Of Portuguese Orthography, Prosody, and Accent. As such is the peculiar advantage of the Portuguese and Spanish languages, that for the simplicity of their orthography, and the regularity of their prosody, even a stranger nay, by reading Portuguese or Spanish works, enable himself to pronounce the languages tolerably, and well enough to be plainly understood, if he only takes the trouble of learning the few and simple rules of both the orthography and the prosody; let the student bestow some attention on the few following rules. 1st. The rules used in other languages for the regulation of punctuation, and the use of capital letters, are the same in Portuguese. The Portuguese have six stops, or pauses, viz: 1. Pónto final. 2. Dóus pontos, our colon; 3. Pónto e virgula, our semi-colon; 4. Pónto e interrogaçam, our point of interrogation; 5. Pónto e admiraçam, our point of admiration or exclamation; 6. The virgula, our comma. The conjunction e, the relative qual, and the disjunctions ou and nem, require a comma before them. The Portuguese make use also of a parenthesis, thus () but they do not make use of the diaresis, called by the printers crema, (...) they make use of the angulo thus, (▲) called by the printers caret. The apostrophe, or, as they call it viracento, likewise takes place in this as in other languages, being designed only for a more easy and pleasant pronunciation of words, by cutting off an antecedent vowel: as, d'armas, for de armas; but this is somewhat excusable in cases wherein, by use, they seem to be one word; as nesta, neste, desta, deste, nalgum, daquelle, nelle, nella, daquí, dálí, atequí, ategora, instead of em este, em esta, &c. The accent, which is the very soul of articulated words, is a sound of the voice by which we pronounce some syllables longer, others shorter. We speak here only of the accents the Portuguese ought to make use of, according to Madureira, in his Portuguese orthography. The Portuguese indeed are acquainted with three accents, but they ought to make use of two only, namely, the acute, which descends from the right to the left, (') and the circumflex, thus ( a ). 1. The acute, (') serves to prolong the pronunciation, and is put, according to Madureira, on the third person singular of the future tense, amará, terá, &c. 2. On the penultima of the preterpluperfect tense of the indicative mood; as, amára, I had loved. 3. On the penultima of the third persons of the present tense of the verbs renunciar, pronunciar, duvidar, &c. thus renuncia, pronuncia, duvida, &c. that they may be distinguished from the nouns renúncia, pronúncia, dúvida, &c. as also on está, nó, to distinguish them from esta, this, and no, in the. 4. There are many nouns, both substantive and adjective, which are accented in the singular with the circumflex, and in the plural with the acute; and the adjectives that have two terminations, particularly those ending in oso, osa, must be accented, in the singular, with the circumflex in the masculine, and with the acute in the feminine: as, fogo, fire, fógos; fórno, oven, fórnos; ôlho, eye, ólhos; ôvo, egg, óvós; ósso, bone, óssos; poco, well, póços; porco, hog, porcos; rogo, prayer, rógos; and so fojo, torno, formoso, se quioso, supposto, pôvo, torto, tórta, copioso, copiósa, &c. The following keep the circumflex accent in both numbers: bôlo, bólos; bójo, bójos; bóto, côco, chóro, cóto, fôrro, górdo, gosto, gozo, lobo, môço, nojo, pótro, tolo, ferrólho, raposo, arróz, arrozes, algóz, algózes, &c. On the contrary, the following keep the acute accent in both numbers; cópo, cópos; módo, nósso, vôsso, &c. When the accent circumflex is put on the e, then the e is pronounced like the French masculine e; but when e is accented with the acute accent, then the e is to be pronounced like the e open in French, and it is exceedingly sonorous and long. Nouns ending in az, ez, iz, oz, uz, must have the acute accent on the vowel before the z; as rapáz, a boy; nóz, a walnut; alcaçúz, licorice; méz, a month; marquéz, a marquis, &c. except the surnames; as, Alvarez, Gonzalves, &c. Add to these, the general notion of the common rule of the penultima, that of monosyllables also generally long, and the combination of the Latin etymology, together with a strict attention paid in reading, to the accentuation of words, and these put together, will procure to the students a sufficient knowledge of Portuguese prosody, quantity, and accents. Some observations on the use of some Letters. 