Brazilian Portuguese: Norms for Lyric Diction
Authors: Martha Herr, Adriana Kayama, Wladimir Mattos.
(A version of this article was originally published in Portuguese in the periodical OPUS 1 by
these three authors and four more: Flávio Carvalho, Luciana Monteiro de Castro, Mirna Rubim
and Mônica Pedrosa de Pádua)
INTRODUCTION
The systematization and consolidation of norms for the pronunciation of Brazilian
Portuguese, as sung in the classical repertoire and presented here, is the fruit of collaboration by
a group of Brazilian researchers and singers, and began in 2003 as a study group during the
annual meeting of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Music
(ANPPOM). The title of the original study group was “The Portuguese Language and the
Classical Brazilian Vocal Repertoire”.
The result of discussions during this meeting and subsequent research was the 4th Brazilian
Vocal Encounter with the theme “Brazilian Portuguese as Sung” (São Paulo, February, 2005).
The purpose of this event, with international participation, was to promote a discussion among
singers representing the majority of the Brazilian states (17 of 24) about the principal aspects of
pronunciation and the phonetic representation of Brazilian Portuguese as used for singing
classical music. Studies realized prior to this meeting contributed to the definition of a first
version of Norms.
Also in 2005, and during the annual meeting of ANPPOM in Rio de Janeiro, the study group
“Brazilian Portuguese as Sung – New Strategies for Investigation” set the stage for discussion
and elaboration of the results of the 4th Brazilian Vocal Encounter, resulting in the consolidation
of Norms as established during that Encounter. These results were published in the Bulletin of
the Brazilian Association of Singing (Associação Brasileira de Canto – ABC). This article
1
included a list of all those present at the meetings of the 4th Brazilian Vocal Encounter, a
description of the process which resulted in the phonetic table, and the Norms in their first
version, with the title “Manual for the Neutral Pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese as Sung”.
Subsequent research in this area pointed to the necessity of an inter-disciplinary approach to
the revision of the phonetic table for the Norms. As a result, the study group at the ANPPOM
meeting in 2006 was created with the objective of consolidating former efforts and advancing
research into the utilization of the IPA. With the intention of revising the table of pronunciation
published in 2005 and with emphasis on the definition of which phonetic symbols should be
used, the linguist Thäis Cristóforo Silva was invited to participate as a consultant. 2
In 2007, once again during the ANPPOM meeting, readjustments were made in the table of
pronunciation with the intention of creating a final copy for publication of the norms for lyric
diction of Brazilian Portuguese. Considering eventual differences with the phonetic transcription
proposed by the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL), the present table takes advantage of
solutions which attend to the necessities of singers, voice teachers, vocal coaches, diction
coaches and teachers, accompanists, choral and orchestral conductors and other professionals in
the area.
With the publication of Norms for Lyric Diction of Brazilian Portuguese, we reach the end of
our original intention to establish a standard pronunciation for classical singing which is always
recognizably Brazilian, without foreign or strictly regional influences, leaving these, as well as
historical variations of the language and eventual corrections for future study.
2
HISTORY OF THE NORMS
When the Norms for the “proper pronunciation of the national language in classical music”
were published in 1938 as the result of the meetings of the First Congress of the National
Language as Sung in July of 1937, the participants of this first Congress declared their intention
to realize a second Congress in 1942 “…with the purpose of officially approving the present
decisions and with eventual corrections which time and experience dictate to be necessary.”
3
(NORMAS, 1938, p.2). The text of the Norms closes with the following observation:
The establishment of these Norms does not imply, under any circumstances, the definitive and uncorrectable
establishment of the phonetics of the standard pronunciation. For this very reason they are called “norms” and
not “laws”. There are cases in which, although defined by the intense and careful attention of eminent
philologists, experimental research and proof are still required. There are also other cases which demand
complete generalization, not only because living languages are human manifestations subject to perpetual
evolution… Experimental verification as well as new manifestations which may eventually appear, should
necessarily transform the norms with which they collide. 4 (ANDRADE, 1938, p.35)
The principal preoccupation of the First Congress was the establishment of a standard
language, “animated by the desire to serve the cause of Brazilian nationality in the arts of
language and singing.”
