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Spanish phonology

January 19, 2024

For assistance with IPA transcriptions of Spanish for Wikipedia articles, see Help:IPA/Spanish.
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Spanish language. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer to Castilian Spanish, the standard dialect used in Spain on radio and television.[1][2][3][4] For historical development of the sound system, see History of Spanish. For details of geographical variation, see Spanish dialects and varieties.

Phonemes are written inside slashes (/ /) and allophones inside brackets ([ ]).

Consonants edit

The phonemes /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are pronounced as voiced stops only after a pause, after a nasal consonant, or—in the case of /d/—after a lateral consonant; in all other contexts, they are realized as approximants (namely [β̞, ð̞, ɣ˕], hereafter represented without the downtacks) or fricatives.[6][7]

The realization of the phoneme /ʝ/ varies greatly by dialect.[8] In Castilian Spanish, its allophones in word-initial position include the palatal approximant [j], the palatal fricative [ʝ], the palatal affricate [ɟʝ] and the palatal stop [ɟ].[8] After a pause, a nasal, or a lateral, it may be realized as an affricate ([ɟʝ]);[9][10] in other contexts, /ʝ/ is generally realized as an approximant [ʝ˕].

The phoneme /ʎ/ is distinguished from /ʝ/ in some areas in Spain (mostly northern and rural) and South America (mostly highland). Other accents of Spanish, comprising the majority of speakers, have lost the palatal lateral as a distinct phoneme and have merged historical /ʎ/ into /ʝ/: this is called yeísmo.

In addition, [ʒ] and [ʃ] occurs in Rioplatense Spanish as spoken across Argentina and Uruguay, where it is otherwise standard for the phonemes /ʝ/ or /ʎ/ to be realized as voiced palato-alveolar fricative [ʒ] instead of [ʝ] and /ʎ/, a feature called "zheísmo".[11] In the last few decades, it has further become popular, particularly among younger speakers in Argentina and Uruguay, to de-voice /ʒ/ to [ʃ] ("sheísmo").[12][13]. In other dialects /ʃ/ is a marginal phoneme that occurs only in loanwords or certain dialects; many speakers have difficulty with this sound, tending to replace it with /tʃ/ or /s/. In a number of dialects (most notably, Northern Mexican Spanish, informal Chilean Spanish, and some Caribbean and Andalusian accents) [ʃ] occurs, as a deaffricated /tʃ/.[14]

Many young Argentinians have no distinct /ɲ/ phoneme and use the [nj] sequence instead, thus making no distinction between huraño and uranio (both [uˈɾanjo]).[15]

Most varieties spoken in Spain, including those prevalent on radio and television, have both /θ/ and /s/ (distinción). However, speakers in parts of southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and nearly all of Latin America have only /s/ (seseo). Some speakers in southernmost Spain (especially coastal Andalusia) have only [s̄] (a consonant similar to /θ/) and not /s/ (ceceo). This "ceceo" is not entirely unknown in the Americas, especially in coastal Peru. The word distinción itself is pronounced with /θ/ in varieties that have it.

The exact pronunciation of /s/ varies widely by dialect, with some realizing it as [h] or opting to omit it entirely [∅].[16]

The phonemes /t/ and /d/ are laminal denti-alveolar ([t̪, d̪]).[7] The phoneme /s/ becomes dental [s̪] before denti-alveolar consonants,[9] while /θ/ remains interdental [θ̟] in all contexts.[9]

Before front vowels /i, e/, the velar consonants /k, ɡ, x/ (including the lenited allophone of /ɡ/) are realized as post-palatal [k̟, ɡ˖, x̟, ɣ˕˖].[17]

According to some authors,[18] /x/ is post-velar or uvular in the Spanish of northern and central Spain.[19][20][21][22] Others[23] describe /x/ as velar in European Spanish, with a uvular allophone ([χ]) appearing before /o/ and /u/ (including when /u/ is in the syllable onset as [w]).[9]

A common pronunciation of /f/ in nonstandard speech is the voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ], so that fuera is pronounced [ˈɸweɾa] rather than [ˈfweɾa].[24][14][25][26][27][28][29] In some Extremaduran, western Andalusian, and American varieties, this softened realization of /f/, when it occurs before the non-syllabic allophone of /u/ ([w]), is subject to merger with /x/; in some areas the homophony of fuego/juego is resolved by replacing fuego with lumbre or candela.[30][31]

Consonant neutralizations and assimilations edit

Some of the phonemic contrasts between consonants in Spanish are lost in certain phonological environments, especially in syllable-final position. In these cases, the phonemic contrast is said to be neutralized.

Sonorants edit

Nasals and laterals edit

The three nasal phonemes—/m/, /n/, and /ɲ/—maintain their contrast when in syllable-initial position (e.g. cama 'bed', cana 'grey hair', caña 'sugar cane'). In syllable-final position, this three-way contrast is lost as nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant[9]—even across a word boundary;[32] or, if a nasal is followed by a pause rather than a consonant, it is realized for most speakers as alveolar [n] (though in Caribbean varieties, this may instead be [ŋ] or an omitted nasal with nasalization of the preceding vowel).[33][34] Thus /n/ is realized as [m] before labial consonants, and as [ŋ] before velar ones. Additionally, word-final /m/ and /ɲ/ in stand-alone loanwords or proper nouns are substituted with [n], e.g. álbum [ˈalβun] ('album').[35]

Similarly, /l/ assimilates to the place of articulation of a following coronal consonant, i.e. a consonant that is interdental, dental, alveolar, or palatal.[36][37][38] In dialects that maintain the use of /ʎ/, there is no contrast between /ʎ/ and /l/ in coda position, and syllable-final [ʎ] appears only as an allophone of /l/ in rapid speech.[39]

Assimilatory nasal and lateral allophones in Spanish
nasal lateral
word IPA gloss word IPA gloss
invierno [imˈbjeɾno]ⓘ 'winter'
ánfora [ˈaɱfoɾa]ⓘ 'amphora'
encía [en̟ˈθi.a]ⓘ 'gum' alzar [al̟ˈθaɾ]ⓘ 'to raise'
antes [ˈan̪t̪es]ⓘ 'before' alto [ˈal̪t̪o]ⓘ 'tall'
ancha [ˈanʲtʃa]ⓘ 'wide' colcha [ˈkolʲtʃa]ⓘ 'quilt'
cónyuge [ˈkoɲɟʝuxe]ⓘ 'spouse'
rincón [riŋˈkon]ⓘ 'corner'
enjuto [eɴˈχut̪o]ⓘ 'thin'
Rhotics edit

The alveolar trill [r] and the alveolar tap [ɾ] are in phonemic contrast word-internally between vowels (as in carro 'car' vs. caro 'expensive'), but are otherwise in complementary distribution, as long as syllable division is taken into account: the tap occurs after any syllable-initial consonant, while the trill occurs after any syllable-final consonant.[40][41]

Only the trill can occur at the start of a morpheme (e.g. el rey 'the king', la reina 'the queen') or at the start of a syllable when the preceding syllable ends with a consonant, namely /l/, /n/, or /s/ (e.g. alrededor, enriquecer, Israel).

Only the tap can occur after a word-initial obstruent consonant (e.g. tres 'three', frío 'cold').

Either a trill or a tap can be found word-medially after /b/, /d/, /t/ depending on whether the rhotic consonant is pronounced in the same syllable as the preceding obstruent (forming a complex onset cluster) or in a separate syllable (with the obstruent forming the coda of the preceding syllable). The tap is found in words where no morpheme boundary separates the obstruent from the following rhotic consonant, such as sobre 'over', madre 'mother', ministro 'minister'. The trill is found in words where the rhotic consonant is preceded by a morpheme boundary and thus a syllable boundary, such as subrayar, ciudadrealeño, postromántico;[42] compare the corresponding word-initial trills in raya 'line', Ciudad Real "Ciudad Real", and romántico "Romantic".

In syllable-final position inside a word, the tap is more frequent, but the trill can also occur (especially in emphatic[43] or oratorical[44] style) with no semantic difference—thus arma ('weapon') may be either [ˈaɾma] (tap) or [ˈarma] (trill).[45] In word-final position the rhotic is usually:

  • either a tap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause, as in amo[ɾ ~ r] paterno ('paternal love'), the former being more common;[46]
  • a tap when followed by a vowel-initial word, as in amo[ɾ] eterno ('eternal love').

Morphologically, a word-final rhotic always corresponds to the tapped [ɾ] in related words. Thus the word olor 'smell' is related to olores, oloroso 'smells, smelly' and not to *olorres, *olorroso.[8]

When two rhotics occur consecutively across a word or prefix boundary, they result in one trill, so that da rocas ('s/he gives rocks') and dar rocas ('to give rocks') are either neutralized or distinguished by a longer trill in the latter phrase.[47]

The tap/trill alternation has prompted a number of authors to postulate a single underlying rhotic; the intervocalic contrast then results from gemination (e.g. tierra /ˈtieɾɾa/ > [ˈtjera] 'earth').[48][49][50]

Obstruents edit

The phonemes /θ/, /s/,[9] and /f/[51][52] may be voiced before voiced consonants, as in jazmín ('Jasmine') [xaðˈmin], rasgo ('feature') [ˈrazɣo], and Afganistán ('Afghanistan') [avɣanisˈtan]. There is a certain amount of free variation in this, so jazmín can be pronounced [xaθˈmin] or [xaðˈmin].[53] Such voicing may occur across word boundaries, causing feliz navidad ('merry Christmas') /feˈliθ nabiˈdad/ to be pronounced [feˈlið naβ̞iˈð̞að̞].[16] In one region of Spain, the area around Madrid, word-final /d/ is sometimes pronounced [θ], especially in a colloquial pronunciation of the city's name, Madriz ([maˈðɾiθ]ⓘ).[54] Also, in some words now spelled with -z- before a voiced consonant, the phoneme /θ/ is in fact diachronically derived from original [ð] or /d/. For example, yezgo comes from Old Spanish yedgo, and juzgar comes from Old Spanish judgar, from Latin jūdicāre.[55]

Both in casual and formal speech, there is no phonemic contrast between voiced and voiceless consonants placed in syllable-final position. The merged phoneme is typically pronounced as a relaxed, voiced fricative or approximant,[56] although a variety of other realizations are also possible. So the clusters -bt- and -pt- in the words obtener and optimista are pronounced exactly the same way:

  • obtener /obteˈner/ > [oβteˈneɾ]
  • optimista /obtiˈmista/ > [oβtiˈmista]

Similarly, the spellings -dm- and -tm- are often merged in pronunciation, as well as -gd- and -cd-:

Semivowels edit

Traditionally, the palatal consonant phoneme /ʝ/ is considered to occur only as a syllable onset,[57] whereas the palatal glide [j] that can be found after a consonantal onset in words like bien is analyzed as a non-syllabic version of the vowel phoneme /i/[58] (which forms part of the syllable nucleus, being pronounced with the following vowel as a rising diphthong). The approximant allophone of /ʝ/, which can be transcribed as [ʝ˕], differs phonetically from [j] in the following respects: [ʝ˕] has a lower F2 amplitude, is longer, can be replaced by a palatal fricative [ʝ] in emphatic pronunciations, and is unspecified for rounding (e.g. viuda [ˈbjuða]ⓘ 'widow' vs. ayuda [aˈʝʷuða]ⓘ 'help').[57]

After a consonant, the surface contrast between [ʝ] and [j] depends on syllabification, which in turn is largely predictable from morphology: the syllable boundary before [ʝ] corresponds to the morphological boundary after a prefix.[8] A contrast is therefore possible after any consonant that can end a syllable, as illustrated by the following minimal or near-minimal pairs: after /l/ (italiano [itaˈljano] 'Italian' vs. y tal llano [italˈɟʝano] 'and such a plain'[8]), after /n/ (enyesar [eɲɟʝeˈsaɾ]ⓘ 'to plaster' vs. aniego [aˈnjeɣo]ⓘ 'flood'[10]) after /s/ (desierto /deˈsieɾto/ 'desert' vs. deshielo /desˈʝelo/ 'thawing'[8]), after /b/ (abierto /aˈbieɾto/ 'open' vs. abyecto /abˈʝeɡto/ 'abject'[8][59]).

Although there is dialectal and idiolectal variation, speakers may also exhibit a contrast in phrase-initial position.[60] In Argentine Spanish, the change of /ʝ/ to a fricative realized as [ʒ ~ ʃ] has resulted in clear contrast between this consonant and the glide [j]; the latter occurs as a result of spelling pronunciation in words spelled with ⟨hi⟩, such as hierba [ˈjeɾβa] 'grass' (which thus forms a minimal pair in Argentine Spanish with the doublet yerba [ˈʒeɾβa] 'maté leaves').[61]

There are some alternations between the two, prompting scholars like Alarcos Llorach (1950)[62] to postulate an archiphoneme /I/, so that ley [lej]ⓘ would be transcribed phonemically as /ˈleI/ and leyes [ˈleʝes]ⓘ as /ˈleIes/.

In a number of varieties, including some American ones, there is a similar distinction between the non-syllabic version of the vowel /u/ and a rare consonantal /w̝/.[10][63] Near-minimal pairs include deshuesar [dez.w̝eˈsaɾ]ⓘ ('to debone') vs. desuello [deˈsweʝo]ⓘ ('skinning'), son huevos [ˈsoŋ ˈw̝eβos]ⓘ ('they are eggs') vs. son nuevos [ˈso(n) ˈnweβos]ⓘ ('they are new'),[64] and huaca [ˈ(ɡ)w̝aka]ⓘ ('Indian grave') vs. u oca [ˈwoka]ⓘ ('or goose').[58]

Vowels edit

 
Spanish vowel chart, from Ladefoged & Johnson (2010:227)

Spanish has five vowel phonemes, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ and /a/ (the same as Asturian-Leonese, Aragonese, and also Basque).

