Central northeastern Portuguese

The central northeastern dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (Portuguese: dialeto nordestino central, pronounced: [d̪iaˈlɛtu nɔɦdɛʃˈt̪ĩnu sẽˈtɾaw]) is a dialect spoken in the central part of the Northeast Region, Brazil, in all the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas and Sergipe, much of the state of Pernambuco (except for the Zona da Mata and the Recife metropolitan area), northern of Bahia, southern of Ceará, southeastern of Piauí and a few regions of Maranhão. It has roughly about 53,078,137 native speakers and varies within the region. This dialect shares similarities between north coast, Baiano and Recifense dialects.

Main features

• Predominant use of voiced (d̪) and voiceless (t̪) dental stops before close front unrounded vowel (i) even in final syllables "de" and "te", like presente Portuguese pronunciation: [pɾɛˈzẽt̪i] ("present") and diário Portuguese pronunciation: [d̪iˈaɾju] ("daily").
• Palatalization predominant (but not always recurring) of fricatives /s/ and /z/ in /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ before voiceless (t) and voiced (d)alveolar stops, and also, but less often, before the denti-alveolar lateral approximant (l̪) and the denti-alveolar nasal (n), like poste Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɔʃt̪i] ("post"), desde Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈdeʒd̪i] ("from", "since"), os navios Portuguese pronunciation: [uʒ ˈnaviws] ('the ships") and tuas leis Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtuəʒ ˈlejs] ("your laws").
• In "des", "dis", "tes" or "tis" syllables, there are voiced alveolar sibilant affricate (d͡z) and voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate (t͡s): idades Portuguese pronunciation: [iˈdad͡z] ("ages", "years") and partes Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpaht͡s] ("parts").
• Voiced glottal fricative (ɦ) and voiceless glottal fricative (h) are present in the sound of the letter "r" (the first between syllables, but never with an "r" starting a non-initial syllable alone, because these do /ɾ/, and the second at the beginning of words or digraph "rr"). None of the two phonemes occur at the end of words. Examples: corda Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈkɔɦdɐ] ("rope"), rabo Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɦabu] ("tail" - also locally in Brazilian Northeast "buttocks") and barragem Portuguese pronunciation: [baˈɦaʒẽj̃] ("dam"), querer Portuguese pronunciation: [keˈɾe] ("to want").
• Opening of the pre-tonic vowels /e/ and /o/ to /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ most of these syllables with vowels: rebolar Portuguese pronunciation: [hɛbɔˈla] ("throw away").
• Monophthongization of /e/ and /ɛ/ or /o/ and /ɔ/ in some cases.

IPA for Central northeastern Portuguese

This key also serves, for the most part, to the north coast and recifense dialects. But the dialects cited here do not have the phoneme /d͡z/ and /t͡s/, characteristic of the central northeastern dialect. Recifense dialect usually palatalize fricatives in any syllabic consonant meeting (including the end of words) and not only before /d/ and /t/. Moreover, in certain regions of southeastern of Piauí and Maranhão west coast also a greater or lesser palatalization of fricatives may occur under the influence of Amazonian dialects (northern and Amazon Plateau), and even the absence of such palatalization. That is, in some areas the sound is pronounced exactly what is written (/s/ and /z/), and others as /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. In north coast dialect, also virtually no dental stops before /i/, /j/ or /ĩ/, and in its place they use postalveolar affricates (/d͡ʒ/ and /t͡ʃ/). In contrast, the central northeastern dialect has almost exclusive predominance of dental stops before /i/, /j/ or /ĩ/. And the postalveolar affricates are used only in the following cases: in words of foreign origin in the Portuguese language, especially English; in words denoting slang and regionalisms; and phonemes are present in the standard variety of Brazilian Portuguese, are also often in television media to replace the dental stops (though never in common parlance).

Consonants

• ¹After the vowels /i/ or /ĩ/ and semivowel /j/.
• ²Used in plural words ending in "des", "dis", "tes" and "tis".
• ³Between the end and the beginning of syllables.
• ⁴At the beginning of words and the digraph "rr".
• ⁵Also in palatalization of /z/ before /d/.
• ⁶Phonetic junction between /k/ and /s/.
• ⁷Allophone of /l/ before /i/ and /ĩ/.
• ⁸Also in palatalization of /s/ before /t/.

Marginal phonemes

• ¹ Only in words of foreign origin in the Portuguese language, in words denoting slang, regionalisms and optionally the grapheme "di" and "ti" that are in post-tonic syllables with rising diphthongs (and never in all locations, depending on local state changes to state where it is spoken dialect), and phonemes are present in the standard variety of Brazilian Portuguese, are also often in television media to replace the dental stops (though never in common parlance).

Vowels and semivowels

• ¹Substitution for unstressed vowels /e/ and /o/.