have to do like this because I'm not an expert of Portuguese language as you, I'm translating a grammar book, so I copied almostly, without freedom in making it!

But thank you all the same a million! My translation is only a start, so you can make this alike easy-going versions to expand my results, ok?

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
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pluiepoco

8. descending (falling) diphthong cannot be divided: noite (noi-te), lições (li-ções); ascending (rising) diphthong generally cannot be divided, even if some is deemed to be hiatus, better not divided: vitória (vi-tó-ria). (see "§ 2.5 diphthong ditongo")

9. triphthong cannot be divided, such as: Uruguai (U-ru-guai), delinquiu (de-lin-quiu). (see "§ 2.6 triphthong tritongo")

10. An hiatus is two syllables, such as: saúde (sa-ú-de), cooperar (co-o-pe-rar). (see "§ 2.7 hiatus hiato")

3.3 Accented syllable and light syllable sílaba tónica e sílaba átona

Some Portuguese words don't carry any accents (stress) in themselves, so they are called unaccented words (vocábulo átono). All unaccented words are monosyllable, including part of articles (such as a and o), pronouns (such as me and te), prepositions (such as a), and conjunctions (such as e and se), etc.

A substantial majority of Portuguese words carry stress, so they are called accented words (vocábulo tónico). A few of Accented words are monosyllables (such as é and lá, etc.), and the rest have two or more syllables (such as caneta and mapa, etc.). As for stress, it's to prolong certain syllable of a word stronger and longer than any others, so the syllables are divided into accented syllables and light syllables. On special occasions, a word can have two accented syllables, one of which is called secondary accented syllable. (see "§ 3.4 accentuation regras de acentuação das sílabas")

An accented syllable pronounces with higher tones, during longer time; while unaccented syllables have lower tones, during shorter period.

3.4 Accentuation regras de accentuação das sílabas

Generally, a word contains an accented syllable, with other syllables unaccented. Each and every Portuguese word has its own accented syllable, when the stress changes, the whole meaning would be different, like papa, with stress on the first syllable means "Pope"; but papá, with stres on the second syllable means "papa or father". Therefore, when we learn a new PT word, it's necessary to know where is the stress.

The rules of accentuation is basically as follows (in the following, accented syllables are shown in italic, and secondary accented syllables are in bold):

1. Syllables with "´", "^", or "~" are stressed:

médico doctor/medic(al)
camponês farmer/peasant
irmão brother

Some words have "´" or "^" besides "~", in which case, the syllable with "~" is not stressed:

órfão orphan
bênção greeting

2. Words with the above accent signs should release or cancel the "´", "^" while remain the "~" when a suffix is added. In any case, whether the signs are cancelled or not, the original accented syllable should be shifted into secondary accented syllable:

fácil easy--> facilmente easily
lâmpada lamp--> lampadazita small lamp
irmão brother--> irmãozinho little brother

3. Words ending with a(s), e(s), or o(s), should be put a stress on the second syllable:

batata(s) potato(s)
peixe(s) fish(es)
nabo(s) radish(es)

While words ending with i(s), u(s) should be put a stress on the last syllable:

parti(s) leave(s)/departure(s)
bambu(s) bamboo(s)

4. Words ending with am, em should be put a stress on the syllable before the last syllable:

falam speak
homen man

While words ending with im. um should be put a stress on the last syllable:

marfim ivory
algum any

The PT words with -om endings are very few (some are from alien), the majority of which is stressed on the last syllable:

bombom bonbon

Pluralized words with -m endings remain the original accented syllables:
homen man-->homens men
marfim ivory-->marfins ivories
bombom bonbon-->bombons bonbons
algum any-->alguns any(ones)

5. Words ending with consonants (other than m and s), should be put a stress on the last syllable:

professor teacher/professor
azul azure/sky blue
feliz happy

6. There is also kind of emphatic/intensified stress (acento de insistência), that is, to stress certain word in a sentence, or to stress starting syllable of a word, irregularly, as a result of emotions. For example:

Seria melhor que fosse você e não eu. It's better that you go and(but) not I.

Conventionally, você is stressed on cê, but in order to note the comparison, and prioritize the opposite part/person, we stress vo, this accentuation is called presentive stress (acento intelectual).

3.5 Intonatoin, pause and liaison entoação, pausa e ligação

In general, Portuguese tone or tone of sentence is comparatively flat, without large fluctuations.

In explaining the tones, we use following signs or colors:

____ indicates accented syllable
..... indicates unaccented syllable
> indicates ascending (rising)
< indicates descending (falling)

3.5.1 declarative sentence frase declarativa

Taking simple declarative sentence as an example, the tone is rising at the beginning of a sentence , whle falling in the end.

Falling end is featured by the tone falling at the last accented syllable in the end of the sentence.

Portuguese declarative sentences are all ended by falling tone.

Eles querem estudar a gramática portuguesa. They like studying PT grammar.
_... ---''''''' """--""" """""""---""""" .......< ...

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