[Vocabulary] Portugal

[Meja]

I know that the common pronunciation of the words Portugal and Portuguese is with /tʃ/, but I'd like to know if the pronunciation with /j/ sounds acceptable to native speakers as well.
/'pɔ:tjʊɡəl/
/pɔ:tjʊ'gi:z/

 

[Raymott]

Yes, I'd say those pronunciations could sound natural depending on the overall accent of the speaker.

 

[GoesStation]

Only the /tʃ/ pronunciation sounds natural to my AmE ears. If I heard a Brit use the other pronunciation, I'd take note that I'd found yet another difference between our dialects.

 

[emsr2d2]

Head to Forvo and listen to 7 pronunciations by native speakers HERE.

 

[Tdol]

I pronounce these words with /tj/.

As do most BrE speakers.

 

[emsr2d2]

Since I don't do phonetics, can someone put me out of my misery and tell me whether /tj/ equates to "Port-you-guhl" or "Porch-er-guhl" (my attempts at the two ways I might pronounce it)?

 

[emsr2d2]

Ah, interesting. In that case, I wouldn't have said what Tdol did in post #6. Unless I were very carefully enunciating it (in which case I would separate "Port" from "ugal" and use the "you" sound in the middle), it always sounds like it starts with "Porch" when I say it and when any of my friends and family say it.
My pronunciation is on that Forvo page!

 

[Raymott]

My pronunciation of 'Portuguese' is more toward /tj/ than that of Portugal, which is a definite /tʃ/.

 

[GoesStation]

Ah, interesting. In that case, I wouldn't have said what Tdol did in post #6. Unless I were very carefully enunciating it (in which case I would separate "Port" from "ugal" and use the "you" sound in the middle), it always sounds like it starts with "Porch" when I say it and when any of my friends and family say it.
My pronunciation is on that Forvo page!

Some more of our British members might want to contribute their versions of Portugal to forvo.com. All the British samples currently up there use the porch​ variation.