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I thought Portuguese would sound very close to Spanish. However, to me, it sounds more like French?

Why is that?

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    Probably because it has nasal vowels and a uvular /ʀ/. It sounds like Russian to a lot of people as well, since it has lots of reduced vowels that lead to consonant clusters, and lots of sibilants. Commented Mar 6, 2022 at 8:56
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    Certainly not Brazilian Portuguese. Do you mean Iberian Portuguese??
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 6, 2022 at 18:52
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    With possible answers like Janus Bahs Jacquet's above, it's really unclear to me why people would want to close this as "opinion-based". It is clear that some languages sound more similar to each other than others, and it is a task of linguistics to explain why.
    – Keelan
    Commented Mar 11, 2022 at 9:16
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    Nasal vowels and /ʒ/ are likely a big part of it. Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 2:13
  • @Lambie Yes, Brazilian Portuguese sounds nothing like French.
    – Tuňuquq
    Commented May 15, 2022 at 22:41

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The nasal vowels, like the other replies said, are probably why. The pronouns are also similar. Je, Tu, Il/Elle/On, Nous, Vous, Ils/Elles for French and Eu, Tu, Ele/Ela, Nós, Eles,Elas.

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