Abstract
In our contribution we will present the main phonetic and phonological resemblances between the two languages and suggest how these contribute to easier acquisition of specific segmental features of Czech. The material consists of Czech and Portuguese recordings of 12 Lusophones, i.e. six native speakers of European Portuguese and six native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, as well as equivalent Czech recordings of Czech native speakers and a mixed group of Czech non-native speakers with different native languages (Romance, Slavic and Germanic).
After thorough comparison of phonological systems of Czech and both European and Brazilian Portuguese, acoustic as well as perceptual analysis of segmental and suprasegmental features was performed. Preliminary results of the analysis suggest that although genealogically unrelated, Portuguese and Czech are similar phonetically.
This similarity enables these speakers to pronounce even difficult Czech segments without bigger problems, although most of them are not part of Portuguese phonological system. After some exposure to Czech, Lusophones tend to master Czech vowel system very accurately as well as most of the Czech consonants, even problematic ones as rhotics ([ɾ], [r̝], [r̝]), palatals ([c], [ɟ], [ɲ]) and affricates ([t͡s], [t͡ʃ]).
The pronunciation differences occur on the suprasegmental level, where Lusophones place stress on the penultimate syllable. Results of a perceptual test will also be presented.
These show that Portuguese native speakers are often confused with Russian and Ukraine native speakers by Czech native listeners. This is also documented by speakers themselves in research interviews which have been conducted.