Phoneme PT-PT
Interactive educational tool for learning European Portuguese pronunciation. Includes 21 critical phonemes with reference audio generated using speech synthesis.
Tecnologías utilizadas:
Phoneme PT-PT is an educational tool designed to help European Portuguese students master the language’s most challenging sounds.
The Problem
European Portuguese has unique phonemes that do not exist in Spanish or English:
- Nasal vowels (ão, ão, ões)
- The final “S” that sounds like “sh”
- The guttural “R” from the back of the throat
- Sounds like “LH” and “NH”
For a non-native speaker, these sounds can be almost impossible to perceive and reproduce without clear auditory reference.
The Solution
Created an interactive phonetic “soundboard” that includes:
21 phonemes organized into 3 categories:
- 9 Vowels (open, closed, mute)
- 4 Nasal vowels (ão, am/an, ões, im/in)
- 8 Special Consonants (s→sh, lh, nh, rr, etc.)
Technical Features:
- Audio generated with high-quality synthetic voice (
pt-PT-DuarteNeural) - Latency-free playback thanks to audio preloading
- Responsive interface with color-coding by category
- Multilingual support (ES/EN/PT/FR)
Technology
The project utilizes:
- edge-tts: Audio generation with Microsoft Edge neural voice
- React + TypeScript: Interactive soundboard component
- Astro: Static site generation with selective hydration
- DaisyUI: Design system with themes and accessible components
Impact
This tool allows anyone to autonomously practice European Portuguese pronunciation, repeating sounds as many times as necessary to achieve perfection.