This accessible introduction to the linguistic structure of Portuguese looks at its social and historical background. In addition to covering the central topics of syntax, phonology, morphology, semantics and pragmatics, it explores the development of the language, the spread of Portuguese in the world, and sociolinguistic issues such as dialect variation and language planning. Keeping linguistic theory to a minimum, the book focuses on presenting linguistic facts within a useful global survey of the language and its issues.

Compares the sounds, phonology, and prosody of General American English and Southeastern Brazilian Portuguese.