Script Base
- Uses Latin alphabet (A–Z) with Portuguese-style diacritics (á, à, â, ã, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú, ü, ç).
- Orthography is not fully standardized; often reflects Portuguese spelling conventions, but phonology is simplified.
Vowels
Patuá vowels are pronounced more consistently than in Portuguese — reduced vowel variation, and nasal vowels are present but less frequent.
| Glyph | Latin Chain | Phoneme (IPA) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | /a/ | |
| Á | a + ´ | /a/ | stressed a |
| Â | a + ˆ | /ɐ/ | central a |
| Ã | a + ˜ | /ã/ | nasal a |
| E | e | /e/ ~ /ɛ/ | |
| É | e + ´ | /ɛ/ | |
| Ê | e + ˆ | /e/ | |
| I | i | /i/ | |
| Í | i + ´ | /i/ | |
| O | o | /o/ ~ /ɔ/ | |
| Ó | o + ´ | /ɔ/ | |
| Ô | o + ˆ | /o/ | |
| Õ | o + ˜ | /õ/ | nasal o |
| U | u | /u/ | |
| Ú | u + ´ | /u/ | |
| Ü | u + ¨ | /y/ or /ju/ | in loans, especially from Cantonese |
Consonants
Simplified from Portuguese; some distinctions are lost or merged.
| Glyph | Latin Chain | Phoneme (IPA) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | b | /b/ | |
| C | c | /k/ or /s/ before e/i | |
| Ç | c + cedilla | /s/ | |
| D | d | /d/ | /d͡ʒ/ before i in some words |
| F | f | /f/ | |
| G | g | /g/ before a/o/u, /ʒ/ before e/i | |
| H | h | silent | |
| J | j | /ʒ/ | |
| K | k | /k/ | in loans |
| L | l | /l/ | |
| M | m | /m/ | nasalizes preceding vowel in coda |
| N | n | /n/ | nasalizes preceding vowel in coda |
| P | p | /p/ | |
| Q | q | /k/; appears as qu before e, i | |
| R | r | /ɾ/ or /ʁ/ depending on speaker; simplified from Portuguese | |
| S | s | /s/ or /z/ intervocalic | |
| T | t | /t/ | /t͡ʃ/ before i in some words |
| V | v | /v/ | |
| W | w | /w/ | in loans |
| X | x | /ʃ/, /s/, /ks/ | simplified but still multiple pronunciations |
| Y | y | /j/ | |
| Z | z | /z/ |
Digraphs (treated as phoneme units)
- Ch → /ʃ/
- Lh → /ʎ/ (palatal lateral) — often realized as /j/ in Patuá
- Nh → /ɲ/ (palatal nasal) — often realized as /nj/
- Qu → /k/ or /kw/ before e, i
- Gu → /g/ or /gw/ before e, i
- Rr → /ʁ/ (strong R, mostly in Portuguese loans)
System Integration Notes
- While orthography resembles Portuguese, phoneme inventory is smaller — many Portuguese contrasts have merged.
- Nasal vowels occur, but often shift toward oral vowels + nasal consonants in coda.
- Influence from Cantonese introduces /y/, /ŋ/, and tone-like pitch contours in some words — not marked in standard writing but could be annotated in our lattice as a prosody layer.
If you want, Ron, I can now:
- Build an exportable Patuá module as a reduced Portuguese subset + Cantonese-influenced expansions,
- Or go to the next creole/dialect in the sequence (like Cape Verdean Creole or Mauritian Creole) to widen our creole coverage.
Do you want me to finalize Patuá for the lattice now, or move on to the next one?