Brazilian Portuguese has many different accents. Two very well-known accents are those of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Though the two cities are not so far from one another, the two accents are quite different from one another.
In the accent of Rio de Janeiro, the /s/ is pronounced /ʃ/ when it occurs word-finally and when it occurs before a consonant. This is the cases with words such as seis (six) and biscoito (biscuit). In Sao Paulo, these words only have the sound /s/.
The orthographic r is also pronounced differently when it occurs in the syllable coda. In Sao Paulo, it is realized as an alveolar trill or in the case of infinitives such as cantar (to sing), the r may even be deleted. In Rio de Janeiro, however, the r is realized as a guttural sound in words such as mar (sea) and porta (door). The fricative can be a glottal fricative, velar fricative or uvular fricative.
Another difference is that in words such as arroz (rice), luz (light) and paz (peace), speakers from Rio de Janeiro diphthongize the stressed vowel. The result is that the words mas (but) and mais (more) are pronounced the same. In Sao Paulo, this diphthongization does not occur, and the words mas (but) and (mais) are pronounced distinctly.
The diphthongization only occurs with stressed vowels followed by the alveopalatal fricative. In the word casas (houses), the stress is on the first syllable and the intervocalic s is pronounced /z/. Though the word-final s is realized as an alveopalatal fricative in Rio de Janeiro, no diphthongization occurs because the vowel is unstressed.
The accents of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are different from one another. Notable differences include the pronunciation of s word-finally and before consonants, the pronunciation of r in the syllable-coda and the diphthongization of vowels that occurs in Rio de Janeiro. The pronunciation of s in Rio de Janeiro is the same as that of Standard European Portuguese.
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