1. Upon b and v, when the Latin words from which the Portuguese are derived, begin with a b, the Portuguese likewise must begin with it; as in the words bom, bondade, bem, bento, from the Latin bonus, bonitas, bené, benedictus, there are some exceptions, as bainha from vagina, bexiga from vesica, &c. Likewise if the Latin words begin with a v, as vita, vivere, verrere, videre, vinum, &c. the Portuguese words derived from them must also begin with it: as, vida, viver, varrer, ver, vinho, &c. 2. The P found in some words originally Latin, is sometimes changed in Portuguese into a b; as, cabra, cabello, cabeça, &c. from capra, capillus, caput, &c. 3. The Portuguese generally make use of the y in the following words: a, rey, fréy, léy, máy, páy, máy, máyu, and some others. Bluteau says, that we must make use of the y in words of a Greek origin: as, syllaba, chrysopéia, pyramide, polygóno, hydrographia, hydrópico, physica, hypérbole, hypócrita, apócrypho, &c. 4. The ph are used by the Portuguese in some words taken from the Greek: as, philosophia, philología, Philadel phia, epitaphio, &c. 5. The r in Portuguese has two pronunciations, one soft, expressed by a single r in the middle of a word: as in arádo, cára, and after the consonants b, c, d, f, g, p, t; as in bra, era, dra, fra. gra, pra, tra, and another hard, in which two rr are either used or sounded; as in barro, carro, &c. and when the r is in the beginning of the word; as in razao, rémo, rico, róda, &c. it is the same in compound words, when in a part of the compound, r was originally initial; as in ab-rogar, en-riquecer, des-regrado, ob-rep-ção, sub-repção, &c. and also when the consonants l, n, s, are before the r; as in honra, Henrique, Israelita, &c. 6. The sis never doubled in the beginning of words, nor after the consonants; therefore we must write saber, falso, manso, &c. The s is pronounced like z between two vowels, in words derived from the Latin, as well as in those that end in oso, osa; as músa, cása, riso, amoróso-you must also observe that a mistake of s for z, may make a great difference in the meaning of a word; as in coser, to sew; and cozer, to boil, or to bake. 7. Th are generally used in words derived from the Greek: as, amphitheatro, atheista, theólogo, lethárgo, méthodo, and in the preposition athé; though many write it thus, até; but th are pronounced as a single t. 8. Pt, when it is found in Latin words, it must be kept in the Portuguese derived from them: as, ápto, inépto, óptimo, from aptus, &c. the same is to be observed about ct. 9. Ch is sounded like k, in words derived from the Greek: as, archánjo, archidúque, chrysostomo, chrysól, chrisologo, christovão, monarchia, &c. these words must be written with ch, in order to preserve to the eye the etymology of words. Note. That ch in words that are not derived from the Greek, is pronounced like ch in the English words church, chin, much. CHAPTER II. OF ARTICLES AND DECLENSIONS. The English tongue has but one definite article, namely, the, which serves for both genders and numbers, and 'one indefinite article, namely, a which serves for the singular number, and for both genders. also "an" The Portuguese has two, viz: the definite, o, a, os, as, the, and the indefinite hum, huma, a. The declension of the definite article in both genders and numbers. SINGULAR. Nom. o rei, a rainha, the king, the queen. Gen. d'o rei, d'a rainha, of the king, of the queen. Acc. ao, para o rei, á, para a rainha. Abl. d'o, n'o, peló, deˆo, em o, per o rei, d'a, n'a pela, rainha. Dat. a-os reis, ás rainhas. Acc. a os, para os reis, ás, para as rainhas. Abl. d'os, n'os, pelos reis, d'as, n'as, pelas rainhas, from, in, by the kings, &c. It must be observed that in the genitive, d'o, d'a, d'os, d'as, are contracted from the preposition de, and the articles o, a, os, as. So in the other cases, in the dative and accusative, á accented is for áa; in the ablative no, pelo, na, pela, are for em, o, a &c. por, o, a, &c. Declension of Nouns of inanimate things, the accusative of which takes no preposition but only the articles, o, a, os, as. SINGULAR. Nom. o livro, a casa, the book, the house. Gen. d'o livro, d'a casa, of the book, to the house. PLURAL. Nom. os livros, as casas, the books, &c. Dat. a os livros, ás casas, Acc. os livros, as casas, Abl. d'os, n'os, pelos, &c. from, em, by, the, &c. |