5
(ANDRADE, 1938, p.6) The dream of Mário de Andrade
6
to unify
Brazil through the language and cultural manifestations left the Norms with a strongly
political/patriotic tone. The political ideology of the time dominated in this respect and the
concerns of the Congress were much more than just artistic.
Also for political reasons, a second Congress never happened. However, in 1958, as a result
of the First Brazilian Congress of the Spoken Language in the Theater (Salvador, BA, 1956), the
Norms for Brazilian Portuguese as used in the theater were published. During this Congress,
there was not the same preoccupation with a standard language, but recognition of a progressive
tendency to national linguistic unity.
In his opening speech, Celso da Cunha, Executive
President of the Congress, commented that as a result of radio, television, the cinema and other
media (with no mention of vocal music), the standard practice of the educated class would tend
3
to be propagated. He suggested the possibility of adopting “… a manner of speaking which
would dilute the basic different regional patterns” 7 like the neutralized pronunciation of English
in the United States called network-English.
The principal preoccupation of the Encounter in 2005 was more practical than theoretical.
In contrast to the Congress of 1937, the majority of participants in the Encounter were singers,
voice teachers and other voice professionals, which made the practicality and facility in
utilization of the Norms its prime concern. The participants in the Encounter sought to find that
“… manner of speaking which would dilute the basic different regional patterns” which Celso da
Cunha had suggested in 1956. In an effort to avoid regionalisms and admitting the necessity of
providing at least a basic pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese for use by foreign singers who
wish to perform the Brazilian classical repertoire, the participants voted on a phonetic table
which proposes the adoption of a “neutral” Portuguese – without regionalisms.
The hope is that the majority of Brazilian singers will also adopt this non-regional
pronunciation. In the case of a composition with incontestable regional feeling, it is to be
expected that singers from that region of the country sing with their accent. However, the risk of
caricature by singers from other regions is very strong. For this reason the importance of a
“neutral” version of the language – recognizably Brazilian and national no matter where the
singer is from.
PRESENTATION OF THE NORMATIVE TABLE
The present Norms for Lyric Diction of Brazilian Portuguese, are organized in a table format
similar to that which is used to present documents in the areas of linguistics and speech therapy,
as well as those in phonetic-articulatory studies applied to singing in other languages.
4
Generally speaking, the table is divided traditionally in alphabetical order by the
orthographic letters used in Portuguese, as well as their corresponding phonetic symbols, in the
categories of vowels and consonants. Both categories include special cases of combination of
letters which represent specific pronunciations. The phonetic symbols proposed were selected in
accord with those proposed by the IPA.
The table presents four columns which are related, respectively, to the letters or combination
of letters which are found in Brazilian Portuguese (Orthographic Symbols), to the phonetic
symbols adopted for transcription of the orthographic symbols (Phonetic Symbols), to essential
information for the transcription and pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese (Transcription and
Pronunciation: Essential Information), as well as additional information and notes about eventual
exceptions to the information presented (Complementary Information).
Each of the words used as an example in the table, as well as its variations and exceptions is
presented between parentheses and with the following characteristics:
1. presentation of the orthographic version of the word in italics and with syllabic division
represented by hyphens, as generally is found in song texts (ex.: pa-la-vra);
2. phonetic transcription between brackets, using IPA characters, the tonic syllable preceded
by an apostrophe and with syllabic division represented by periods (ex.: [pa'la.vɾɐ]).
In regard to syllabic division, we have chosen always to follow that proposed by the
Brazilian Academy of Letters, which is based on spelling and not on the etymology of the words.
Brazilian Portuguese is a highly syllabic language (different from European Portuguese), and
the majority of the syllables end with vowels. 8 As for consonants, most of them are found at the
end of syllables but only 'l', 'm', 'n', 'r', 's' and 't' are found at the end of words. Exceptions are
words of foreign origin and some proper names.
