North coast dialect (Portuguese: dialeto da costa norte, pronounced [dʒiaˈlɛtu da ˈkɔstɐ ˈnɔʁtʃi]), also called Cearense dialect, is a dialect of Portuguese in the Brazilian state of Ceará, having many internal variations, like in the regions Jaguaribe and Sertões (back-countries).

Main characteristics

• Preference for the pronoun tu instead of você (both meaning "you"), without distinction of formal and informal speech.^[2]
• Opening of pre-tonic vowels [e] and [o] to [ɛ] and [ɔ], but always obeying a rule of vowel harmony.^[3][4]
• Lenition of [ʎ] and [ɲ] to [j], and reduction of syllables that have these phonemes, represented in Portuguese by ⟨lh⟩ and ⟨nh⟩ respectively.^[5]
• Stronger or low "r" sound, depending on their syllabic position (generally strong at the beginning and middle of words, and weak final syllables). Word-finally it is not pronounced.
• Heightening of [e, ẽ] to [i, ĩ] and [o, õ] to [u, ũ].
• Palatalization of fricatives [s, z] to [ʃ, ʒ] when adjacent to letters ⟨t⟩ or ⟨d⟩.
• In Fortaleza and metropolitan area, Ceará North and Ceará Northeast, and close hinterland regions, this group there palatalization phonetic, getting affricates to [d͡ʒi] and [t͡ʃi].
• Stronger "r" is realised as [ɦ], and also debuccalization of phonemes [ʒ, v, z] to [ɦ].^[6]
• Unique vocabulary is present in this dialect, leading many authors to write books of various dictionaries of such expressions.^[7] This, perhaps, is symbolic of the people of Ceará, with their antics and humor. Examples: marminino (indicates surprise or astonishment, admiration), abirobado (something that is crazy).^[8][9]