North coast Portuguese

Main characteristics

• Preference for the pronoun tu instead of você, without distinction of formal and informal speech.
• Opening of pre-tonic vowels and to and, but always obeying a rule of vowel harmony.
• Lenition of and to, and reduction of syllables that have these phonemes, represented in Portuguese by and respectively.
• Stronger or low "r" sound, depending on their syllabic position. Word-finally it is not pronounced.
• Heightening of to and to.
• Palatalization of fricatives to when adjacent to letters or.
• In Fortaleza and metropolitan area, Ceará North and Ceará Northeast, and close hinterland regions, this group there palatalization phonetic, getting affricates to and .
• Stronger "r" is realised as, and also debuccalization of phonemes to.
• Unique vocabulary is present in this dialect, leading many authors to write books of various dictionaries of such expressions. This, perhaps, is symbolic of the people of Ceará, with their antics and humor. Examples: marminino, abirobado.