Word-Initial Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese

Palatalization varies in Brazilian Portuguese. In northeastern Brazil, words such as dia (day) and tio (uncle) are never palatalized. With certain speakers, palatalization only occurs in particular environments. One environment in which palatalization is common is before /i/ and with unstressed word-final vowels, which are raised to /i/, such as in parte (part). However, some Brazilians also have palatalization word-initially.

In Brazilian Portuguese, many speakers have word-initial palatalization in the following words:

depois (after)

deserto (desert)

despedida (farewell)

dezembro (December)

dezoito (eighteen)

teatro (theatre)

teoria (theory)

tesauro (thesaurus)

tesoura (scissors)

tesouro (treasure)

The reason palatalization occurs in the illustrated words is that the unstressed vowel is raised to /i/. This creates the necessary environment for palatalization. In the word teoria (theory) some speakers pronounce the word [t͡ʃiuria]. In this case the first two vowels are raised.

Vowel raising is less extensive in Brazil than in Portugal. However, in certain parts of Brazil such as Rio de Janeiro, vowel raising is common in all positions of the word. The result is that many speakers raise vowels in the first syllable and this creates word-initial palatalization.