Is Brazilian Portuguese a syllable-timed language whereas European Portuguese is a stress-timed language?

Answer 1

Not really. Although Brazilian Portuguese may seem that it is more "syllable-timed" than standard European Portuguese, this appearance is more so due to the pronunciation differentiations. For example, Brazilians speak with their vowels more open, whereas the Portuguese speak with a more closed vowel sound. Brazilians pronounce their "di" , "ti", and "te" sounds as "dgee" and "chi", whereas the Portuguese do not. An example is bom dia. Brazilians will pronounce this as "bom dgeeah" but a Portuguese will pronounce this as "bom deeah."

Finalmente : Finaumenchi (Brazilian), Finaumentay (Portuguese)

Tio: Chio (Brazilian), Teeoh (Portuguese)

Note that in Portuguese, the "L" in the middle of a word is pronounced like the English "U" - in both Brazilian and standard dialects.

Also, the Portuguese pronounce all "S" as "SH", whereas only certain areas in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) do this. This is a good way to tell where a Brazilian is from - do they say LUZ as "loose" or "loosh".

Another important factor of prononciation: in Brazil the letter "R" is pronounced like the English "H", but in Portugal it is more commonly pronounced as the Spanish or Italian "R".

Although these accents are different, both Brazilians and Portuguese have 100% intelligibility when conversing with one another. It's just a myth that they can't understand each other !