There is no phonemic distinction between close-mid and open-mid vowels, unlike in Catalan, Galician, French, Italian and Portuguese. In the historical development of Spanish, former low-mid vowels /ɛ, ɔ/ were replaced with diphthongs /ie, ue/ (in word-initial position, /ʝe/ occurs instead of /ie/), which reduced the number of vowel phonemes to five.[65] The diphthongs /ie, ue/ regularly correspond to open /ɛ, ɔ/ in Portuguese cognates; compare siete /ˈsiete/ 'seven' and fuerte /ˈfuerte/ 'strong' with the Portuguese cognates sete /ˈsɛtɨ/ and forte /ˈfɔɾtɨ/, meaning the same.[66]

The diphthongs /ie, ue/ in stressed syllables show alternation with the monophthongs /e, o/ in unstressed syllables: compare heló /eˈlo/ 'it froze' and tostó /tosˈto/ 'he toasted' with hiela /ˈʝela/ 'it freezes' and tuesto /ˈtuesto/ 'I toast'.[67]

Each of the five vowels in both stressed and unstressed syllables:[68]

Examples of Spanish vowels
stressed unstressed
word gloss word gloss
piso /ˈpiso/ⓘ 'I step' pisó /piˈso/ⓘ 's/he stepped'
pujo /ˈpuxo/ⓘ 'I bid' (present tense) pujó /puˈxo/ⓘ 's/he bid'
peso /ˈpeso/ⓘ 'I weigh' pesó /peˈso/ⓘ 's/he weighed'
poso /ˈposo/ⓘ 'I pose' posó /poˈso/ⓘ 's/he posed'
paso /ˈpaso/ⓘ 'I pass' pasó /paˈso/ⓘ 's/he passed'

Nevertheless, there are some distributional gaps or rarities. For instance, an unstressed close vowel in the final syllable of a word is rare.[69]

Because of substratal Quechua, at least some speakers from southern Colombia down through Peru can be analyzed to have only three vowel phonemes /i, u, a/, as the close [i, u] are continually confused with the mid [e, o], resulting in pronunciations such as [dolˈsoɾa] for dulzura ('sweetness').[clarification needed] When Quechua-dominant bilinguals have /e, o/ in their phonemic inventory, they realize them as [ɪ, ʊ], which are heard by outsiders as variants of /i, u/.[70] Both of those features are viewed as strongly non-standard by other speakers.

Allophones edit

Phonetic nasalization occurs for vowels occurring between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable-final nasal, e.g. cinco [ˈθĩŋko] ('five') and mano [ˈmãno] ('hand').[68]

Arguably, Eastern Andalusian and Murcian Spanish have ten phonemic vowels, with each of the above vowels paired by a lowered or fronted and lengthened version, e.g. la madre [la ˈmaðɾe] ('the mother') vs. las madres [læː ˈmæːðɾɛː] ('the mothers').[71] However, these are more commonly analyzed as allophones triggered by an underlying /s/ that is subsequently deleted.

Exact number of allophones edit

There is no agreement among scholars on how many vowel allophones Spanish has; an often[72] postulated number is five [i, u, e̞, o̞, a̠].

Some scholars,[73] however, state that Spanish has eleven allophones: the close and mid vowels have close [i, u, e, o] and open [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ] allophones, whereas /a/ appears in front [a], central [a̠] and back [ɑ] variants. These symbols appear only in the narrowest variant of phonetic transcription; in broader variants, only the symbols ⟨i, u, e, o, a⟩ are used,[74] and that is the convention adopted in the rest of this article.

Tomás Navarro Tomás describes the distribution of said eleven allophones as follows:[75]

  • Close vowels /i, u/
    • The close allophones [i, u] appear in open syllables, e.g. in the words libre [ˈliβɾe] 'free' and subir [suˈβɪɾ] 'to raise'
    • The open allophones are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ], and appear:
      • In closed syllables, e.g. in the word fin [fɪn] 'end'
      • In both open and closed syllables when in contact with /r/, e.g. in the words rico [ˈrɪko] 'rich' and rubio [ˈrʊβjo] 'blond'
      • In both open and closed syllables when before /x/, e.g. in the words hijo [ˈɪxo] 'son' and pujó [pʊˈxo] 's/he bid'
  • Mid front vowel /e/
    • The close allophone is phonetically close-mid [e], and appears:
      • In open syllables, e.g. in the word dedo [ˈdeðo] 'finger'
      • In closed syllables when before /m, n, t, θ, s/, e.g. in the word Valencia [ba̠ˈlenθja̠] 'Valencia'
    • The open allophone is phonetically open-mid [ɛ], and appears:
      • In open syllables when in contact with /r/, e.g. in the words guerra [ˈɡɛra̠] 'war' and reto [ˈrɛto] challenge
      • In closed syllables when not followed by /m, n, t, θ, s/, e.g. in the word belga [ˈbɛlɣa̠] 'Belgian'
      • In the diphthong [ej], e.g. in the words peine [ˈpɛjne] 'comb' and rey [ˈrɛj] king
  • Mid back vowel /o/
    • The close allophone is phonetically close-mid [o], and appears in open syllables, e.g. in the word como [ˈkomo] 'how'
    • The open allophone is phonetically open-mid [ɔ], and appears:
      • In closed syllables, e.g. in the word con [kɔn] 'with'
      • In both open and closed syllables when in contact with /r/, e.g. in the words corro [ˈkɔrɔ] 'I run', barro [ˈba̠rɔ] 'mud', and roble [ˈrɔβle] 'oak'
      • In both open and closed syllables when before /x/, e.g. in the word ojo [ˈɔxo] 'eye'
      • In the diphthong [oj], e.g. in the word hoy [ɔj] 'today'
      • In stressed position when preceded by /a/ and followed by either /ɾ/ or /l/, e.g. in the word ahora [ɑˈɔɾa̠] 'now'
  • Open vowel /a/
    • The front allophone [a] appears:
      • Before palatal consonants, e.g. in the word despacho [desˈpatʃo] 'office'
      • In the diphthong [aj], e.g. in the word aire [ˈajɾe] 'air'
    • The back allophone [ɑ] appears:
      • In the diphthong [aw], e.g. in the word flauta [ˈflɑwta̠] 'flute'
      • Before /o/
      • In closed syllables before /l/, e.g. in the word sal [sɑl] 'salt'
      • In both open and closed syllables when before /x/, e.g. in the word tajada [tɑˈxa̠ða̠] 'chop'
    • The central allophone [a̠] appears in all other cases, e.g. in the word casa [ˈka̠sa̠]

According to Eugenio Martínez Celdrán, however, systematic classification of Spanish allophones is impossible due to the fact that their occurrence varies from speaker to speaker and from region to region. According to him, the exact degree of openness of Spanish vowels depends not so much on the phonetic environment, but rather on various external factors accompanying speech.[76]

Diphthongs and triphthongs edit

Spanish diphthongs[68]
IPA Example Meaning IPA Example Meaning
Falling Rising
a [aj] aire air [ja] hacia towards
[aw] pausa pause [wa] cuadro picture
e [ej] rey king [je] tierra earth
[ew] neutro neutral [we] fuego fire
o [oj] hoy today [jo] radio radio
[ow][77] bou seine fishing [wo] cuota quota
Falling Rising
u/i [ju] viuda widow
[uj][78] muy very [wi] buitre vulture

Spanish has six falling diphthongs and eight rising diphthongs. While many diphthongs are historically the result of a recategorization of vowel sequences (hiatus) as diphthongs, there is still lexical contrast between diphthongs and hiatus.[79] Some lexical items vary amongst speakers and dialects between hiatus and diphthong: words like biólogo ('biologist') with a potential diphthong in the first syllable and words like diálogo with a stressed or pretonic sequence of /i/ and a vowel vary between a diphthong and hiatus.[80] Chițoran & Hualde (2007) hypothesize that this is because vocalic sequences are longer in these positions.

In addition to synalepha across word boundaries, sequences of vowels in hiatus become diphthongs in fast speech; when this happens, one vowel becomes non-syllabic (unless they are the same vowel, in which case they fuse together) as in poeta [ˈpo̯eta] ('poet') and maestro [ˈmae̯stɾo] ('teacher').[81] Similarly, the relatively rare diphthong /eu/ may be reduced to [u] in certain unstressed contexts, as in Eufemia, [uˈfemja].[82] In the case of verbs like aliviar ('relieve'), diphthongs result from the suffixation of normal verbal morphology onto a stem-final /j/ (that is, aliviar would be |alibj| + |ar|).[83] This contrasts with verbs like ampliar ('to extend') which, by their verbal morphology, seem to have stems ending in /i/.[84]

Non-syllabic /e/ and /o/ can be reduced to [j], [w], as in beatitud [bjatiˈtuð] ('beatitude') and poetisa [pweˈtisa] ('poetess'), respectively; similarly, non-syllabic /a/ can be completely elided, as in (e.g. ahorita [oˈɾita] 'right away'). The frequency (though not the presence) of this phenomenon differs amongst dialects, with a number having it occur rarely and others exhibiting it always.[85]

Spanish also possesses triphthongs like /uei/ and, in dialects that use a second person plural conjugation, /iai/, /iei/, and /uai/ (e.g. buey, 'ox'; cambiáis, 'you change'; cambiéis, '(that) you may change'; and averiguáis, 'you ascertain').[86]

Prosody edit

Spanish is usually considered a syllable-timed language. Even so, stressed syllables can be up to 50% longer in duration than non-stressed syllables.[87][88][89] Although pitch, duration, and loudness contribute to the perception of stress,[90] pitch is the most important in isolation.[91]

Primary stress occurs on the penultima (the next-to-last syllable) 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, stress falls on the ultima (last syllable) or on the antepenultima (third-to-last syllable).[92]

Nonverbs are generally stressed on the penultimate syllable for vowel-final words and on the final syllable of consonant-final words. Exceptions are marked orthographically (see below), whereas regular words are underlyingly phonologically marked with a stress feature [+stress].[93]

In addition to exceptions to these tendencies, particularly learned words from Greek and Latin that feature antepenultimate stress, there are numerous minimal pairs which contrast solely on stress such as sábana ('sheet') and sabana ('savannah'), as well as límite ('boundary'), limite ('[that] he/she limit') and limité ('I limited').

Lexical stress may be marked orthographically with an acute accent (ácido, distinción, etc.). This is done according to the mandatory stress rules of Spanish orthography, which parallel the tendencies above (differing with words like distinción) and are defined so as to unequivocally indicate where the stress lies in a given written word. An acute accent may also be used to differentiate homophones, such as mi (my), and mí (me). In such cases, the accent is used on the homophone that normally receives greater stress when used in a sentence.

Lexical stress patterns are different between words carrying verbal and nominal inflection: in addition to the occurrence of verbal affixes with stress (something absent in nominal inflection), underlying stress also differs in that it falls on the last syllable of the inflectional stem in verbal words while those of nominal words may have ultimate or penultimate stress.[94] In addition, amongst sequences of clitics suffixed to a verb, the rightmost clitic may receive secondary stress, e.g. búscalo /ˈbuskaˌlo/ ('look for it').[95]

Alternations edit

Some alternations exist in Spanish that reflect diachronic changes in the language and arguably reflect morphophonological processes rather than strictly phonological ones. For instance, some words alternate between /k/ and /θ/ or /ɡ/ and /x/, with the latter in each pair appearing before a front vowel:[96]

Examples of Spanish alternations
word gloss word gloss
opaco /oˈpako/ 'opaque' opacidad /opaθiˈdad/ 'opacity'
sueco /ˈsweko/ 'Swedish' Suecia /ˈsweθja/ 'Sweden'
belga /ˈbelɡa/ 'Belgian' Bélgica /ˈbelxika/ 'Belgium'
análogo /aˈnaloɡo/ 'analogous' analogía /analoˈxi.a/ 'analogy'

Note that the conjugation of most verbs with a stem ending in /k/ or /ɡ/ does not show this alternation; these segments do not turn into /θ/ or /x/ before a front vowel:

word gloss word gloss
seco /ˈseko/ 'I dry' seque /ˈseke/ '(that) I/he/she dry (subjunctive)'
castigo /kasˈtiɡo/ 'I punish' castigue /kasˈtiɡe/ '(that) I/he/she punish (subjunctive)'

There are also alternations between unstressed /e/ and /o/ and stressed /ie/ (or /ʝe/, when initial) and /ue/ respectively:[97]

word gloss word gloss
heló /eˈlo/ 'it froze' hiela /ˈʝela/ 'it freezes'
tostó /tosˈto/ 'he toasted' tuesto /ˈtuesto/ 'I toast'

Likewise, in a very small number of words, alternations occur between the palatal sonorants /ʎ ɲ/ and their corresponding alveolar sonorants /l n/ (doncella/doncel 'maiden'/'youth', desdeñar/desdén 'to scorn'/'scorn'). This alternation does not appear in verbal or nominal inflection (that is, the plural of doncel is donceles, not *doncelles).[98] This is the result of geminated /ll/ and /nn/ of Vulgar Latin (the origin of /ʎ/ and /ɲ/, respectively) degeminating and then depalatalizing in coda position.[99] Words without any palatal-alveolar allomorphy are the result of historical borrowings.[99]

Other alternations include /ɡs/ ~ /x/ (anexo vs. anejo),[100] /ɡt/ ~ /tʃ/ (nocturno vs. noche).[101] Here the forms with /ɡs/ and /ɡt/ are historical borrowings and the forms with /x/ and /tʃ/ forms are inherited from Vulgar Latin.

There are also pairs that show antepenultimate stress in nouns and adjectives but penultimate stress in synonymous verbs (vómito 'vomit' vs. vomito 'I vomit').[102]

Phonotactics edit

Spanish syllable structure can be summarized as follows; parentheses enclose optional components:

  • (C1 (C2)) (S1) V (S2) (C3 (C4))

Spanish syllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset, consisting of one or two consonants; an obligatory syllable nucleus, consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and/or followed by a semivowel; and an optional syllable coda, consisting of one or two consonants.[103] The following restrictions apply:

  • Onset
    • First consonant (C1): Can be any consonant, including a liquid (/l, ʎ, ɾ, r/).
      • However, as discussed above, the contrast between the two rhotic consonants is neutralized in some contexts: either /ɾ/ and /r/ is possible as a word-internal onset when the preceding syllable ends in a vowel, but they do not contrast in word-initial position or when the preceding syllable ends in a consonant: only /r/ is a possible onset in those positions. In native Spanish words, the trill /r/ does not appear after a glide.[8] That said, it does appear after [w] in some Basque loans, such as Aurrerá, a grocery store, Abaurrea Alta and Abaurrea Baja, towns in Navarre, aurresku, a type of dance, and aurragado, an adjective referring to poorly tilled land.[8]
      • In general, the palatal sonorants /ʎ, ɲ/ are not found as word-internal onsets when the preceding syllable ends in a coda consonant or glide.[104] However, the diphthong [au̯] is found before /ɲ/ in some proper names, such as the toponym Auñón (from Latin alneus[105]) and Auñamendi (a publishing house name taken from the Basque name of the Pic d'Anie).
    • Second consonant (C2): If and only if the first consonant is a stop /p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/ or a voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, a second consonant, either /l/ or /ɾ/, is permitted. The onset /dl/ is nonexistent. /tl/ is prohibited as an onset cluster in most of Peninsular Spanish, while /tl/ sequences such as in atleta 'athlete' are usually treated as an onset cluster in Latin America and the Canaries.[103][106][107]
  • Nucleus
    • Semivowel (S1)
    • Vowel (V)
    • Semivowel (S2)
  • Coda
    • First consonant (C3): Can be any consonant except /ɲ/, /ʝ/ or /ʎ/.[103]
    • Second consonant (C4): Always /s/ in native Spanish words.[103] Other consonants, except /ɲ/, /ʝ/ and /ʎ/, are tolerated as long as they are less sonorous than the first consonant in the coda, such as in York or the Catalan last name Brucart, though sometimes the final element is deleted in colloquial speech.[108] A coda of two consonants never appears in words inherited from Vulgar Latin.
    • Medial codas assimilate place features of the following onsets and are often stressed.[109][clarification needed]

Maximal onsets include transporte /tɾansˈpor.te/, flaco /ˈfla.ko/, clave /ˈkla.be/.

