Mineiro - Accent Characteristics

Accent Characteristics

• Reduction (and often loss) of final and initial unstressed vowels, especially e, i, and u: parte ("part") becomes part' (with soft affricate T). Common to most of Brazil.

• Assimilation of consecutive vowels: o urubu ("the vulture") becomes u rubu.

• Weakening (and usual loss) of final /r/ and /s/: cantar ("to sing", with the final /r/ sounding like the "r" in the French name Pierre) becomes cantá and os livros ("the books") becomes us livru. Common to most of Brazil.

• Loss of the plural ending /s/ in adjectives and nouns, retained only in articles and verbs: meus filhos ("my children") becomes (sometimes; most of the time in the capital, Belo Horizonte)meus filho, (most of the time) meus fii OR meus fiu.

• Intense liaison: abra as asas ("spread your wings") becomes abrazaza. Para onde nós estamos indo? ("Where are we going?") becomes Pronoistamuíno?. However, see : this is far from being the most common usage.

• Realization of most /ʎ/ as : alho ("garlic") becomes homophonous with aio. Probably the most characteristic feature of the Mineiro accent, though it is less present in Belo Horizonte.

• Replacement of some diphthongs with long vowels: fio (thread) becomes fii, pouco (few) becomes poco.

• Apocope of final syllables. -lho becomes (filho → fii' ), -inho becomes -im' (pinho → pim' ).

• Soft pronunciation of "r': rato ("mouse") is pronounced . Very common in other parts of Brazil.

• Diphthongization of stressed vowels: mas ("but") becomes mais and três ("three") becomes treis. Common in other parts of Brazil, particularly Rio de Janeiro.

• Loss of initial "e" in words beginning with "es": esporte becomes .

• Another important trait of Mineiro is the absence of remarkable features of other accents, like the retroflex R (caipira), palatalization of S (carioca), strong dental R (gaucho), or "singsong" nordestino intonation.