5
The vast majority of Portuguese words receive their tonic stress on the next-to-the-last
syllable. There is, however, in Brazilian Portuguese a large number of words that receive their
stress on the last syllable. Words ending in 'i' or 'u', like u-ru-bu [u.ɾu'bu] or ca-qui [ka'ki] (most
of them of indigeneous origin), matches this case. Also words ending in 'l' or 'r', like co-ral
[ko'ɾa:ʊ] or sam-bar [sɐ̃'bar], tend to receive tonic stress on the last syllable unless they have an
orthographic accent on the next-to-the-last syllable (pas-sí-vel [pa'si.ve:ʊ], âm-bar ['ɐ̃.bar]). Any
syllable with an orthographic accent receives the tonic stress, irregardless of its position in the
word (ár-vo-re ['ar.vo.ɾɪ], gi-ló [ʒi'lɔ], ur-gên-cia [ur'ʒẽ.sjɐ], co-ra-ção [ko.ɾa'sɐ̃:ʊ]). In a few
cases
when
“ü”
occurs,
the
syllables
may
not
be
accented
(fre-qüen-te-men-te
[fɾe.kwẽ.tʃɪ'mẽ.tʃɪ]).
As for phonetic transcription, we have chosen to use the Doulos SIL font, one of the most
frequently used for IPA characters in the Unicode format, created and made available without
payment by SIL International (www.sil.org). It is our intention to create a website with filmed
versions of Brazilian singers showing the spoken pronunciation of these symbols, as well as
singing songs with phonetic transcriptions. Without the use of this font, the programs will not
permit that the phonetic symbols are entered or visualized correctly. When this site is accessible,
we will inform the Journal of Singing so that it will be available to a wider community of
singers.
The essential information for the correct transcription and pronunciation of Brazilian
Portuguese as sung is based on those historical, structural, technical and esthetic characteristics
of Brazilian Portuguese related to the manner in which it is currently written and spoken in
Brazil by the educated classes (the so-called norma culta). For this reason, controversies as to
6
some of the proposed pronunciations, especially to the degree of influence of regional variations
will present themselves among Brazilian singers. As in many languages, the letter ‘r’ is the chief
problem. And, as in German or French, American singers might hear differences between the
pronunciation of native singers in recordings, but it is suggested that the Norms be followed.
Vowel combinations resulting in diphthongs (vowels pronounced in the same syllable) or
hiatus (vowels pronounced in different syllables) present a special problem. The justification of
the use of the symbol [:] between the two vowels of a rising diphthong as an indication of
prolongation of the first is fundamentally a musical decision. (ex.: bai-xo ['ba:ɪ.ʃʊ] . 9
On the prosodic level, especially when going past word boundaries, special cases are
included where the pronunciation of the final letter of a word changes as a result of the first letter
of the next word. Peculiar prosodic characteristics are also considered, such as: monosyllabic
words; words ending in consonants different from those presented in the table (primarily foreign
words); some cases of consonant clusters between syllables which are subject to epenthesis (the
inclusion of a vowel between the consonants, receiving syllabic value).
Although these norms are specific for the performance of classical music, they are also
appropriate for those foreign singers who wish to prepare Brazilian popular music. There will be
no regional accent (most notably that of Rio de Janeiro), but there will be nothing incorrect or
un-Brazilian about pronunciation based on these norms.
Finally, it is important to stress that changes in spelling (standardization), which are currently
being discussed by the 10 countries where Portuguese is spoken, have not been considered here.
This is justified by the fact that, besides being controversial, these changes have not yet been
ratified by all countries involved and, most certainly, the spelling found in editions of Brazilian
music will still be in accord with the older spellings for some time to come. 10
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
NOTES
1. OPUS. http://www.anppom.com.br/opus/.
2. Thäis Cristóforo Silva is one of the principal linguists working with Brazilian Portuguese, with many
publications in the field (see bibliography). The invitation to participate at ANPPOM was the result of a
workshop given by her in 2005 during the III Seminar of Brazilian Song (Federal University of Minas Gerais)
in which she discussed the strengths .and weaknesses of the table of pronunciation published earlier in the year.
3. Mario de Andrade, “Normas para a Boa Pronúncia da Língua Nacional no Canto Erudito”, Revista Brasileira de
Música, v. 5, no. 1 (Escola Nacional de Música da Universidade do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 1938): 2.
4. Ibid.,35.
5. Ibid.,6.
6. Mário de Andrade (1893-1945), author, poet, critic, journalist and musicologist, was amont the first who sought
to systematize musicological studies in Brazil. He was the principal figure in the Modern At Week in São Paulo
in 1922 which defined the modernist and nationalist movements in Brazil. He also organized the Congress of
the National Language as Sung. He was very concerned with the problems of singing in Portuguese and the
study of the Brazilian language. Several of his works are found in the bibliography.
