Portuguese emerged from vulgar Latin during the course of the third century. Influential in its development were successive invasions by Germanic peoples, Visigoths, and Moors, the latter of whom were finally evicted in the thirteenth century. As a consequence of the newly-independent kingdoms imperial achievements, Portuguese is the national language of Brazil and the official language of several African countries. Maria Helena Mateus and
Ernesto dAndrade present a broad description and comparative analysis of the phonetics and phonology of European and Brazilian Portuguese. They begin by introducing the history of Portuguese and its
principal varieties. Chapter 2 describes the phonetic characteristics of consonants, vowels, and glides, and Chapter 3 looks at prosodic structure. Chapters 4 and 5 present the general characteristics of Portuguese nominal and verbal systems, the former considering inflectional and the latter derivational processes. Chapter 6 examines stress, main, secondary, and echo, and Chapter 7 describes phonological processes that are not related to the morphological structure of the word, including the
peculiar process of nazalization. The authors deploy current theoretical models to explain the rich variety of Portuguese phonology and interrelated aspects of morphology. This is
by far the most comprehensive account of the subject to have appeared in English, and the most up-to-date in any language.
Industry Reviews
Mateus & d'Andrade's work constitutes a practical and informative reference and will be of interest to linguists, students, and anyone seeking a broader understanding of the sound system and word-formation processes of Portuguese ... this book is an excellent empirical and theoretical reference Journal of Linguistics Mateus & d'Andrade have crafted a very easy to read, well-organised exposition of their favourite analyses quite suitable for a course in the structure of Portuguese phonology Phonology This is a much appreciated book for those of us who regularly teach a course on the synchronic phonology and morphophonology of Portuguese ... the book has the tone of a course both in its presentation and organisation Phonology I see Mateus and d'Andrade's analyses serving as a springboard for future discussion on this most interesting and (dare I say) underappreciated Romance language David J. Silva Authors Mateus and d'Andrade have delivered a concise and comprehensive English-language volume on Portuguese phonology, nicely complementing the pre-generative English- language version of J. Mattoso Camara's 1970 work, The Portuguese Language (translated by Anthony Naro) David J. Silva I suspect that some of the theoretical analyses presented in the book will become the standard accounts for Portuguese David J. Silva
