Uruguayan Portuguese
Portuguese dialect spoken in Uruguay
Uruguayan Portuguese (português uruguaio, [poɾtuˈɣes uɾuˈɣwajo]), also known as fronteiriço ([fɾõteˈɾiso]) and riverense, and referred to by its speakers as portunhol (locally [poɾtuˈɲɔl]) (distinct from Portuñol), is a variety of Portuguese in South America with heavy influence from Rioplatense Spanish. It is spoken in north-eastern Uruguay, near the Brazilian border, mainly in the region of the twin cities of Rivera (Uruguay) and Santana do Livramento (Brazil). This section of the frontier is called "Peace Border" (Portuguese: Fronteira da Paz; Spanish: Frontera de la Paz), because there is no legal obstacle to crossing the border between the two countries.
The varieties of Uruguayan Portuguese share many similarities with the countryside dialects of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, such as the denasalization of final unstressed nasal vowels, replacement of lateral palatal /ʎ/ with semivowel /j/, no raising of final unstressed /e/, alveolar trill /r/ instead of the guttural R, and lateral realization of coda /l/ instead of L-vocalization. The first two features are rare among accents of Portuguese, whereas L-vocalization is the norm in Brazil but not in other countries.
Starting in the late 20th century, changes in Uruguayan Portuguese include the urbanization of this variety, acquiring characteristics from urban Brazilian Portuguese, such as a distinction between /ʎ/ and /j/, affrication of /t/ and /d/ before /i/ and /ĩ/, and other features of Brazilian broadcast media. Uruguayan Portuguese now exists on a spectrum, ranging from working-class rural varieties to middle class urban ones. Middle class Uruguayan Portuguese has undergone heavy convergence to the monolingual Brazilian Portuguese standard, and is perceived by middle class Brazilians to be similar to their own speech.
History
The origin of Portuguese in Uruguay can be traced back to the time of the dominion of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, and the Empire of Brazil. In those times, the ownership of those lands was not very well defined, passing back and forth from the hands of one crown to the other.
“Uruguayan Portuguese” enters the record as portuguese dialect spoken in Uruguay. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Uruguayan, Portuguese and dialect can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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