7. Anais do Primeiro Congresso Brasileiro de Língua Falada no Teatro, Ministério da Educação e Cultura (Rio de
Janeiro, 1958): 38.
8. This can be seen in the way children are taught to read. They learn random syllables first and are then taught to
chain them together into words.
9. In the Norms of 1938, there are 12 pages dedicated to the discussion of diphthongs, triphthongs and hiatus,
including their creation between word boundaries. The greater part of these 12 pages is dedicated to musical
examples in the effort to define how the value of a note or notes would be divided to accommodate musical
diphthongs and triphthongs. As for the elision of words and the subsequent creation of triphthongs, the authors
of the Norms admit to the impossibility of establishing rules for the musical solution of these cases. “Each
phrase has its own psychological rhythm, impossible to be reduced to general rules. The problem will depend,
thus, almost exclusively on the intelligence and expressiveness of both the composer and the singer.” (Andrade,
1938, p. 28) As would be expected, the Norms manifest great concern with the problems created by the union
of language and the singing voice and the majority of observations made in that document still apply. The
greater part of the Norms of 1938, including a discussion of diphthongs, triphthongs and hiatus (without the
musical examples) can be found in the books – in Portuguese – by Vasco Mariz (see bibliography).
10. Participants in the process of development of these Norms (besides the authors of this article and the article in
Portuguese, whose names are listed at the beginning of this article): Thäis Cristófaro da Silva, Fernando
Carvalhaes Duarte (in memoriam), Angela Barra, Beatriz Raposa de Medeiros, Cirene Paparotti, Elke Riedel,
Luciana Nunes Kiefer, Luciano Simões da Silva, Margarida Borghoff, Maria Elisa Pereira, Stela Brandão e José
Vianey dos Santos.
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ADITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
(This bibliography is a very-much reduced version of that which appeared in the article published in the periodical
OPUS. The website for that article is found in the first note to this article, for those who wish to see the larger
listing).
Academia Brasileira de Letras. http://www.academia.org.br/.
Andrade, M. de. “Normas para a Boa Pronúncia da Língua Nacional no Canto Erudito”. Revista
Brasileira de Música, v.5, no.1 (Rio de Janeiro: Escola Nacional de Música da Universidade do Brasil,
1938): 1-35.
___. “Os Compositores e a Língua Nacional”. In Aspectos da música brasileira, 41-118. São Paulo:
Martins, 1965.
Brandão, S. M. S. “The Brazilian Art Song: a Performance Guide Utilizing Selected Works by Heitor
Villa-Lobos”. Doctoral Thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1999.
Brandão, S. M. S. “Normas da Dicção Lírica Brasileira: Seis Décadas de Defasagem e Controvérsias –
Avaliando Resultados e Retomando o Primeiro Congresso da Língua Nacional Cantada. ARTEunesp v.
16 (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 86-99.
Cristófaro-Silva, T. Fonética e Fonologia do Português: Roteiro de Estudos e Guia de Exercícios. São
Paulo: Editora Contexto, 2005.
___. “Algumas Questões Representacionais Acerca da Tabela Normativa para o Português Brasileiro
Cantado”. Per Musi, no.15 (Belo Horizonte, 2007): 26-34.
De’Ath, L. “The Merits and Perils of the IPA for Singing”. Journal of singing, v. 57, no. 4 (2001): 57-68.
Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa. http://houaiss.uol.com.br/busca.jhtm/.
Duarte, F. J. C. “A Fala e o Canto no Brasil: dois Modelos de Emissão Vocal”. ARTEunesp, v.10 (São
Paulo, 1994): 87-97.
Duarte, F. J. C. “O Chá das Sílabas: o Canto e o Padrão Respiratório da Fala no Brasil”. In Voz
profissional: o profissional da voz, 57-66. Carapicuiba: Pró-Fono, 1995.
Duarte, F. J. C. “Aplicação de uma Transcrição Fonética para o Canto no Brasil”. ARTEunesp v. 16 (São
Paulo, 2003-2004): 156-171.
Ferreira, A. B. H. Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1975.