Maximal nuclei include buey /buei/, Uruguay /u.ɾuˈɡuai/.

Maximal codas include instalar /ins.taˈlar/, perspectiva /peɾs.peɡˈti.ba/.

In many dialects, a coda cannot be more than one consonant (one of n, r, l or s) in informal speech. Realizations like /tɾasˈpoɾ.te/, /is.taˈlar/, /pes.peɡˈti.ba/ are very common, and in many cases, they are allowed even in formal speech.

Epenthesis edit

Because of the phonotactic constraints, an epenthetic /e/ is inserted before word-initial clusters beginning with /s/ (e.g. escribir 'to write') but not word-internally (transcribir 'to transcribe'),[110] thereby moving the initial /s/ to a separate syllable. The epenthetic /e/ is pronounced even when it is not reflected in spelling (e.g. the surname of Carlos Slim is pronounced /esˈlin/). While Spanish words undergo word-initial epenthesis, cognates in Latin and Italian do not:

  • Lat. status /ˈsta.tus/ ('state') ~ It. stato /ˈsta.to/ ~ Sp. estado /esˈta.do/
  • Lat. splendidus /ˈsplen.di.dus/ ('splendid') ~ It. splendido /ˈsplen.di.do/ ~ Sp. espléndido /esˈplen.di.do/
  • Fr. slave /slav/ ('Slav') ~ It. slavo /ˈzla.vo/ ~ Sp. eslavo /esˈla.bo/

In addition, Spanish adopts foreign words starting with pre-nasalized consonants with an epenthetic /e/. Nguema, a prominent last name from Equatorial Guinea, is pronounced as [eŋˈɡema].[111]

When adapting word-final complex codas that show rising sonority, an epenthetic /e/ is inserted between the two consonants. For example, al Sadr is typically pronounced [al.sa.ðeɾ].[112]

Occasionally Spanish speakers are faced with onset clusters containing elements of equal or near-equal sonority, such as Knoll (a German last name, common in parts of South America). Assimilated borrowings usually delete the first element in such clusters, for example (p)sicología 'psychology'. When attempting to pronounce such words for the first time without deleting the first consonant, Spanish speakers insert a short, often devoiced, schwa-like svarabhakti vowel between the two consonants.[113]

Spanish syllable structure is phrasal, resulting in syllables consisting of phonemes from neighboring words in combination, sometimes even resulting in elision. The phenomenon is known in Spanish as enlace.[114] For a brief discussion contrasting Spanish and English syllable structure, see Whitley (2002:32–35).

Acquisition as a first language edit

Phonology edit

Phonological development varies greatly by individual, both those developing regularly and those with delays. However, a general pattern of acquisition of phonemes can be inferred by the level of complexity of their features, i.e. by sound classes.[115] A hierarchy may be constructed, and if a child is capable of producing discrimination on one level, they will also be capable of making the discriminations of all prior levels.[116]

  • The first level consists of stops (without a voicing distinction), nasals, [l], and optionally, a non-lateral approximant. This includes a labial/coronal place difference (for example, [b] vs. [t] and [l] vs. [β]).
  • The second level includes voicing distinction for oral stops and a coronal/dorsal place difference. This allows for a distinction between [p], [t], and [k], along with their voiced counterparts, as well as a distinction between [l] and the approximant [j].
  • The third level includes fricatives and/or affricates.
  • The fourth level introduces liquids other than [l], [ɹ] and [ɾ]. It also introduces [θ].
  • The fifth level introduces the trill [r].

This hierarchy is based on production only, and is a representation of a child's capacity to produce a sound, whether that sound is the correct target in adult speech or not. Thus, it may contain some sounds that are not included in adult phonology but are produced as a result of error.

Spanish-speaking children will accurately produce most segments at a relatively early age. By around three-and-a-half years, they will no longer productively use phonological processes[clarification needed] the majority of the time. Some common error patterns (found 10% or more of the time) are cluster reduction, liquid simplification, and stopping. Less common patterns (evidenced less than 10% of the time) include palatal fronting, assimilation, and final consonant deletion.[117]

Typical phonological analyses of Spanish consider the consonants /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ the underlying phonemes and their corresponding approximants [β], [ð], and [ɣ] allophonic and derivable by phonological rules. However, approximants may be the more basic form because monolingual Spanish-learning children learn to produce the continuant contrast between [p t k] and [β ð ɣ] before they do the lead voicing contrast between [p t k] and [b d ɡ].[118] (In comparison, English-learning children are able to produce adult-like voicing contrasts for these stops well before age three.)[119] The allophonic distribution of [b d ɡ] and [β ð ɣ] produced in adult speech is not learned until after age two and not fully mastered even at age four.[118]

The alveolar trill [r] is one of the most difficult sounds to produce in Spanish and, as a result, is acquired later in development.[120] Research suggests that the alveolar trill is acquired and developed between the ages of three and six years.[121] Some children acquire an adult-like trill within this period, and some fail to properly acquire the trill. The attempted trill sound of the poor trillers is often perceived as a series of taps owing to hyperactive tongue movement during production.[122] The trill is also often very difficult for those learning Spanish as a second language, sometimes taking over a year to be produced properly.[123]

Codas edit

One research study found that children acquire medial codas before final codas, and stressed codas before unstressed codas.[124] Since medial codas are often stressed and must undergo place assimilation, greater importance is accorded to their acquisition.[109] Liquid and nasal codas occur word-medially and at the ends of frequently used function words, so they are often acquired first.[125]

Prosody edit

Research suggests that children overgeneralize stress rules when they are reproducing novel Spanish words and that they have a tendency to stress the penultimate syllables of antepenultimately stressed words, to avoid a violation of nonverb stress rules that they have acquired.[126] Many of the most frequent words heard by children have irregular stress patterns or are verbs, which violate nonverb stress rules.[127] This complicates stress rules until ages three to four, when stress acquisition is essentially complete, and children begin to apply these rules to novel irregular situations.

Dialectal variation edit

Some features, such as the pronunciation of voiceless stops /p t k/, have no dialectal variation.[128] However, there are numerous other features of pronunciation that differ from dialect to dialect.

Yeísmo edit

Main article: Yeísmo

One notable dialectal feature is the merging of the voiced palatal approximant [ʝ] (as in ayer) with the palatal lateral approximant [ʎ] (as in calle) into one phoneme (yeísmo), with /ʎ/ losing its laterality. While the distinction between these two sounds has traditionally been a feature of Castilian Spanish, this merger has spread throughout most of Spain in recent generations, particularly outside of regions in close linguistic contact with Catalan and Basque.[129] In Spanish America, most dialects are characterized by this merger, with the distinction persisting mostly in parts of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and northwestern Argentina.[130] In the other parts of Argentina, the phoneme resulting from the merger is realized as [ʒ];[9] and in Buenos Aires the sound has recently been devoiced to [ʃ] among the younger population; the change is spreading throughout Argentina.[131]

Seseo, ceceo and distinción edit

Main article: Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives
 
Most dialects in Spanish from Spain have [s] / [θ] contrast (distinción), while [θ] is absent in Latin America and parts of Spain (seseo).

Speakers in northern and central Spain, including the variety prevalent on radio and television, have both /θ/ and /s/ (distinción, 'distinction'). However, speakers in Latin America, Canary Islands and some parts of southern Spain have only /s/ (seseo), which in southernmost Spain is pronounced [θ] and not [s] (ceceo).[9]

Realization of /s/ edit

The phoneme /s/ has three different pronunciations depending on the dialect area:[9][37][132]

  1. An apical alveolar retracted fricative (or "apico-alveolar" fricative) [s̺], which sounds similar to English /ʃ/ and is characteristic of the northern and central parts of Spain and is also used by many speakers in Colombia's Antioquia department.[133][134]
  2. A laminal alveolar grooved fricative [s], much like the most common pronunciation of English /s/, is characteristic of western Andalusia (e.g. Málaga, Seville, and Cádiz), the Canary Islands, and Latin America.
  3. An apical dental grooved fricative [s̄] (ad hoc symbol), which has a lisping quality and sounds something like a cross between English /s/ and /θ/ but is different from the /θ/ occurring in dialects that distinguish /s/ and /θ/. It occurs only in dialects with ceceo, mostly in Granada, in parts of Jaén, in the southern part of Sevilla and the mountainous areas shared between Cádiz and Málaga.

Obaid describes the apico-alveolar sound as follows:[135]

There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: the tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint /ʃ/ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain.

Dalbor describes the apico-dental sound as follows:[136]

[s̄] is a voiceless, corono-dentoalveolar groove fricative, the so-called s coronal or s plana because of the relatively flat shape of the tongue body ... To this writer, the coronal [s̄], heard throughout Andalusia, should be characterized by such terms as "soft," "fuzzy," or "imprecise," which, as we shall see, brings it quite close to one variety of /θ/ ... Canfield has referred, quite correctly, in our opinion, to this [s̄] as "the lisping coronal-dental," and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post-dental [θ̦], suggesting a combined symbol ⟨θˢ̣⟩ to represent it.

In some dialects, /s/ may become the approximant [ɹ] in the syllable coda (e.g. doscientos [doɹˈθjentos] 'two hundred').[137] In southern dialects in Spain, most lowland dialects in the Americas, and in the Canary Islands, it debuccalizes to [h] in final position (e.g. niños [ˈniɲoh] 'children'), or before another consonant (e.g. fósforo [ˈfohfoɾo] 'match') so the change occurs in the coda position in a syllable. In Spain, this was originally a southern feature, but it is now expanding rapidly to the north.[31]

From an autosegmental point of view, the /s/ phoneme in Madrid is defined only by its voiceless and fricative features. Thus, the point of articulation is not defined and is determined from the sounds following it in the word or sentence. In Madrid, the following realizations are found: /pesˈkado/ > [pexˈkao][138] and /ˈfosfoɾo/ > [ˈfofːoɾo]. In parts of southern Spain, the only feature defined for /s/ appears to be voiceless; it may lose its oral articulation entirely to become [h] or even a geminate with the following consonant ([ˈmihmo] or [ˈmimːo] from /ˈmismo/ 'same').[139] In Eastern Andalusian and Murcian Spanish, word-final /s/, /θ/ and /x/ regularly weaken, and the preceding vowel is lowered and lengthened:[140]

/is/ > [ɪː] e.g. mis [mɪː] ('my' pl)
/es/ > [ɛː] e.g. mes [mɛː] ('month')
/as/ > [æː] e.g. más [mæː] ('plus')
/os/ > [ɔː] e.g. tos [tɔː] ('cough')
/us/ > [ʊː] e.g. tus [tʊː] ('your' pl)

A subsequent process of vowel harmony takes place so lejos ('far') is [ˈlɛxɔ], tenéis ('you [plural] have') is [tɛˈnɛj] and tréboles ('clovers') is [ˈtɾɛβɔlɛ] or [ˈtɾɛβolɛ].[141]

Coda simplification edit

Southern European Spanish (Andalusian Spanish, Murcian Spanish, etc.) and several lowland dialects in Latin America (such as those from the Caribbean, Panama, and the Atlantic coast of Colombia) exhibit more extreme forms of simplification of coda consonants:

  • word-final dropping of /s/ (e.g. compás [komˈpa] 'musical beat' or 'compass')
  • word-final dropping of nasals with nasalization of the preceding vowel (e.g. ven [bẽ] 'come')
  • dropping of /r/ in the infinitival morpheme (e.g. comer [koˈme] 'to eat')
  • the occasional dropping of coda consonants word-internally (e.g. doctor [doˈto(r)] 'doctor').[142]

The dropped consonants appear when additional suffixation occurs (e.g. compases [komˈpase] 'beats', venían [beˈni.ã] 'they were coming', comeremos [komeˈɾemo] 'we will eat'). Similarly, a number of coda assimilations occur:

  • /l/ and /r/ may neutralize to [j] (e.g. Cibaeño Dominican celda/cerda [ˈsejða] 'cell'/'bristle'), to [l] (e.g. Caribbean Spanish alma/arma [ˈalma] 'soul'/'weapon', Andalusian Spanish sartén [salˈtẽ] 'pan'), to [r] (e.g. Andalusian Spanish alma/arma [ˈarma]) or, by complete regressive assimilation, to a copy of the following consonant (e.g. pulga/purga [ˈpuɡːa] 'flea'/'purge', carne [ˈkanːe] 'meat').[142]
  • /s/, /x/, (and /θ/ in southern Peninsular Spanish) and /f/ may be debuccalized or elided in the coda (e.g. los amigos [lo(h) aˈmiɣo(h)] 'the friends').[143]
  • Stops and nasals may be realized as velar (e.g. Cuban and Venezuelan étnico [ˈeɡniko] 'ethnic', himno [ˈiŋno] 'anthem').[143]

Final /d/ dropping (e.g. mitad [miˈta] 'half') is general in most dialects of Spanish, even in formal speech.[144]

The neutralization of syllable-final /p/, /t/, and /k/ is widespread in most dialects (with e.g. Pepsi being pronounced [ˈpeksi]). It does not face as much stigma as other neutralizations and may go unnoticed.[145]

The deletions and neutralizations show variability in their occurrence, even with the same speaker in the same utterance, so non-deleted forms exist in the underlying structure.[146] The dialects may not be on the path to eliminating coda consonants since deletion processes have been existing for more than four centuries.[147] Guitart (1997) argues that it is the result of speakers acquiring multiple phonological systems with uneven control like that of second language learners.

In Standard European Spanish, the voiced obstruents /b, d, ɡ/ before a pause are devoiced and laxed to [β̥˕, ð̥˕, ɣ̊˕], as in club [kluβ̥˕] ('[social] club'), sed [seð̥] ('thirst'), zigzag [θiɣˈθaɣ̊˕].[148] However, word-final /b/ is rare, and /ɡ/ even more so. They are restricted mostly to loanwords and foreign names, such as the first name of former Real Madrid sports director Predrag Mijatović, which is pronounced [ˈpɾeð̞ɾaɣ̊˕]; and after another consonant, the voiced obstruent may even be deleted, as in iceberg, pronounced [iθeˈβeɾ].[149] In Madrid and its environs, sed is alternatively pronounced [seθ], where the aforementioned alternative pronunciation of word-final /d/ as [θ] coexists with the standard realization,[150] but is otherwise nonstandard.[54]

Loan sounds edit

The fricative /ʃ/ may also appear in borrowings from other languages, such as Nahuatl[151] and English.[152] In addition, the affricates /t͡s/ and /t͡ɬ/ also occur in Nahuatl borrowings.[151] That said, the onset cluster /tl/ is permitted in most of Latin America, the Canaries, and the northwest of Spain, and the fact that it is pronounced in the same amount of time as the other voiceless stop + lateral clusters /pl/ and /kl/ support an analysis of the /tl/ sequence as a cluster rather than an affricate in Mexican Spanish.[106][107]

Sample edit

 
El Viento del Norte y el Sol
Traditional fable
Problems playing this file? See media help.

