Galician–Portuguese

Galician-Portuguese is a branch of Romance languages. They were first spoken in Northwestern Iberia and spread to the south. They are now spoken in all of Portugal and Northwestern Spain. The main two languages are Galician and Portuguese. All Galician-Portuguese languages were once all the same language, but have since split. Portuguese was spread to Brazil during the colonial era and it is also now spoken there.

Vowels
+ Oral vowel phonemes Front  Central  Back Close    Close-mid     Open-mid    Open   +Nasal vowel allophonesFrontCentralBackCloseClose-midOpen-mid

As far as it is known, Galician-Portuguese (from 11th to 16th centuries) had possibly a 7-oral-vowel system  (like in most of Romance languages) and a 5-nasal-vowel system . The vowels  were lowered to  in unstressed syllables, even in final syllables (like in modern Spanish); e.g. vento , quente . 

In Portugal the Galician /o/ in final syllables and unstressed  is lowered to /ʊ/ that remained in Brazilian Portuguese but in Modern European Portuguese became /o/ and /u/ depending on the words and dialects.

However, the  distribution (including ) is still dubious and under discussion; some either stating that these two vowels were allophones and in complementary distribution (like in Spanish and Modern Galician, only treated as ), Alemanha, manhã ; or stating they were not allophones and under distribution like in European Portuguese nowadays, Alemanha, manhã .

References

Category:Romance languages