The realizations of the phoneme /b/ in contemporary European Portuguese

This thesis focuses on the possible realizations of the phoneme /b/ in contemporary European Portuguese. The theoretical section introduces the basis of the research and the existing knowledge in the field of phonology, particularly in terms of syllable structure and base syllabification. In the practical section, the design of the study and the data collection are closely described. The goal of this thesis is to test the existing knowledge in the field. To that end, the acoustic analysis is applied to the productions of five informants. In addition to confirming the tendency towards fricativization in various contexts, the results also show interesting data with regard to the possibility of devoicing before a voiceless segment or before a pause