This sample is an adaptation of Aesop's "El Viento del Norte y el Sol" (The North Wind and the Sun) read by a man from Northern Mexico born in the late 1980s. As usual in Mexican Spanish, /θ/ and /ʎ/ are not present.

Orthographic version edit

El Viento del Norte y el Sol discutían por saber quién era el más fuerte de los dos. Mientras discutían, se acercó un viajero cubierto en un cálido abrigo. Entonces decidieron que el más fuerte sería quien lograse despojar al viajero de su abrigo. El Viento del Norte empezó, soplando tan fuerte como podía, pero entre más fuerte soplaba, el viajero más se arropaba. Entonces, el Viento desistió. Se llegó el turno del Sol, quien comenzó a brillar con fuerza. Esto hizo que el viajero sintiera calor y por ello se quitó su abrigo. Entonces el Viento del Norte tuvo que reconocer que el Sol era el más fuerte de los dos.

Phonemic transcription edit

/el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte i el ˈsol diskuˈti.an poɾ saˈbeɾ ˈkien ˈeɾa el ˈmas ˈfueɾte de los ˈdos ‖ mientɾas diskuˈti.an se aseɾˈko un biaˈxeɾo kuˈbieɾto en un ˈkalido aˈbɾiɡo | enˈtonses desiˈdieɾon ke el ˈmas ˈfueɾte seˈɾi.a kien loˈɡɾase despoˈxaɾ al biaˈxeɾo de su aˈbɾiɡo ‖ el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte empeˈso soˈplando tan ˈfueɾte komo poˈdi.a | peɾo entɾe ˈmas ˈfueɾte soˈplaba el biaˈxeɾo ˈmas se aroˈpaba | enˈtonses el ˈbiento desisˈtio | se ʝeˈɡo el ˈtuɾno del ˈsol kien komenˈso a bɾiˈʝaɾ kon ˈfueɾsa | ˈesto ˈiso ke el biaˈxeɾo sinˈtieɾa kaˈloɾ i poɾ ˈeʝo se kiˈto su aˈbɾiɡo ‖ enˈtonses el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte ˈtubo ke rekonoˈseɾ ke el ˈsol ˈeɾa el ˈmas ˈfueɾte de los ˈdos/

Phonetic transcription edit

[el ˈβjento ðel ˈnoɾte j‿el ˈsol diskuˈti.am por saˈβeɾ ˈkjen eɾa‿e̯l ˈmas ˈfweɾte ðe los ˈðos ‖ ˈmjentɾas ðiskuˈti.an ˌse̯‿aseɾˈko‿wm bjaˈxeɾo kuˈβjeɾto̯‿en uŋ ˈkaliðo̯‿aˈβɾiɣo | enˈtonses ðesiˈðjeɾoŋ k‿el ˈmas ˈfweɾte seˈɾi.a kjen loˈɣɾase ðespoˈxaɾ al βjaˈxeɾo ðe swaˈβɾiɣo ‖ el ˈβjento ðel ˌnoɾt‿empeˈso soˈplando taɱ ˈfweɾte ˌkomo poˈði.a | ˈpeɾo̯‿entɾe ˈmas ˈfweɾte soˈplaβa el βjaˈxeɾo ˈmas ˌse̯‿aroˈpaβa | enˈtonses el ˈβjento ðesisˈtjo | se ʝeˈɣo̯‿el ˈtuɾno ðel sol ˌkjeŋ komenˈso̯‿a βɾiˈʝar koɱ ˈfweɾsa | ˈesto‿jso k‿el βjaxeɾo sinˈtjeɾa kaˈloɾ i poɾ eʝo se kiˈto swaˈβɾiɣo ‖ enˈtonses el ˈβjento ðel ˈnoɾte ˈtuβo ke rekonoˈseɾ ˌkel ˈsol ˈeɾa‿e̯l ˈmas ˈfweɾte ðe los ˈðos]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Random House Inc., 2006
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.), Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006
  3. ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, MICRA, Inc., 1998
  4. ^ . Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 2007. Archived from the original on 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  5. ^ Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003:255)
  6. ^ The continuant allophones of Spanish /b, d, ɡ/ have been traditionally described as voiced fricatives (e.g. Navarro Tomás (1918), who (in §100) describes the air friction of [ð] as being "tenue y suave" ('weak and smooth'); Harris (1969); Dalbor (1997); and Macpherson (1975:62), who describes [β] as being "...with audible friction"). However, they are more often described as approximants in recent literature, such as D'Introno, Del Teso & Weston (1995); Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003); and Hualde (2005:43). The difference hinges primarily on air turbulence caused by extreme narrowing of the opening between articulators, which is present in fricatives and absent in approximants. Martínez Celdrán (2004) displays a sound spectrogram of the Spanish word abogado showing an absence of turbulence for all three consonants.
  7. ^ a b Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003:257)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hualde, José Ignacio (2005). "Quasi-phonemic contrasts in Spanish". WCCFL 23: Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. pp. 374–398.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003:258)
  10. ^ a b c Trager (1942:222)
  11. ^ Chang (2008), p. 54.
  12. ^ Chang (2008), p. 55.
  13. ^ Staggs, Cecelia (2019). "A Perception Study of Rioplatense Spanish". McNair Scholars Research Journal. Boise State University. 14 (1). Many studies have shown that within the last 70 to 80 years, there has been a strong transition towards the voiceless [ʃ] in both Argentina and Uruguay, with Argentina having completed the change by 2004 and Uruguay following only recently [...]
  14. ^ a b Cotton & Sharp (1988:15)
  15. ^ Coloma (2018:245)
  16. ^ a b Núñez-Méndez, Eva (June 2022). "Variation in Spanish /s/: Overview and New Perspectives". Languages. 7 (2): 77. doi:10.3390/languages7020077. ISSN 2226-471X.
  17. ^ Canellada & Madsen (1987:20–21)
  18. ^ For example Chen (2007), Hammond (2001) and Lyons (1981)
  19. ^ Chen (2007:13)
  20. ^ Hammond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
  21. ^ Harris & Vincent (1988:83)
  22. ^ Lyons (1981:76)
  23. ^ such as Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003)
  24. ^ Boyd-Bowman (1953:229)
  25. ^ Flórez (1951:171)
  26. ^ Kany (1960:236)
  27. ^ Lenz (1940:92 et seq.)
  28. ^ Zamora Vicente (1967:413)
  29. ^ Zapata Arellano (1975)
  30. ^ Mott (2011:110)
  31. ^ a b Penny (2000:122)
  32. ^ Cressey (1978:61)
  33. ^ MacDonald (1989:219)
  34. ^ Lipski (1994:?)
  35. ^ "5.3. Nasal (nasales)". Teaching Spanish Pronunciation. OpenLearn Create. The distribution of nasals, however, is somewhat deficient in Spanish. In word-final position only the alveolar nasal is present. So borrowings that end in /ɲ/ or /m/ are generally adopted into Spanish with a final n, e.g. Adam -> Adán, champagne -> champán.
  36. ^ Navarro Tomás (1918:§111, 113)
  37. ^ a b Dalbor (1980)
  38. ^ D'Introno, Del Teso & Weston (1995:118–121)
  39. ^ Navarro Tomás (1918:§125)
  40. ^ Hooper (1972:527)
  41. ^ Lipski (1990:155)
  42. ^ Sorbet (2018:73)
  43. ^ D'Introno, Del Teso & Weston (1995:294)
  44. ^ Canfield (1981:13)
  45. ^ Harris (1969:56)
  46. ^ Hualde (2005:182–3)
  47. ^ Hualde (2005:184).
  48. ^ Bowen, Stockwell & Silva-Fuenzalida (1956)
  49. ^ Harris (1969)
  50. ^ Bonet & Mascaró (1997)
  51. ^ Harris (1969:37 n.)
  52. ^ D'Introno, Del Teso & Weston (1995:289)
  53. ^ Cotton & Sharp (1988:19)
  54. ^ a b Salgado, Cristóbal González (2012). Eñe B1.2: der Spanischkurs. Hueber Verlag. p. 91. ISBN 978-3-19-004294-4. from the original on 5 August 2020.
  55. ^ Dworkin, Steven N. (1978). "Derivational Transparency and Sound Change: The Two-Pronged Growth of -ǏDU in Hispano-Romance". Romance Philology. 31 (4): 613. JSTOR 44941944. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  56. ^ Navarro Tomás (1918, §98, §125)
  57. ^ a b Martínez Celdrán (2004:208)
  58. ^ a b Bowen & Stockwell (1955:236)
  59. ^ Saporta (1956:288)
  60. ^ Bowen & Stockwell (1955:236) cite the minimal pair ya visto [(ɟ)ʝa ˈβisto] ('I already dress') vs. y ha visto [ja ˈβisto] ('and he has seen')
  61. ^ Scarpace, Beery & Hualde (2015:92)
  62. ^ cited in Saporta (1956:289)
  63. ^ Generally /w̝/ is [ɣʷ] though it may also be [βˠ] (Ohala & Lorentz (1977:590) citing Navarro Tomás (1961) and Harris (1969)).
  64. ^ Saporta (1956:289)
  65. ^ Penny 1991, p. 52.
  66. ^ Ulsh (1971), pp. 10, 12.
  67. ^ Harris (1969), pp. 26–27.
  68. ^ a b c Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003:256)
  69. ^ Harris (1969:78, 145). Examples include words of Greek origin like énfasis /ˈenfasis/ ('emphasis'); the clitics su /su/, tu /tu/, mi /mi/; the three Latin words espíritu /esˈpiɾitu/ ('spirit'), tribu /ˈtɾibu/ ('tribe'), and ímpetu /ˈimpetu/ ('impetus'); and affective words like mami /ˈmami/ and papi /ˈpapi/.
  70. ^ Cotton & Sharp (1988:182)
  71. ^ Zamora Vicente (1967:?). The first /a/ in madres also undergoes this fronting process as part of a vowel harmony system. See #Realization of /s/ below.
  72. ^ See e.g. Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003)
  73. ^ Such as Navarro Tomás (1918)
  74. ^ Nowikow (2012:16)
  75. ^ Navarro Tomás (1918), cited on Joaquim Llisterri's site
  76. ^ Martínez Celdrán (1984:289, 294, 301)
  77. ^ /ou/ occurs rarely in words; another example is the proper name Bousoño (Saporta 1956, p. 290). It is, however, common across word boundaries as with tengo una casa ('I have a house').
  78. ^ Harris (1969:89) points to muy ('very') as the one example with [uj] rather than [wi]. There are also a handful of proper nouns with [uj], exclusive to Chuy (a nickname) and Ruy. There are no minimal pairs.
  79. ^ Chițoran & Hualde (2007:45)
  80. ^ Chițoran & Hualde (2007:46)
  81. ^ Martínez Celdrán, Fernández Planas & Carrera Sabaté (2003:256–257)
  82. ^ Cotton & Sharp (1988:18)
  83. ^ Harris (1969:99–101).
  84. ^ See Harris (1969:147–148) for a more extensive list of verb stems ending in both high vowels, as well as their corresponding semivowels.
  85. ^ Bowen & Stockwell (1955:237)
  86. ^ Saporta (1956:290)
  87. ^ Navarro Tomás (1916)
  88. ^ Navarro Tomás (1917)
  89. ^ Quilis (1971)
  90. ^ Cotton & Sharp (1988:19–20)
  91. ^ García-Bellido (1997:492), citing Contreras (1963), Quilis (1971), and the Esbozo de una nueva gramática de la lengua española. (1973) by the Gramática de la Real Academia Española.
  92. ^ Lleó (2003:262)
  93. ^ Hochberg (1988:684)
  94. ^ García-Bellido (1997:473–474)
  95. ^ García-Bellido (1997:486), citing Navarro Tomás (1917:381–382, 385)
  96. ^ Harris (1969:79)
  97. ^ Harris (1969:26–27)
  98. ^ Pensado (1997:595–597)
  99. ^ a b Pensado (1997:608)
  100. ^ Harris (1969:188)
  101. ^ Harris (1969:189)
  102. ^ Harris (1969:97)
  103. ^ a b c d Lipski (2016:245)
  104. ^ Baker, Gary Kenneth (2004). Palatal phenomena in Spanish phonology (PDF) (Thesis). University of Florida. p. 30.
  105. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1926). Orígenes del español. Estado lingüístico de la Península Ibérica hasta el siglo XI. Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando. p. 121.
  106. ^ a b Hualde, José Ignacio; Carrasco, Patricio (2009). "/tl/ en español mexicano. ¿Un segmento o dos?" (PDF). Estudios de Fonética Experimental (in Spanish). XVIII: 175–191. ISSN 1575-5533.
  107. ^ a b "División silábica y ortográfica de palabras con "tl"". Real Académia Española (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  108. ^ Lipski (2016:249–250)
  109. ^ a b Lleó (2003:278)
  110. ^ Cressey (1978:86)
  111. ^ Lipski (2016:252)
  112. ^ Lipski (2016:250)
  113. ^ Lipski (2016:254)
  114. ^ "Enlace / Encadenamiento - Lawless Spanish Pronunciation". 25 September 2020.
  115. ^ Cataño, Barlow & Moyna (2009:456)
  116. ^ Cataño, Barlow & Moyna (2009:448)
  117. ^ Goldstein & Iglesias (1998:5–6)
  118. ^ a b Macken & Barton (1980b:455)
  119. ^ Macken & Barton (1980b:73)
  120. ^ Carballo & Mendoza (2000:588)
  121. ^ Carballo & Mendoza (2000:589)
  122. ^ Carballo & Mendoza (2000:596)
  123. ^ Leibowitz, Brandon (11 February 2015). "Spanish Phonology". Fluency Fox. from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  124. ^ Lleó (2003:271)
  125. ^ Lleó (2003:279)
  126. ^ Hochberg (1988:683)
  127. ^ Hochberg (1988:685)
  128. ^ Cotton & Sharp (1988:55)
  129. ^ Coloma (2011:110–111)
  130. ^ Coloma (2011:95)
  131. ^ Lipski (1994:170)
  132. ^ Obaid (1973)
  133. ^ Flórez (1957:41)
  134. ^ Canfield (1981:36)
  135. ^ Obaid (1973).
  136. ^ Dalbor (1980:9).
  137. ^ Recasens (2004:436) citing Fougeron (1999) and Browman & Goldstein (1995)
  138. ^ Wright, Robyn (2017). The Madrileño ejke : a study of the perception and production of velarized /s/ in Madrid (PhD). The University of Texas at Austin. hdl:2152/60470. OCLC 993940787.
  139. ^ Obaid (1973:62)
  140. ^ Zamora Vicente (1967:?)
  141. ^ Lloret (2007:24–25)
  142. ^ a b Guitart (1997:515)
  143. ^ a b Guitart (1997:517)
  144. ^ Lipski (1997:124)
  145. ^ Lipski (1997:126)
  146. ^ Guitart (1997:515, 517–518)
  147. ^ Guitart (1997:518, 527), citing Boyd-Bowman (1975) and Labov (1994:595)
  148. ^ Wetzels & Mascaró (2001:224) citing Navarro Tomás (1961)
  149. ^ The Oxford Spanish Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 1994).
  150. ^ Molina Martos, Isabel (2016). "Variación de la -/d/ final de palabra en Madrid: ¿prestigio abierto o encubierto?". Boletín de Filología. 51 (2): 347–367. doi:10.4067/S0718-93032016000200013. ISSN 0718-9303.
  151. ^ a b Lope Blanch (2004:29)
  152. ^ Ávila (2003:67)

