Open Vowels in the Portuguese of Rio de Janeiro

The Portuguese of Rio de Janeiro uses more open vowels than the Portuguese of Sao Paulo. In fact, the use of open vowels in Rio de Janeiro is a feature that it shares with European Portuguese. Let us compare the varieties of Portuguese spoken in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

In Rio de Janeiro, the word café (coffee) has an open vowel in the final syllable. However, in Sao Paulo, it has a closed vowel. Likewise, the words atleta (athlete) and belo (beautiful) have an open vowel in the Portuguese of Rio de Janeiro, but they have a closed vowel in the Portuguese of Sao Paulo. Other words that have an open vowel in Rio de Janeiro and a closed one in Sao Paulo are agradável (pleasant) and incrível (incredible).

Other words with open vowels in Rio de Janeiro are corpo (body), glória (glory), história (history), hoje (today) and tênis (tennis). The same words have closed vowels in Sao Paulo. One reason that the Portuguese of Rio de Janeiro is often considered a bit closer to European Portuguese than other varieties of Brazilian Portuguese is the use of open vowels.

The Portuguese of Rio de Janeiro is distinct from other varieties of Portuguese. In contrast to the Portuguese of Sao Paulo, it uses more open vowels. The open vowels are always the mid front unrounded vowel and the mid back rounded vowel. In this regard, it is similar to European Portuguese.

Danish Pronunciation and Orthography

Danish pronunciation and orthography do not always correspond. In fact, in forms such as biologi/biologisk (biology/biological), the g is pronounced in the first word of the pair, but not in the second. Also, the glottal stop is after the final syllable of biologi, but after the third syllable of biologisk.

Here are ten pairs that illustrate the phenomenon. The g is pronounced in the first word of each pair, but not in the second:

antropologi/antropologisk (anthropology/anthropolical)

astrologi/astrologisk (astrology/astrological)

geologi/geologisk (geology/geological)

ideologi/ideologisk (ideology/ideological)

klimatologi/klimatologisk (climatology/climatological)

kriminologi/kriminologisk (criminology/criminological)

kronologi/kronologisk (chronology/chronological)

mytologi/mytologisk (mythology/mythological)

zoologi/zoologisk (zoology/zoological)

økologi/økologi (ecology/ecological)

The letter g is pronounced in nouns such as antropologi, but it is not pronounced in adjectives such as antropologisk. However, in the related Norwegian and Swedish languages, the g is pronounced in forms such as antropologisk. This appears to indicate that it was once pronounced in Danish but no longer because of the process of lenition.

Yorkshire Dialect in Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the only novel by the English author Emily Bronte. The Yorkshire dialect is reflected in the novel, particularly in the words of the servant Joseph. Even the title has a word from the Yorkshire dialect. The word wuthering means windy.

One of the words from the dialect in the novel is maister. It means master. Others include 't (the), nowt (nothing), nobbut (only), ye (you), laiking (playing), frough (from), spake (spoke) and appen (maybe). For readers who are not familiar with the Yorkshire dialect, the novel can be challenging.

The use of Yorkshire dialect in the novel Wuthering Heights is deliberate. It reflects social class and is extensive in the English of the servants. The use of the dialect also reflects the rural, isolated setting of the novel and lends the novel authenticity.

German z

The German z is a voiceless alveolar affricate. In comparison to other Germanic languages, the German affricate also occurs word-initially. It occurs in many words. Here is a list of ten which begin with the German alveolar affricate:

zehn (ten)

Zeit (time)

Ziel (goal)

Zigarette (cigarette)

Zimmer (room)

Zink (zinc)

Zug (train)

zwischen (between)

zwei (two)

zwölf (twelve)

The German z is never pronounced as in English. It is an affricate, and it is always voiceless. The German voiceless alveolar affricate serves to distinguish German from other Germanic languages.

Irregular Plurals in English

Regular plurals in English end with -s or -es. However, irregular plurals have four main patterns. They are an alternation of the vowel, a change of f to ves, the addition of -en and no change in the singular and plural.

Words with an alternation of the vowel include man/men, foot/feet and mouse/mice. The words leaf/leaves and knife/knives change f to ves. In the words child/children and ox/oxen the plural ends with -en. Word pairs such as deer/deer and moose/moose are the same in the singular and plural.

A few plurals do not follow those patterns. The plural of cactus is cacti, the plural of phenomenon is phenomena and the plural of die is dice. Other examples include analysis/analyses and thesis/theses. 

English plurals are quite regular. However, a few do not end with the suffix -s/-es. A number of irregular plurals have an alternation of the vowel.

Romanian Articles

Romanian articles are postnominal. This means that they do not precede the noun, but rather they follow it. This makes Romanian different from other Romance languages. Another difference is that Romanian has three genders- masculine, feminine and neuter, as was the case in Latin. Other Romance languages only have masculine and feminine. Let us look at examples of Romanian nouns and articles.

The Romanian word for dog is câine. It is a masculine noun. The Romanian word for cat is pisică. This word is a feminine noun. The word for hotel is hotel, and it is a neuter noun. Now let us look at these nouns when they are combined with articles.

dog câine

the dog câinii

the dogs câinele

cat pisică

the cat pisica

the cats pisicile

hotel hotel

the hotel hotelul

the hotels hotelurile

Romanian articles are suffixes. This makes them different from the articles of other Romance languages. In Romanian the combination of a noun and article is written as not one word but two.

Pronunciation of y and ll in Argentina

In most Spanish-speaking countries, the y and ll are palatal approximants. However, in Uruguay and in a large part of Argentina, they are voiceless alveopalatal fricatives. However, the voiceless alveopalatal fricative is not used in all parts of Argentina. It is common in Buenos Aires and many other areas, but not everywhere.

In Cordoba, a city in central Argentia, the voiced fricative is common. The voiced fricative was once common in Buenos Aires, but now it is far more common to use the voiceless counterpart. The fricative used in Cordoba reflects an earlier pronunciation.

However, in Mendoza, a city located close to the Chilean border, the y and ll are not fricatives. They are palatal approximants. In other words, they are pronounced as they are by most Spanish speakers.

The pronunciation of the y and ll is the same in Uruguay and much of Argentina. The Spanish of Uruguay and Buenos Aires is often called Rioplatense Spanish. In Cordoba, the fricative is voiceless, and in Mendoza, the palatal approximant is used. The pronunciation of the y and ll in Argentina varies.