Ferreira Netto, W. Introdução à Fonologia da Língua Portuguesa. São Paulo: Hedra, 2001.
Herr, M. “As Normas da Boa Pronúncia do Português no Canto e no Teatro: Comparando Documentos
de 1938 e 1958”. ARTEunesp, v.16 (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 56-67.
___. Mudanças nas Normas para a Boa Pronúncia da Língua Portuguesa no Canto e no Teatro no Brasil:
1938, 1956 e 2005. Per Musi, no. 15 (Belo Horizonte, 2007): 35-40.
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Hoyos-Andrade, R.E. “Proposta de Transcrição Fonológica do Português do Brasil". Alfa, Revista de
Lingüística, v. 30/31 (Unesp, Ibice, Araraquara, 1986): 65-83.
International Phonetic Association. http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html/.
Kayama, A. “Tendências de Neutralização de Regionalismos no Português Brasileiro no Telejornalismo:
uma Observação Perceptivo/Auditiva”. ARTEunesp, v.16 (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 10-25.
Mariz, V. A Canção Brasileira de Câmara. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Francisco Alves Editora, 2002.
Marshall, M. The Singer’s Manual of English Diction. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979.
Mateus, M. H. M. and E. d’Andrade. The Phonology of the Portuguese. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Ministério da Educação e Cultura. Anais do Primeiro Congresso Brasileiro de Língua Falada no Teatro.
Rio de Janeiro, 1958.
Moriarty, J. Diction: Italian, Latin, French, German... the Sounds and 81 Exercises for Singing Them.
Boston, Massachusetts: E. C. Schirmer Music Company, 1975.
Oliveira, M. A. “Reanalisando o Processo de Cancelamento do (r) em Final de Sílaba”. Revista de
Estudos da Linguagem, v.6, no.2 (Belo Horizonte,1997): 70-97.
Pagkiuchi da Silveira, R. C. Estudos de Fonética do Idioma Português. São Paulo: Cortez, 1982.
Pereira, M.E. and D. Kerr. “O Departamento de Cultura do Município de São Paulo e o Congresso da
Língua Nacional Cantada”. ARTEunesp, v.16 (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 114-139.
Pullum, G. and W. Ladusaw W. Phonetic Symbol Guide. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1986.
Raposo Medeiros, B. “O Português Brasileiro e a Pronúncia do Canto Erudito: Reflexões Preliminares”.
ARTEunesp, v. 16 (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 46-55.
Rubim, M. “Controvérsias do Português Brasileiro para o Canto Erudito: uma Sugestão de Representação
Fonética”. ARTEunesp, v. 16, (São Paulo, 2003-2004): 68-85.
Sil International. http://www.sil.org/.
Martha Herr, with a DMA from Michigan State University and defense of a post-doctoral thesis at the
State University of São Paulo, Brazil (UNESP), she has performed in recitals, operas and recordings in
Brazil, the United States and Europe as soloist and as a member of several chamber groups. Her
performance specialties include contemporary and Brazilian music. Chair of the voice area at UNESP,
she has received several awards for her work as a performer in Brazil. In 2005, she organized the 4th
Brazilian Vocal Encounter to promote the establishment of the norms for lyric diction of Brazilian
Portuguese. Her artistic premiers include Morton Feldman’s opera Neither (Rome Opera) and John
Cage’s EUROPERA V (No. American New Music Festival), as well as 4 Brazilian operas. E-mail:
[email protected] .
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Adriana Kayama, DMA from the University of Washington, is head of the vocal program at UNICAMP
(Campinas, São Paulo), where she teaches voice, class voice, diction, vocal physiology and chamber
music. She is presently the Assistant Director of the undergraduate music course at UNICAMP and was
president of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Music (ANPPOM) from 2003
to 2007. E-mail: [email protected] .
Wladimir Mattos received his Masters in Music from UNESP and is presently teaching at Santa
Marcelina College, as well as UNESP where he teaches diction and prosody. There, he is the vice-leader
of the study group “Vocal Expression in Musical Performance”. He organized the 4th Brazilian Vocal
Encounter with Martha Herr in 2005. He is a doctoral candidate in linguistics at the University of São
Paulo (USP) where he is studying the influence of musical learning on language development in children.
E-mail: [email protected] .
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