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Further reading edit

  • Avelino, Heriberto (2018), "Mexico City Spanish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 48 (2): 223–230, doi:10.1017/S0025100316000232
  • Bongiovanni, Silvina (2019), "An acoustical analysis of the merger of /ɲ/ and /nj/ in Buenos Aires Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, doi:10.1017/S0025100318000440, S2CID 151047029
  • Colantoni, Laura; Marinescu, Irina (2010), Ortega-Llebaria, Marta (ed.), "The Scope of Stop Weakening in Argentine Spanish" (PDF), Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology, Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Proceedings, pp. 100–114, ISBN 978-1-57473-438-6
  • Herrero de Haro, Alfredo; Hajek, John (2020), "Eastern Andalusian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 52: 1–22, doi:10.1017/S0025100320000146, S2CID 229484009
  • Monroy, Rafael; Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel (2015), "Murcian Spanish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 229–240, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000231
  • Otero, Carlos P. (1986), "A unified metrical account of Spanish stress", in Contreras, Heles; Newmeyer, Frederick J. (eds.), A Festschrift for Sol Saporta, Seattle: Noit Amrofer, pp. 299–332
  • Roca, Iggy (1990a), "Diachrony and synchrony in word stress", Journal of Linguistics, 26 (1): 133–164, doi:10.1017/S0022226700014456, S2CID 146651226
  • Roca, Iggy (1990b), "Morphology and verbal stress in Spanish", Probus, 2 (3): 321–350, doi:10.1515/prbs.1990.2.3.321, S2CID 170933483
  • Roca, Iggy (1992), "On the sources of word prosody", Phonology, 9 (2): 267–287, doi:10.1017/S0952675700001615, JSTOR 4420057, S2CID 57072569
  • Simonet, Miquel; Rohena-Madrazo, Marcos; Paz, Mercedes (2008), Colantoni, Laura; Steele, Jeffrey (eds.), "Preliminary Evidence for Incomplete Neutralization of Coda Liquids in Puerto Rican Spanish" (PDF), Selected Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology, pp. 72–86, ISBN 978-1-57473-424-9

External links edit

  • Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: Castilian Spanish – audio samples

