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3.2. Portuguese in Europe

On the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, where Galician-Portuguese was formerly spoken, Galician and Portuguese are currently the primary languages of the area. This area forms a collection of dialects that, depending on certain phonetic characteristics, principally in the pronunciation of the sibilants in words such as roSa (rose) and paSSo (step), or in Cinco (five) and Seis (six), can be separated into the following three large linguistic groups:

  1. Galician dialects;
    G - Western Galician
    F - Eastern Galician
  2. Northern Portuguese dialects; and
    E - Dialects from Trás-os-Montes and Alto-Minho
    C - Dialects from Baixo-Minho, Durão and Beira
  3. Central-Southern Portuguese dialects.
    D - Dialects of the central coast
    B - Dialects of the central interior and of the south
  4. A - Limits of sub-dialectal zone with very differentiated specific characteristics.
Map of european dialects

Index

3.2.a. Portugal
3.2.b. Galician

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Last updated: Feb/09/2006