Hype for the Future 49B: Artifacts of Portuguese Culture

Portuguese culture in the modern European sense covers the modern-day mainland of Portugal, as well as the associated islands and related regions, particularly Madeira and the Azores Islands. Also of note from a Portuguese context is the orthography, which often prefers “m” at the end of words and famously seems to nasalize almost everything, particularly with the suffix “-ão” common to the language. Also a common feature of the Portuguese language is the letter “ç,” as Portugal does not claim the letters “k” nor “z” are truly legible domestically. Instead of “kilo-,” for instance, the national identity may prefer “quilo-,” and the orthographic preferences also associated with the Portuguese also contain the digraphic preferences of “lh” and “nh.” The latter, “nh,” is actually derived from the traditional orthography of the palatalized “n,” referring, of course, to the historic notation of “nn” for both Portuguese and Spanish (the latter of which has a tilde accent above the “n” nowadays).