January 19, 2024
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For assistance with IPA transcriptions of Spanish for Wikipedia articles see Help IPA Spanish This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Spanish language Unless otherwise noted statements refer to Castilian Spanish the standard dialect used in Spain on radio and television 1 2 3 4 For historical development of the sound system see History of Spanish For details of geographical variation see Spanish dialects and varieties Phonemes are written inside slashes and allophones inside brackets Contents 1 Consonants 1 1 Consonant neutralizations and assimilations 1 1 1 Sonorants 1 1 1 1 Nasals and laterals 1 1 1 2 Rhotics 1 1 2 Obstruents 2 Semivowels 3 Vowels 3 1 Allophones 3 1 1 Exact number of allophones 3 2 Diphthongs and triphthongs 4 Prosody 5 Alternations 6 Phonotactics 6 1 Epenthesis 7 Acquisition as a first language 7 1 Phonology 7 2 Codas 7 3 Prosody 8 Dialectal variation 8 1 Yeismo 8 2 Seseo ceceo and distincion 8 2 1 Realization of s 8 3 Coda simplification 8 4 Loan sounds 9 Sample 9 1 Orthographic version 9 2 Phonemic transcription 9 3 Phonetic transcription 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External linksConsonants editConsonant phonemes 5 Labial Dental Alveolar Post alv Palatal VelarNasal m n ɲStop p b t d tʃ ʝ k ɡContinuant f 8 s ʃ xLateral l ʎ Tap ɾTrill rThe phonemes b d and ɡ are pronounced as voiced stops only after a pause after a nasal consonant or in the case of d after a lateral consonant in all other contexts they are realized as approximants namely b d ɣ hereafter represented without the downtacks or fricatives 6 7 The realization of the phoneme ʝ varies greatly by dialect 8 In Castilian Spanish its allophones in word initial position include the palatal approximant j the palatal fricative ʝ the palatal affricate ɟʝ and the palatal stop ɟ 8 After a pause a nasal or a lateral it may be realized as an affricate ɟʝ 9 10 in other contexts ʝ is generally realized as an approximant ʝ The phoneme ʎ is distinguished from ʝ in some areas in Spain mostly northern and rural and South America mostly highland Other accents of Spanish comprising the majority of speakers have lost the palatal lateral as a distinct phoneme and have merged historical ʎ into ʝ this is called yeismo In addition ʒ and ʃ occurs in Rioplatense Spanish as spoken across Argentina and Uruguay where it is otherwise standard for the phonemes ʝ or ʎ to be realized as voiced palato alveolar fricative ʒ instead of ʝ and ʎ a feature called zheismo 11 In the last few decades it has further become popular particularly among younger speakers in Argentina and Uruguay to de voice ʒ to ʃ sheismo 12 13 In other dialects ʃ is a marginal phoneme that occurs only in loanwords or certain dialects many speakers have difficulty with this sound tending to replace it with tʃ or s In a number of dialects most notably Northern Mexican Spanish informal Chilean Spanish and some Caribbean and Andalusian accents ʃ occurs as a deaffricated tʃ 14 Many young Argentinians have no distinct ɲ phoneme and use the nj sequence instead thus making no distinction between hurano and uranio both uˈɾanjo 15 Most varieties spoken in Spain including those prevalent on radio and television have both 8 and s distincion However speakers in parts of southern Spain the Canary Islands and nearly all of Latin America have only s seseo Some speakers in southernmost Spain especially coastal Andalusia have only s a consonant similar to 8 and not s ceceo This ceceo is not entirely unknown in the Americas especially in coastal Peru The word distincion itself is pronounced with 8 in varieties that have it The exact pronunciation of s varies widely by dialect with some realizing it as h or opting to omit it entirely 16 The phonemes t and d are laminal denti alveolar t d 7 The phoneme s becomes dental s before denti alveolar consonants 9 while 8 remains interdental 8 in all contexts 9 Before front vowels i e the velar consonants k ɡ x including the lenited allophone of ɡ are realized as post palatal k ɡ x ɣ 17 According to some authors 18 x is post velar or uvular in the Spanish of northern and central Spain 19 20 21 22 Others 23 describe x as velar in European Spanish with a uvular allophone x appearing before o and u including when u is in the syllable onset as w 9 A common pronunciation of f in nonstandard speech is the voiceless bilabial fricative ɸ so that fuera is pronounced ˈɸweɾa rather than ˈfweɾa 24 14 25 26 27 28 29 In some Extremaduran western Andalusian and American varieties this softened realization of f when it occurs before the non syllabic allophone of u w is subject to merger with x in some areas the homophony of fuego juego is resolved by replacing fuego with lumbre or candela 30 31 Consonant neutralizations and assimilations edit Some of the phonemic contrasts between consonants in Spanish are lost in certain phonological environments especially in syllable final position In these cases the phonemic contrast is said to be neutralized Sonorants edit Nasals and laterals edit The three nasal phonemes m n and ɲ maintain their contrast when in syllable initial position e g cama bed cana grey hair cana sugar cane In syllable final position this three way contrast is lost as nasals assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant 9 even across a word boundary 32 or if a nasal is followed by a pause rather than a consonant it is realized for most speakers as alveolar n though in Caribbean varieties this may instead be ŋ or an omitted nasal with nasalization of the preceding vowel 33 34 Thus n is realized as m before labial consonants and as ŋ before velar ones Additionally word final m and ɲ in stand alone loanwords or proper nouns are substituted with n e g album ˈalbun album 35 Similarly l assimilates to the place of articulation of a following coronal consonant i e a consonant that is interdental dental alveolar or palatal 36 37 38 In dialects that maintain the use of ʎ there is no contrast between ʎ and l in coda position and syllable final ʎ appears only as an allophone of l in rapid speech 39 Assimilatory nasal and lateral allophones in Spanish nasal lateralword IPA gloss word IPA glossinvierno imˈbjeɾno winter anfora ˈaɱfoɾa amphora encia en ˈ8i a gum alzar al ˈ8aɾ to raise antes ˈan t es before alto ˈal t o tall ancha ˈanʲtʃa wide colcha ˈkolʲtʃa quilt conyuge ˈkoɲɟʝuxe spouse rincon riŋˈkon corner enjuto eɴˈxut o thin Rhotics edit The alveolar trill r and the alveolar tap ɾ are in phonemic contrast word internally between vowels as in carro car vs caro expensive but are otherwise in complementary distribution as long as syllable division is taken into account the tap occurs after any syllable initial consonant while the trill occurs after any syllable final consonant 40 41 Only the trill can occur at the start of a morpheme e g el rey the king la reina the queen or at the start of a syllable when the preceding syllable ends with a consonant namely l n or s e g alrededor enriquecer Israel Only the tap can occur after a word initial obstruent consonant e g tres three frio cold Either a trill or a tap can be found word medially after b d t depending on whether the rhotic consonant is pronounced in the same syllable as the preceding obstruent forming a complex onset cluster or in a separate syllable with the obstruent forming the coda of the preceding syllable The tap is found in words where no morpheme boundary separates the obstruent from the following rhotic consonant such as sobre over madre mother ministro minister The trill is found in words where the rhotic consonant is preceded by a morpheme boundary and thus a syllable boundary such as subrayar ciudadrealeno postromantico 42 compare the corresponding word initial trills in raya line Ciudad Real Ciudad Real and romantico Romantic In syllable final position inside a word the tap is more frequent but the trill can also occur especially in emphatic 43 or oratorical 44 style with no semantic difference thus arma weapon may be either ˈaɾma tap or ˈarma trill 45 In word final position the rhotic is usually either a tap or a trill when followed by a consonant or a pause as in amo ɾ r paterno paternal love the former being more common 46 a tap when followed by a vowel initial word as in amo ɾ eterno eternal love Morphologically a word final rhotic always corresponds to the tapped ɾ in related words Thus the word olor smell is related to olores oloroso smells smelly and not to olorres olorroso 8 When two rhotics occur consecutively across a word or prefix boundary they result in one trill so that da rocas s he gives rocks and dar rocas to give rocks are either neutralized or distinguished by a longer trill in the latter phrase 47 The tap trill alternation has prompted a number of authors to postulate a single underlying rhotic the intervocalic contrast then results from gemination e g tierra ˈtieɾɾa gt ˈtjera earth 48 49 50 Obstruents edit The phonemes 8 s 9 and f 51 52 may be voiced before voiced consonants as in jazmin Jasmine xadˈmin rasgo feature ˈrazɣo and Afganistan Afghanistan avɣanisˈtan There is a certain amount of free variation in this so jazmin can be pronounced xa8ˈmin or xadˈmin 53 Such voicing may occur across word boundaries causing feliz navidad merry Christmas feˈli8 nabiˈdad to be pronounced feˈlid nab iˈd ad 16 In one region of Spain the area around Madrid word final d is sometimes pronounced 8 especially in a colloquial pronunciation of the city s name Madriz maˈdɾi8 54 Also in some words now spelled with z before a voiced consonant the phoneme 8 is in fact diachronically derived from original d or d For example yezgo comes from Old Spanish yedgo and juzgar comes from Old Spanish judgar from Latin judicare 55 Both in casual and formal speech there is no phonemic contrast between voiced and voiceless consonants placed in syllable final position The merged phoneme is typically pronounced as a relaxed voiced fricative or approximant 56 although a variety of other realizations are also possible So the clusters bt and pt in the words obtener and optimista are pronounced exactly the same way obtener obteˈner gt obteˈneɾ optimista obtiˈmista gt obtiˈmista Similarly the spellings dm and tm are often merged in pronunciation as well as gd and cd adminiculo admiˈnikulo gt admiˈnikulo atmosferico admosˈfeɾiko gt admosˈfeɾiko amigdala aˈmiɡdala gt aˈmiɣdala anecdota aˈneɡdota gt aˈneɣdota Semivowels editTraditionally the palatal consonant phoneme ʝ is considered to occur only as a syllable onset 57 whereas the palatal glide j that can be found after a consonantal onset in words like bien is analyzed as a non syllabic version of the vowel phoneme i 58 which forms part of the syllable nucleus being pronounced with the following vowel as a rising diphthong The approximant allophone of ʝ which can be transcribed as ʝ differs phonetically from j in the following respects ʝ has a lower F2 amplitude is longer can be replaced by a palatal fricative ʝ in emphatic pronunciations and is unspecified for rounding e g viuda ˈbjuda widow vs ayuda aˈʝʷuda help 57 After a consonant the surface contrast between ʝ and j depends on syllabification which in turn is largely predictable from morphology the syllable boundary before ʝ corresponds to the morphological boundary after a prefix 8 A contrast is therefore possible after any consonant that can end a syllable as illustrated by the following minimal or near minimal pairs after l italiano itaˈljano Italian vs y tal llano italˈɟʝano and such a plain 8 after n enyesar eɲɟʝeˈsaɾ to plaster vs aniego aˈnjeɣo flood 10 after s desierto deˈsieɾto desert vs deshielo desˈʝelo thawing 8 after b abierto aˈbieɾto open vs abyecto abˈʝeɡto abject 8 59 Although there is dialectal and idiolectal variation speakers may also exhibit a contrast in phrase initial position 60 In Argentine Spanish the change of ʝ to a fricative realized as ʒ ʃ has resulted in clear contrast between this consonant and the glide j the latter occurs as a result of spelling pronunciation in words spelled with hi such as hierba ˈjeɾba grass which thus forms a minimal pair in Argentine Spanish with the doublet yerba ˈʒeɾba mate leaves 61 There are some alternations between the two prompting scholars like Alarcos Llorach 1950 62 to postulate an archiphoneme I so that ley lej would be transcribed phonemically as ˈleI and leyes ˈleʝes as ˈleI es In a number of varieties including some American ones there is a similar distinction between the non syllabic version of the vowel u and a rare consonantal w 10 63 Near minimal pairs include deshuesar dez w eˈsaɾ to debone vs desuello deˈsweʝo skinning son huevos ˈsoŋ ˈw ebos they are eggs vs son nuevos ˈso n ˈnwebos they are new 64 and huaca ˈ ɡ w aka Indian grave vs u oca ˈwoka or goose 58 Vowels edit nbsp Spanish vowel chart from Ladefoged amp Johnson 2010 227 Front Central BackClose i uMid e oOpen aSpanish has five vowel phonemes i u e o and a the same as Asturian Leonese Aragonese and also Basque There is no phonemic distinction between close mid and open mid vowels unlike in Catalan Galician French Italian and Portuguese In the historical development of Spanish former low mid vowels ɛ ɔ were replaced with diphthongs ie ue in word initial position ʝe occurs instead of ie which reduced the number of vowel phonemes to five 65 The diphthongs ie ue regularly correspond to open ɛ ɔ in Portuguese cognates compare siete ˈsiete seven and fuerte ˈfuerte strong with the Portuguese cognates sete ˈsɛtɨ and forte ˈfɔɾtɨ meaning the same 66 The diphthongs ie ue in stressed syllables show alternation with the monophthongs e o in unstressed syllables compare helo eˈlo it froze and tosto tosˈto he toasted with hiela ˈʝela it freezes and tuesto ˈtuesto I toast 67 Each of the five vowels in both stressed and unstressed syllables 68 Examples of Spanish vowels stressed unstressedword gloss word glosspiso ˈpiso I step piso piˈso s he stepped pujo ˈpuxo I bid present tense pujo puˈxo s he bid peso ˈpeso I weigh peso peˈso s he weighed poso ˈposo I pose poso poˈso s he posed paso ˈpaso I pass paso paˈso s he passed Nevertheless there are some distributional gaps or rarities For instance an unstressed close vowel in the final syllable of a word is rare 69 Because of substratal Quechua at least some speakers from southern Colombia down through Peru can be analyzed to have only three vowel phonemes i u a as the close i u are continually confused with the mid e o resulting in pronunciations such as dolˈsoɾa for dulzura sweetness clarification needed When Quechua dominant bilinguals have e o in their phonemic inventory they realize them as ɪ ʊ which are heard by outsiders as variants of i u 70 Both of those features are viewed as strongly non standard by other speakers Allophones edit Phonetic nasalization occurs for vowels occurring between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable final nasal e g cinco ˈ8ĩŋko five and mano ˈmano hand 68 Arguably Eastern Andalusian and Murcian Spanish have ten phonemic vowels with each of the above vowels paired by a lowered or fronted and lengthened version e g la madre la ˈmadɾe the mother vs las madres laeː ˈmaeːdɾɛː the mothers 71 However these are more commonly analyzed as allophones triggered by an underlying s that is subsequently deleted Exact number of allophones edit There is no agreement among scholars on how many vowel allophones Spanish has an often 72 postulated number is five i u e o a Some scholars 73 however state that Spanish has eleven allophones the close and mid vowels have close i u e o and open ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ allophones whereas a appears in front a central a and back ɑ variants These symbols appear only in the narrowest variant of phonetic transcription in broader variants only the symbols i u e o a are used 74 and that is the convention adopted in the rest of this article Tomas Navarro Tomas describes the distribution of said eleven allophones as follows 75 Close vowels i u The close allophones i u appear in open syllables e g in the words libre ˈlibɾe free and subir suˈbɪɾ to raise The open allophones are phonetically near close ɪ ʊ and appear In closed syllables e g in the word fin fɪn end In both open and closed syllables when in contact with r e g in the words rico ˈrɪko rich and rubio ˈrʊbjo blond In both open and closed syllables when before x e g in the words hijo ˈɪxo son and pujo pʊˈxo s he bid Mid front vowel e The close allophone is phonetically close mid e and appears In open syllables e g in the word dedo ˈdedo finger In closed syllables when before m n t 8 s e g in the word Valencia ba ˈlen8ja Valencia The open allophone is phonetically open mid ɛ and appears In open syllables when in contact with r e g in the words guerra ˈɡɛra war and reto ˈrɛto challenge In closed syllables when not followed by m n t 8 s e g in the word belga ˈbɛlɣa Belgian In the diphthong ej e g in the words peine ˈpɛjne comb and rey ˈrɛj king Mid back vowel o The close allophone is phonetically close mid o and appears in open syllables e g in the word como ˈkomo how The open allophone is phonetically open mid ɔ and appears In closed syllables e g in the word con kɔn with In both open and closed syllables when in contact with r e g in the words corro ˈkɔrɔ I run barro ˈba rɔ mud and roble ˈrɔble oak In both open and closed syllables when before x e g in the word ojo ˈɔxo eye In the diphthong oj e g in the word hoy ɔj today In stressed position when preceded by a and followed by either ɾ or l e g in the word ahora ɑˈɔɾa now Open vowel a The front allophone a appears Before palatal consonants e g in the word despacho desˈpatʃo office In the diphthong aj e g in the word aire ˈajɾe air The back allophone ɑ appears In the diphthong aw e g in the word flauta ˈflɑwta flute Before o In closed syllables before l e g in the word sal sɑl salt In both open and closed syllables when before x e g in the word tajada tɑˈxa da chop The central allophone a appears in all other cases e g in the word casa ˈka sa According to Eugenio Martinez Celdran however systematic classification of Spanish allophones is impossible due to the fact that their occurrence varies from speaker to speaker and from region to region According to him the exact degree of openness of Spanish vowels depends not so much on the phonetic environment but rather on various external factors accompanying speech 76 Diphthongs and triphthongs edit Spanish diphthongs 68 IPA Example Meaning IPA Example MeaningFalling Risinga aj aire air ja hacia towards aw pausa pause wa cuadro picturee ej rey king je tierra earth ew neutro neutral we fuego fireo oj hoy today jo radio radio ow 77 bou seine fishing wo cuota quotaFalling Risingu i ju viuda widow uj 78 muy very wi buitre vultureSpanish has six falling diphthongs and eight rising diphthongs While many diphthongs are historically the result of a recategorization of vowel sequences hiatus as diphthongs there is still lexical contrast between diphthongs and hiatus 79 Some lexical items vary amongst speakers and dialects between hiatus and diphthong words like biologo biologist with a potential diphthong in the first syllable and words like dialogo with a stressed or pretonic sequence of i and a vowel vary between a diphthong and hiatus 80 Chițoran amp Hualde 2007 hypothesize that this is because vocalic sequences are longer in these positions In addition to synalepha across word boundaries sequences of vowels in hiatus become diphthongs in fast speech when this happens one vowel becomes non syllabic unless they are the same vowel in which case they fuse together as in poeta ˈpo eta poet and maestro ˈmae