A pronúncia das vogais portuguesas e a entoação do português – obstáculos superáveis para falantes de língua alemã

Abstract

The German-speaking learner of Portuguese will soon be confronted with two major problems concerning Portuguese pronunciation and intonation:
On one hand, he won’t be able to understand spoken Portuguese because of the absence of distinct vowels which for him (or her) are vital to identify every single word and each sentence.
On the other hand, when he reads a Portuguese text, he will do that in a “German“ manner. For example, he won’t apply the reduction of vowels which is so typical of Portuguese. Furthermore, he will differentiate between long and short vowels, which does not apply for Portuguese, and he will ignore the nasal vowels and diphthongs by substituting them by non-nasal vowels and diphthongs. In this way will the Portuguese listener believe that he is hearing a badly pronounced Spanish text.
For the advanced learner who already dominates the majority of Portuguese vowels still remains the problem of Portuguese intonation which is completely different from German. But to acquire a good intonation is essential for any foreign language.
The article emphasizes the importance of being aware of all these difficulties so that Portuguese as a foreign language can be taught and learned more easily.
Introdução