Uruguayan Portuguese

Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Template:Culture of Uruguay Uruguayan Portuguese (, ), also known as () and riverense, and referred to by its speakers as Template:Sfn (), is a variety of Portuguese in South America 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 "Peace Border" (Template:Langx; Template:Langx), 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 Template:IPAslink with semivowel Template:IPAslink, no raising of final unstressed Template:IPAslink, alveolar trill Template:IPAslink instead of the guttural R, and lateral realization of coda Template:IPAslink instead of L-vocalization. The first two features are rare among accents of Portuguese, whereas L-vocalization is the norm in Brazil but not in other countries.Template:Sfn

Recent changes in Uruguayan Portuguese include the urbanization of this variety, acquiring characteristics from urban Brazilian Portuguese, such as a distinction between and , affrication of and before and , and other features of Brazilian broadcast media.Template:Sfn Uruguayan Portuguese now exists on a spectrum, ranging from working-class rural varieties to middle class urban ones. Middle class Uruguayan Portuguese has undergone heavy convergence to the monolingual Brazilian Portuguese standard, and is perceived by middle class Brazilians to be similar to their own speech.Template:Sfn

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 as Cisplatina.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

Phonology

Vowels

Uruguayan Portuguese (IPA)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Uruguayan Portuguese	Brazilian Portuguese	English
				potato
				waterfall
				fish
				detergent
				garbage
				nest
				to have dinner
				day before yesterday
				eye
				well
				sad, melancholic
				in the (Template:Gcl)
				to bark
				tea
				skin
				old (Template:Gcl)
				gossip
				(I) can
				apple
				wool
		(Template:Gcl)		healthy (Template:Gcl)
				sports ground
				(they) think
				then
				waiter (bar, restaurant)
				tone
				then
				one (Template:Gcl)
				with you
				no one (Template:Gcl)
				hand

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Uruguayan Portuguese (Tacuaremboense variant)Template:Sfn

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Alveo-palatal	Velar
Plosive		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Fricative	tense	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	lax	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPA link
Trill	tense				Template:IPA link
	lax		Template:IPA link

The variant described above is known as "Tacuaremboense" and is spoken in the interior of Rivera. Stops and tense fricatives can be voiced or voiceless, while the lax fricatives are always voiced. The implosive allophone of /s/ is sibilant, not aspirated.Template:Sfn

See also

• Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

References

Bibliography

• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• Page about Uruguayan Portunhol (in Portuguese) at Unicamp - University of Campinas, São Paulo (in Portuguese)
• Adolfo Elizaincín website
• Template:In lang Portuñol, a new language that is gaining popularity among people who live close to the borders of Brazil and its neighboring Spanish-speaking countries