stɾo teacher 81 Similarly the relatively rare diphthong eu may be reduced to u in certain unstressed contexts as in Eufemia uˈfemja 82 In the case of verbs like aliviar relieve diphthongs result from the suffixation of normal verbal morphology onto a stem final j that is aliviar would be alibj ar 83 This contrasts with verbs like ampliar to extend which by their verbal morphology seem to have stems ending in i 84 Non syllabic e and o can be reduced to j w as in beatitud bjatiˈtud beatitude and poetisa pweˈtisa poetess respectively similarly non syllabic a can be completely elided as in e g ahorita oˈɾita right away The frequency though not the presence of this phenomenon differs amongst dialects with a number having it occur rarely and others exhibiting it always 85 Spanish also possesses triphthongs like uei and in dialects that use a second person plural conjugation iai iei and uai e g buey ox cambiais you change cambieis that you may change and averiguais you ascertain 86 Prosody editSpanish is usually considered a syllable timed language Even so stressed syllables can be up to 50 longer in duration than non stressed syllables 87 88 89 Although pitch duration and loudness contribute to the perception of stress 90 pitch is the most important in isolation 91 Primary stress occurs on the penultima the next to last syllable 80 of the time The other 20 of the time stress falls on the ultima last syllable or on the antepenultima third to last syllable 92 Nonverbs are generally stressed on the penultimate syllable for vowel final words and on the final syllable of consonant final words Exceptions are marked orthographically see below whereas regular words are underlyingly phonologically marked with a stress feature stress 93 In addition to exceptions to these tendencies particularly learned words from Greek and Latin that feature antepenultimate stress there are numerous minimal pairs which contrast solely on stress such as sabana sheet and sabana savannah as well as limite boundary limite that he she limit and limite I limited Lexical stress may be marked orthographically with an acute accent acido distincion etc This is done according to the mandatory stress rules of Spanish orthography which parallel the tendencies above differing with words like distincion and are defined so as to unequivocally indicate where the stress lies in a given written word An acute accent may also be used to differentiate homophones such as mi my and mi me In such cases the accent is used on the homophone that normally receives greater stress when used in a sentence Lexical stress patterns are different between words carrying verbal and nominal inflection in addition to the occurrence of verbal affixes with stress something absent in nominal inflection underlying stress also differs in that it falls on the last syllable of the inflectional stem in verbal words while those of nominal words may have ultimate or penultimate stress 94 In addition amongst sequences of clitics suffixed to a verb the rightmost clitic may receive secondary stress e g buscalo ˈbuskaˌlo look for it 95 Alternations editSome alternations exist in Spanish that reflect diachronic changes in the language and arguably reflect morphophonological processes rather than strictly phonological ones For instance some words alternate between k and 8 or ɡ and x with the latter in each pair appearing before a front vowel 96 Examples of Spanish alternations word gloss word glossopaco oˈpako opaque opacidad opa8iˈdad opacity sueco ˈsweko Swedish Suecia ˈswe8ja Sweden belga ˈbelɡa Belgian Belgica ˈbelxika Belgium analogo aˈnaloɡo analogous analogia analoˈxi a analogy Note that the conjugation of most verbs with a stem ending in k or ɡ does not show this alternation these segments do not turn into 8 or x before a front vowel word gloss word glossseco ˈseko I dry seque ˈseke that I he she dry subjunctive castigo kasˈtiɡo I punish castigue kasˈtiɡe that I he she punish subjunctive There are also alternations between unstressed e and o and stressed ie or ʝe when initial and ue respectively 97 word gloss word glosshelo eˈlo it froze hiela ˈʝela it freezes tosto tosˈto he toasted tuesto ˈtuesto I toast Likewise in a very small number of words alternations occur between the palatal sonorants ʎ ɲ and their corresponding alveolar sonorants l n doncella doncel maiden youth desdenar desden to scorn scorn This alternation does not appear in verbal or nominal inflection that is the plural of doncel is donceles not doncelles 98 This is the result of geminated ll and nn of Vulgar Latin the origin of ʎ and ɲ respectively degeminating and then depalatalizing in coda position 99 Words without any palatal alveolar allomorphy are the result of historical borrowings 99 Other alternations include ɡs x anexo vs anejo 100 ɡt tʃ nocturno vs noche 101 Here the forms with ɡs and ɡt are historical borrowings and the forms with x and tʃ forms are inherited from Vulgar Latin There are also pairs that show antepenultimate stress in nouns and adjectives but penultimate stress in synonymous verbs vomito vomit vs vomito I vomit 102 Phonotactics editThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message Spanish syllable structure can be summarized as follows parentheses enclose optional components C1 C2 S1 V S2 C3 C4 Spanish syllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset consisting of one or two consonants an obligatory syllable nucleus consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and or followed by a semivowel and an optional syllable coda consisting of one or two consonants 103 The following restrictions apply Onset First consonant C1 Can be any consonant including a liquid l ʎ ɾ r However as discussed above the contrast between the two rhotic consonants is neutralized in some contexts either ɾ and r is possible as a word internal onset when the preceding syllable ends in a vowel but they do not contrast in word initial position or when the preceding syllable ends in a consonant only r is a possible onset in those positions In native Spanish words the trill r does not appear after a glide 8 That said it does appear after w in some Basque loans such as Aurrera a grocery store Abaurrea Alta and Abaurrea Baja towns in Navarre aurresku a type of dance and aurragado an adjective referring to poorly tilled land 8 In general the palatal sonorants ʎ ɲ are not found as word internal onsets when the preceding syllable ends in a coda consonant or glide 104 However the diphthong au is found before ɲ in some proper names such as the toponym Aunon from Latin alneus 105 and Aunamendi a publishing house name taken from the Basque name of the Pic d Anie Second consonant C2 If and only if the first consonant is a stop p t k b d ɡ or a voiceless labiodental fricative f a second consonant either l or ɾ is permitted The onset dl is nonexistent tl is prohibited as an onset cluster in most of Peninsular Spanish while tl sequences such as in atleta athlete are usually treated as an onset cluster in Latin America and the Canaries 103 106 107 Nucleus Semivowel S1 Vowel V Semivowel S2 Coda First consonant C3 Can be any consonant except ɲ ʝ or ʎ 103 Second consonant C4 Always s in native Spanish words 103 Other consonants except ɲ ʝ and ʎ are tolerated as long as they are less sonorous than the first consonant in the coda such as in York or the Catalan last name Brucart though sometimes the final element is deleted in colloquial speech 108 A coda of two consonants never appears in words inherited from Vulgar Latin Medial codas assimilate place features of the following onsets and are often stressed 109 clarification needed Maximal onsets include transporte tɾansˈpor te flaco ˈfla ko clave ˈkla be Maximal nuclei include buey buei Uruguay u ɾuˈɡuai Maximal codas include instalar ins taˈlar perspectiva peɾs peɡˈti ba In many dialects a coda cannot be more than one consonant one of n r l or s in informal speech Realizations like tɾasˈpoɾ te is taˈlar pes peɡˈti ba are very common and in many cases they are allowed even in formal speech Epenthesis edit Because of the phonotactic constraints an epenthetic e is inserted before word initial clusters beginning with s e g escribir to write but not word internally transcribir to transcribe 110 thereby moving the initial s to a separate syllable The epenthetic e is pronounced even when it is not reflected in spelling e g the surname of Carlos Slim is pronounced esˈlin While Spanish words undergo word initial epenthesis cognates in Latin and Italian do not Lat status ˈsta tus state It stato ˈsta to Sp estado esˈta do Lat splendidus ˈsplen di dus splendid It splendido ˈsplen di do Sp esplendido esˈplen di do Fr slave slav Slav It slavo ˈzla vo Sp eslavo esˈla bo In addition Spanish adopts foreign words starting with pre nasalized consonants with an epenthetic e Nguema a prominent last name from Equatorial Guinea is pronounced as eŋˈɡema 111 When adapting word final complex codas that show rising sonority an epenthetic e is inserted between the two consonants For example al Sadr is typically pronounced al sa deɾ 112 Occasionally Spanish speakers are faced with onset clusters containing elements of equal or near equal sonority such as Knoll a German last name common in parts of South America Assimilated borrowings usually delete the first element in such clusters for example p sicologia psychology When attempting to pronounce such words for the first time without deleting the first consonant Spanish speakers insert a short often devoiced schwa like svarabhakti vowel between the two consonants 113 Spanish syllable structure is phrasal resulting in syllables consisting of phonemes from neighboring words in combination sometimes even resulting in elision The phenomenon is known in Spanish as enlace 114 For a brief discussion contrasting Spanish and English syllable structure see Whitley 2002 32 35 Acquisition as a first language editPhonology edit Phonological development varies greatly by individual both those developing regularly and those with delays However a general pattern of acquisition of phonemes can be inferred by the level of complexity of their features i e by sound classes 115 A hierarchy may be constructed and if a child is capable of producing discrimination on one level they will also be capable of making the discriminations of all prior levels 116 The first level consists of stops without a voicing distinction nasals l and optionally a non lateral approximant This includes a labial coronal place difference for example b vs t and l vs b The second level includes voicing distinction for oral stops and a coronal dorsal place difference This allows for a distinction between p t and k along with their voiced counterparts as well as a distinction between l and the approximant j The third level includes fricatives and or affricates The fourth level introduces liquids other than l ɹ and ɾ It also introduces 8 The fifth level introduces the trill r This hierarchy is based on production only and is a representation of a child s capacity to produce a sound whether that sound is the correct target in adult speech or not Thus it may contain some sounds that are not included in adult phonology but are produced as a result of error Spanish speaking children will accurately produce most segments at a relatively early age By around three and a half years they will no longer productively use phonological processes clarification needed the majority of the time Some common error patterns found 10 or more of the time are cluster reduction liquid simplification and stopping Less common patterns evidenced less than 10 of the time include palatal fronting assimilation and final consonant deletion 117 Typical phonological analyses of Spanish consider the consonants b d and ɡ the underlying phonemes and their corresponding approximants b d and ɣ allophonic and derivable by phonological rules However approximants may be the more basic form because monolingual Spanish learning children learn to produce the continuant contrast between p t k and b d ɣ before they do the lead voicing contrast between p t k and b d ɡ 118 In comparison English learning children are able to produce adult like voicing contrasts for these stops well before age three 119 The allophonic distribution of b d ɡ and b d ɣ produced in adult speech is not learned until after age two and not fully mastered even at age four 118 The alveolar trill r is one of the most difficult sounds to produce in Spanish and as a result is acquired later in development 120 Research suggests that the alveolar trill is acquired and developed between the ages of three and six years 121 Some children acquire an adult like trill within this period and some fail to properly acquire the trill The attempted trill sound of the poor trillers is often perceived as a series of taps owing to hyperactive tongue movement during production 122 The trill is also often very difficult for those learning Spanish as a second language sometimes taking over a year to be produced properly 123 Codas edit One research study found that children acquire medial codas before final codas and stressed codas before unstressed codas 124 Since medial codas are often stressed and must undergo place assimilation greater importance is accorded to their acquisition 109 Liquid and nasal codas occur word medially and at the ends of frequently used function words so they are often acquired first 125 Prosody edit Research suggests that children overgeneralize stress rules when they are reproducing novel Spanish words and that they have a tendency to stress the penultimate syllables of antepenultimately stressed words to avoid a violation of nonverb stress rules that they have acquired 126 Many of the most frequent words heard by children have irregular stress patterns or are verbs which violate nonverb stress rules 127 This complicates stress rules until ages three to four when stress acquisition is essentially complete and children begin to apply these rules to novel irregular situations Dialectal variation editSome features such as the pronunciation of voiceless stops p t k have no dialectal variation 128 However there are numerous other features of pronunciation that differ from dialect to dialect Yeismo edit Main article Yeismo One notable dialectal feature is the merging of the voiced palatal approximant ʝ as in ayer with the palatal lateral approximant ʎ as in calle into one phoneme yeismo with ʎ losing its laterality While the distinction between these two sounds has traditionally been a feature of Castilian Spanish this merger has spread throughout most of Spain in recent generations particularly outside of regions in close linguistic contact with Catalan and Basque 129 In Spanish America most dialects are characterized by this merger with the distinction persisting mostly in parts of Peru Bolivia Paraguay and northwestern Argentina 130 In the other parts of Argentina the phoneme resulting from the merger is realized as ʒ 9 and in Buenos Aires the sound has recently been devoiced to ʃ among the younger population the change is spreading throughout Argentina 131 Seseo ceceo and distincion edit Main article Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives nbsp Most dialects in Spanish from Spain have s 8 contrast distincion while 8 is absent in Latin America and parts of Spain seseo Speakers in northern and central Spain including the variety prevalent on radio and television have both 8 and s distincion distinction However speakers in Latin America Canary Islands and some parts of southern Spain have only s seseo which in southernmost Spain is pronounced 8 and not s ceceo 9 Realization of s edit The phoneme s has three different pronunciations depending on the dialect area 9 37 132 An apical alveolar retracted fricative or apico alveolar fricative s which sounds similar to English ʃ and is characteristic of the northern and central parts of Spain and is also used by many speakers in Colombia s Antioquia department 133 134 A laminal alveolar grooved fricative s much like the most common pronunciation of English s is characteristic of western Andalusia e g Malaga Seville and Cadiz the Canary Islands and Latin America An apical dental grooved fricative s ad hoc symbol which has a lisping quality and sounds something like a cross between English s and 8 but is different from the 8 occurring in dialects that distinguish s and 8 It occurs only in dialects with ceceo mostly in Granada in parts of Jaen in the southern part of Sevilla and the mountainous areas shared between Cadiz and Malaga Obaid describes the apico alveolar sound as follows 135 There is a Castilian s which is a voiceless concave apicoalveolar fricative the tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors It resembles a faint ʃ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain Dalbor describes the apico dental sound as follows 136 s is a voiceless corono dentoalveolar groove fricative the so called s coronal or s plana because of the relatively flat shape of the tongue body To this writer the coronal s heard throughout Andalusia should be characterized by such terms as soft fuzzy or imprecise which as we shall see brings it quite close to one variety of 8 Canfield has referred quite correctly in our opinion to this s as the lisping coronal dental and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post dental 8 suggesting a combined symbol 8ˢ to represent it In some dialects s may become the approximant ɹ in the syllable coda e g doscientos doɹˈ8jentos two hundred 137 In southern dialects in Spain most lowland dialects in the Americas and in the Canary Islands it debuccalizes to h in final position e g ninos ˈniɲoh children or before another consonant e g fosforo ˈfohfoɾo match so the change occurs in the coda position in a syllable In Spain this was originally a southern feature but it is now expanding rapidly to the north 31 From an autosegmental point of view the s phoneme in Madrid is defined only by its voiceless and fricative features Thus the point of articulation is not defined and is determined from the sounds following it in the word or sentence In Madrid the following realizations are found pesˈkado gt pexˈkao 138 and ˈfosfoɾo gt ˈfofːoɾo In parts of southern Spain the only feature defined for s appears to be voiceless it may lose its oral articulation entirely to become h or even a geminate with the following consonant ˈmihmo or ˈmimːo from ˈmismo same 139 In Eastern Andalusian and Murcian Spanish word final s 8 and x regularly weaken and the preceding vowel is lowered and lengthened 140 is gt ɪː e g mis mɪː my pl es gt ɛː e g mes mɛː month as gt aeː e g mas maeː plus os gt ɔː e g tos tɔː cough us gt ʊː e g tus tʊː your pl A subsequent process of vowel harmony takes place so lejos far is ˈlɛxɔ teneis you plural have is tɛˈnɛj and treboles clovers is ˈtɾɛbɔlɛ or ˈtɾɛbolɛ 141 Coda simplification edit Southern European Spanish Andalusian Spanish Murcian Spanish etc and several lowland dialects in Latin America such as those from the Caribbean Panama and the Atlantic coast of Colombia exhibit more extreme forms of simplification of coda consonants word final dropping of s e g compas komˈpa musical beat or compass word final dropping of nasals with nasalization of the preceding vowel e g ven bẽ come dropping of r in the infinitival morpheme e g comer koˈme to eat the occasional dropping of coda consonants word internally e g doctor doˈto r doctor 142 The dropped consonants appear when additional suffixation occurs e g compases komˈpase beats venian beˈni a they were coming comeremos komeˈɾemo we will eat Similarly a number of coda assimilations occur l and r may neutralize to j e g Cibaeno Dominican celda cerda ˈsejda cell bristle to l e g Caribbean Spanish alma arma ˈalma soul weapon Andalusian Spanish sarten salˈtẽ pan to r e g Andalusian Spanish alma arma ˈarma or by complete regressive assimilation to a copy of the following consonant e g pulga purga ˈpuɡːa flea purge carne ˈkanːe meat 142 s x and 8 in southern Peninsular Spanish and f may be debuccalized or elided in the coda e g los amigos lo h aˈmiɣo h the friends 143 Stops and nasals may be realized as velar e g Cuban and Venezuelan etnico ˈeɡniko ethnic himno ˈiŋno anthem 143 Final d dropping e g mitad miˈta half is general in most dialects of Spanish even in formal speech 144 The neutralization of syllable final p t and k is widespread in most dialects with e g Pepsi being pronounced ˈpeksi It does not face as much stigma as other neutralizations and may go unnoticed 145 The deletions and neutralizations show variability in their occurrence even with the same speaker in the same utterance so non deleted forms exist in the underlying structure 146 The dialects may not be on the path to eliminating coda consonants since deletion processes have been existing for more than four centuries 147 Guitart 1997 argues that it is the result of speakers acquiring multiple phonological systems with uneven control like that of second language learners In Standard European Spanish the voiced obstruents b d ɡ before a pause are devoiced and laxed to b d ɣ as in club klub social club sed sed thirst zigzag 8iɣˈ8aɣ 148 However word final b is rare and ɡ even more so They are restricted mostly to loanwords and foreign names such as the first name of former Real Madrid sports director Predrag Mijatovic which is pronounced ˈpɾed ɾaɣ and after another consonant the voiced obstruent may even be deleted as in iceberg pronounced i8eˈbeɾ 149 In Madrid and its environs sed is alternatively pronounced se8 where the aforementioned alternative pronunciation of word final d as 8 coexists with the standard realization 150 but is otherwise nonstandard 54 Loan sounds edit The fricative ʃ may also appear in borrowings from other languages such as Nahuatl 151 and English 152 In addition the affricates t s and t ɬ also occur in Nahuatl borrowings 151 That said the onset cluster tl is permitted in most of Latin America the Canaries and the northwest of Spain and the fact that it is pronounced in the same amount of time as the other voiceless stop lateral clusters pl and kl support an analysis of the tl sequence as a cluster rather than an affricate in Mexican Spanish 106 107 Sample edit nbsp El Viento del Norte y el Sol source source Traditional fable Problems playing this file See media help This sample is an adaptation of Aesop s El Viento del Norte y el Sol The North Wind and the Sun read by a man from Northern Mexico born in the late 1980s As usual in Mexican Spanish 8 and ʎ are not present Orthographic version edit El Viento del Norte y el Sol discutian por saber quien era el mas fuerte de los dos Mientras discutian se acerco un viajero cubierto en un calido abrigo Entonces decidieron que el mas fuerte seria quien lograse despojar al viajero de su abrigo El Viento del Norte empezo soplando tan fuerte como podia pero entre mas fuerte soplaba el viajero mas se arropaba Entonces el Viento desistio Se llego el turno del Sol quien comenzo a brillar con fuerza Esto hizo que el viajero sintiera calor y por ello se quito su abrigo Entonces el Viento del Norte tuvo que reconocer que el Sol era el mas fuerte de los dos Phonemic transcription edit el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte i el ˈsol diskuˈti an poɾ saˈbeɾ ˈkien ˈeɾa el ˈmas ˈfueɾte de los ˈdos mientɾas diskuˈti an se aseɾˈko un biaˈxeɾo kuˈbieɾto en un ˈkalido aˈbɾiɡo enˈtonses desiˈdieɾon ke el ˈmas ˈfueɾte seˈɾi a kien loˈɡɾase despoˈxaɾ al biaˈxeɾo de su aˈbɾiɡo el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte empeˈso soˈplando tan ˈfueɾte komo poˈdi a peɾo entɾe ˈmas ˈfueɾte soˈplaba el biaˈxeɾo ˈmas se aroˈpaba enˈtonses el ˈbiento desisˈtio se ʝeˈɡo el ˈtuɾno del ˈsol kien komenˈso a bɾiˈʝaɾ kon ˈfueɾsa ˈesto ˈiso ke el biaˈxeɾo sinˈtieɾa kaˈloɾ i poɾ ˈeʝo se kiˈto su aˈbɾiɡo enˈtonses el ˈbiento del ˈnoɾte ˈtubo ke rekonoˈseɾ ke el ˈsol ˈeɾa el ˈmas ˈfueɾte de los ˈdos Phonetic transcription edit el ˈbjento del ˈnoɾte j el ˈsol diskuˈti am por saˈbeɾ ˈkjen eɾa e l ˈmas ˈfweɾte de los ˈdos ˈmjentɾas diskuˈti an ˌse aseɾˈko wm bjaˈxeɾo kuˈbjeɾto en uŋ ˈkalido aˈbɾiɣo enˈtonses desiˈdjeɾoŋ k el ˈmas ˈfweɾte seˈɾi a kjen loˈɣɾase despoˈxaɾ al bjaˈxeɾo de swaˈbɾiɣo el ˈbjento del ˌnoɾt empeˈso soˈplando taɱ ˈfweɾte ˌkomo poˈdi a ˈpeɾo entɾe ˈmas ˈfweɾte soˈplaba el bjaˈxeɾo ˈmas ˌse aroˈpaba enˈtonses el ˈbjento desisˈtjo se ʝeˈɣo el ˈtuɾno del sol ˌkjeŋ komenˈso a bɾiˈʝar koɱ ˈfweɾsa ˈesto jso k el bjaxeɾo sinˈtjeɾa kaˈloɾ i poɾ eʝo se kiˈto swaˈbɾiɣo enˈtonses el ˈbjento del ˈnoɾte ˈtubo ke rekonoˈseɾ ˌkel ˈsol ˈeɾa e l ˈmas ˈfweɾte de los ˈdos See also editHistory of the Spanish language List of phonetics topics Spanish dialects and varieties Stress in Spanish RFE Phonetic Alphabet phonetic transcription system for Iberian languages proposed by Tomas Navarro Tomas and adopted by Centro de Estudios Historicos for use in its journal Revista de Filologia Espanola whence its name Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackNotes edit Random House Unabridged Dictionary Random House Inc 2006 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th ed Houghton Mifflin Company 2006 Webster s Revised Unabridged Dictionary MICRA Inc 1998 Encarta World English Dictionary Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2007 Archived from the original on 2009 11 09 Retrieved 2008 08 05 Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 255 The continuant allophones of Spanish b d ɡ have been traditionally described as voiced fricatives e g Navarro Tomas 1918 who in 100 describes the air friction of d as being tenue y suave weak and smooth Harris 1969 Dalbor 1997 and Macpherson 1975 62 who describes b as being with audible friction However they are more often described as approximants in recent literature such as D Introno Del Teso amp Weston 1995 Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 and Hualde 2005 43 The difference hinges primarily on air turbulence caused by extreme narrowing of the opening between articulators which is present in fricatives and absent in approximants Martinez Celdran 2004 displays a sound spectrogram of the Spanish word abogado showing an absence of turbulence for all three consonants a b Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 257 a b c d e f g h i Hualde Jose Ignacio 2005 Quasi phonemic contrasts in Spanish WCCFL 23 Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics Somerville MA Cascadilla Press pp 374 398 a b c d e f g h i Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 258 a b c Trager 1942 222 Chang 2008 p 54 Chang 2008 p 55 Staggs Cecelia 2019 A Perception Study of Rioplatense Spanish McNair Scholars Research Journal Boise State University 14 1 Many studies have shown that within the last 70 to 80 years there has been a strong transition towards the voiceless ʃ in both Argentina and Uruguay with Argentina having completed the change by 2004 and Uruguay following only recently a b Cotton amp Sharp 1988 15 Coloma 2018 245 a b Nunez Mendez Eva June 2022 Variation in Spanish s Overview and New Perspectives Languages 7 2 77 doi 10 3390 languages7020077 ISSN 2226 471X Canellada amp Madsen 1987 20 21 For example Chen 2007 Hammond 2001 and Lyons 1981 Chen 2007 13 Hammond 2001 cited in Scipione amp Sayahi 2005 128 Harris amp Vincent 1988 83 Lyons 1981 76 such as Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 Boyd Bowman 1953 229 Florez 1951 171 Kany 1960 236 Lenz 1940 92 et seq Zamora Vicente 1967 413 Zapata Arellano 1975 Mott 2011 110 a b Penny 2000 122 Cressey 1978 61 MacDonald 1989 219 Lipski 1994 5 3 Nasal nasales Teaching Spanish Pronunciation OpenLearn Create The distribution of nasals however is somewhat deficient in Spanish In word final position only the alveolar nasal is present So borrowings that end in ɲ or m are generally adopted into Spanish with a final n e g Adam gt Adan champagne gt champan Navarro Tomas 1918 111 113 a b Dalbor 1980 D Introno Del Teso amp Weston 1995 118 121 Navarro Tomas 1918 125 Hooper 1972 527 Lipski 1990 155 Sorbet 2018 73 D Introno Del Teso amp Weston 1995 294 Canfield 1981 13 Harris 1969 56 Hualde 2005 182 3 Hualde 2005 184 Bowen Stockwell amp Silva Fuenzalida 1956 Harris 1969 Bonet amp Mascaro 1997 Harris 1969 37 n D Introno Del Teso amp Weston 1995 289 Cotton amp Sharp 1988 19 a b Salgado Cristobal Gonzalez 2012 Ene B1 2 der Spanischkurs Hueber Verlag p 91 ISBN 978 3 19 004294 4 Archived from the original on 5 August 2020 Dworkin Steven N 1978 Derivational Transparency and Sound Change The Two Pronged Growth of ǏDU in Hispano Romance Romance Philology 31 4 613 JSTOR 44941944 Retrieved 4 October 2023 Navarro Tomas 1918 98 125 a b Martinez Celdran 2004 208 a b Bowen amp Stockwell 1955 236 Saporta 1956 288 Bowen amp Stockwell 1955 236 cite the minimal pair ya visto ɟ ʝa ˈbisto I already dress vs y ha visto ja ˈbisto and he has seen Scarpace Beery amp Hualde 2015 92 cited in Saporta 1956 289 Generally w is ɣʷ though it may also be bˠ Ohala amp Lorentz 1977 590 citing Navarro Tomas 1961 and Harris 1969 Saporta 1956 289 Penny 1991 p 52 Ulsh 1971 pp 10 12 Harris 1969 pp 26 27 a b c Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 256 Harris 1969 78 145 Examples include words of Greek origin like enfasis ˈenfasis emphasis the clitics su su tu tu mi mi the three Latin words espiritu esˈpiɾitu spirit tribu ˈtɾibu tribe and impetu ˈimpetu impetus and affective words like mami ˈmami and papi ˈpapi Cotton amp Sharp 1988 182 Zamora Vicente 1967 The first a in madres also undergoes this fronting process as part of a vowel harmony system See Realization of s below See e g Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 Such as Navarro Tomas 1918 Nowikow 2012 16 Navarro Tomas 1918 cited on Joaquim Llisterri s site Martinez Celdran 1984 289 294 301 ou occurs rarely in words another example is the proper name Bousono Saporta 1956 p 290 It is however common across word boundaries as with tengo una casa I have a house Harris 1969 89 points to muy very as the one example with uj rather than wi There are also a handful of proper nouns with uj exclusive to Chuy a nickname and Ruy There are no minimal pairs Chițoran amp Hualde 2007 45 Chițoran amp Hualde 2007 46 Martinez Celdran Fernandez Planas amp Carrera Sabate 2003 256 257 Cotton amp Sharp 1988 18 Harris 1969 99 101 See Harris 1969 147 148 for a more extensive list of verb stems ending in both high vowels as well as their corresponding semivowels Bowen amp Stockwell 1955 237 Saporta 1956 290 Navarro Tomas 1916 Navarro Tomas 1917 Quilis 1971 Cotton amp Sharp 1988 19 20 Garcia Bellido 1997 492 citing Contreras 1963 Quilis 1971 and the Esbozo de una nueva gramatica de la lengua espanola 1973 by the Gramatica de la Real Academia Espanola Lleo 2003 262 Hochberg 1988 684 Garcia Bellido 1997 473 474 Garcia Bellido 1997 486 citing Navarro Tomas 1917 381 382 385 Harris 1969 79 Harris 1969 26 27 Pensado 1997 595 597 a b Pensado 1997 608 Harris 1969 188 Harris 1969 189 Harris 1969 97 a b c d Lipski 2016 245 Baker Gary Kenneth 2004 Palatal phenomena in Spanish phonology PDF Thesis University of Florida p 30 Menendez Pidal Ramon 1926 Origenes del espanol Estado linguistico de la Peninsula Iberica hasta el siglo XI Madrid Libreria y Casa Editorial Hernando p 121 a b Hualde Jose Ignacio Carrasco Patricio 2009 tl en espanol mexicano Un segmento o dos PDF Estudios de Fonetica Experimental in Spanish XVIII 175 191 ISSN 1575 5533 a b Division silabica y ortografica de palabras con tl Real Academia Espanola in Spanish Retrieved 19 July 2021 Lipski 2016 249 250 a b Lleo 2003 278 Cressey 1978 86 Lipski 2016 252 Lipski 2016 250 Lipski 2016 254 Enlace Encadenamiento Lawless Spanish Pronunciation 25 September 2020 Catano Barlow amp Moyna 2009 456 Catano Barlow amp Moyna 2009 448 Goldstein amp Iglesias 1998 5 6 a b Macken amp Barton 1980b 455 Macken amp Barton 1980b 73 Carballo amp Mendoza 2000 588 Carballo amp Mendoza 2000 589 Carballo amp Mendoza 2000 596 Leibowitz Brandon 11 February 2015 Spanish Phonology Fluency Fox Archived from the original on 23 April 2016 Retrieved 5 April 2016 Lleo 2003 271 Lleo 2003 279 Hochberg 1988 683 Hochberg 1988 685 Cotton amp Sharp 1988 55 Coloma 2011 110 111 Coloma 2011 95 Lipski 1994 170 Obaid 1973 Florez 1957 41 Canfield 1981 36 Obaid 1973 Dalbor 1980 9 Recasens 2004 436 citing Fougeron 1999 and Browman amp Goldstein 1995 Wright Robyn 2017 The Madrileno ejke a study of the perception and production of velarized s in Madrid PhD The University of Texas at Austin hdl 2152 60470 OCLC 993940787 Obaid 1973 62 Zamora Vicente 1967 Lloret 2007 24 25 a b Guitart 1997 515 a b Guitart 1997 517 Lipski 1997 124 Lipski 1997 126 Guitart 1997 515 517 518 Guitart 1997 518 527 citing Boyd Bowman 1975 and Labov 1994 595 Wetzels amp Mascaro 2001 224 citing Navarro Tomas 1961 The Oxford Spanish Dictionary Oxford University Press 1994 Molina Martos Isabel 2016 Variacion de la d final de palabra en Madrid prestigio abierto o encubierto Boletin de Filologia 51 2 347 367 doi 10 4067 S0718 93032016000200013 ISSN 0718 9303 a b Lope Blanch 2004 29 Avila 2003 67 References editAbercrombie David 1967 Elements of General Phonetics Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press Alarcos Llorach Emilio 1950 Fonologia espanola Madrid Gredos Avila Raul 2003 La pronunciacion del espanol medios de difusion masiva y norma culta Nueva Revista de Filologia Hispanica 51 1 57 79 doi 10 24201 nrfh v51i1 2203 Bonet Eulalia Mascaro Joan 1997 On the Representation of Contrasting Rhotics in Martinez Gil Fernando Morales Front Alfonso eds Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages Georgetown University Press pp 103 126 Bowen J Donald Stockwell Robert P 1955 The Phonemic Interpretation of Semivowels in Spanish Language 31 2 236 240 doi 10 2307 411039 JSTOR 411039 Bowen J Donald Stockwell Robert P Silva Fuenzalida Ismael 1956 Spanish Juncture and Intonation Language 32 4 641 665 doi 10 2307 411088 JSTOR 411088 Boyd Bowman Peter 1953 Sobre la pronunciacion del espanol en el Ecuador Nueva Revista de Filologia Hispanica 7 221 233 doi 10 24201 nrfh v7i1 2 310 Boyd Bowman Peter 1975 A Sample of Sixteenth Century Caribbean Spanish Phonology in Milan William Zamora Juan C Staczek John J eds 1974 Colloquium on Spanish and Portuguese Linguistics Washington D C Georgetown University Press pp 1 11 Browman C P Goldstein L 1995 Gestural syllable position effects in American English PDF in Bell Berti F Raphael L J eds Producing Speech Contemporary Issues for K Harris New York AIP pp 19 33 Canfield D Lincoln 1981 Spanish Pronunciation in the Americas Chicago University of Chicago Press Canellada Maria Josefa Madsen John Kuhlmann 1987 Pronunciacion del espanol lengua hablada y literaria Madrid Castalia ISBN 978 8470394836 Carballo Gloria Mendoza Elvira 2000 Acoustic Characteristics of Trill Productions by Groups of Spanish Children PDF Clinical Linguistics amp Phonetics 14 8 587 601 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 378 1561 doi 10 1080 026992000750048125 S2CID 14574548 Catano Lorena Barlow Jessica A Moyna Maria Irene 2009 A Retrospective Study of Phonetic Inventory Complexity in Acquisition of Spanish Implications for Phonological Universals Clinical Linguistics amp Phonetics 23 6 446 472 doi 10 1080 02699200902839818 PMC 4412371 PMID 19504400 Chang Charles B 2008 Variation in palatal production in Buenos Aires Spanish PDF in Westmoreland Maurice Thomas Juan Antonio eds Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics Somerville MA Cascadilla Proceedings Project pp 54 63 Chen Yudong 2007 A Comparison of Spanish Produced by Chinese L2 Learners and Native Speakers An Acoustic Phonetics Approach ISBN 9780549464037 Chițoran Ioana Hualde Jose Ignacio 2007 From Hiatus to Diphthong The Evolution of Vowel Sequences in Romance PDF Phonology 24 37 75 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 129 2403 doi 10 1017 S095267570700111X S2CID 14947405 Coloma German 2011 Variacion socioeconomica de los rasgos foneticos dialectales de la lengua espanola Lexis 35 1 91 118 doi 10 18800 lexis 201101 003 S2CID 170911379 Coloma German 2018 Argentine Spanish PDF Journal of the International Phonetic Association 48 2 243 250 doi 10 1017 S0025100317000275 S2CID 232345835 Contreras Heles 1963 Sobre el acento en espanol Boletin de Filologia Universidad de Santiago de Chile 15 223 237 Cotton Eleanor Greet Sharp John 1988 Spanish in the Americas Georgetown University Press ISBN 978 0 87840 094 2 Cressey William Whitney 1978 Spanish Phonology and Morphology A Generative View Georgetown University Press ISBN 978 0 87840 045 4 Dalbor John B 1997 1969 Spanish Pronunciation Theory and Practice An Introductory Manual of Spanish Phonology and Remedial Drill 3rd ed Fort Worth Holt Rinehart and Winston Dalbor John B 1980 Observations on Present Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain Hispania 63 1 5 19 doi 10 2307 340806 JSTOR 340806 D Introno Francesco Del Teso Enrique Weston Rosemary 1995 Fonetica y fonologia actual del espanol Madrid Catedra Eddington David 2000 Spanish Stress Assignment within the Analogical Modeling of Language PDF Language 76 1 92 109 doi 10 2307 417394 JSTOR 417394 archived from the original PDF on 2013 07 08 retrieved 2008 02 05 Florez Luis 1951 La pronunciacion del espanol en Bogota Bogota Publicaciones del Instituto Caro y Cuervo Florez Luis 1957 Habla y cultura popular en Antioquia Bogota Instituto Caro y Cuervo Fougeron C 1999 Prosodically Conditioned Articulatory Variation A Review U C L A Working Papers in Phonetics vol 97 pp 1 73 Garcia Bellido Paloma 1997 The Interface between Inherent and Structural Prominence in Spanish in Martinez Gil Fernando Morales Front Alfonso eds Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages Georgetown University Press pp 469 511 Goldstein Brian A Iglesias Aquiles 1998 Phonological Production in Spanish Speaking Preschoolers Guitart Jorge M 1997 Variability Multilectalism and the Organization of Phonology in Caribbean Spanish Dialects PDF in Martinez Gil Fernando Morales Front Alfonso eds Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages Georgetown University Press pp 515 536 Hammond Robert M 2001 The Sounds of Spanish Analysis and Application Cascadilla Press ISBN 978 1 57473 018 0 Harris James 1969 Spanish Phonology Cambridge MIT Press Harris Martin Vincent Nigel 1988 Spanish The Romance Languages Taylor amp Francis pp 79 130 ISBN 978 0 415 16417 7 Hochberg Judith G 1988 Learning Spanish Stress Developmental and Theoretical Perspectives Language 64 4 683 706 doi 10 2307 414564 JSTOR 414564 Hooper Joan B 1972 The Syllable in Phonological Theory Language 48 3 525 540 doi 10 2307 412031 JSTOR 412031 Hualde Jose Ignacio 2005 The Sounds of Spanish Cambridge University Press Kany Charles 1960 American Spanish Semantics University of California Press Labov William 1994 Principles of Linguistic Change Volume I Internal Factors Cambridge MA Blackwell Publishers Ladefoged Peter Johnson Keith 2010 A Course in Phonetics 6th ed Boston Massachusetts Wadsworth Publishing ISBN 978 1 4282 3126 9 Lenz Rodolfo 1940 Fonetica del castellano de Chile PDF El espanol en Chile Facultad de Filosofia y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires Instituto de Filologia pp 78 208 Lipski John M 1990 Spanish Taps and Trills Phonological Structure of an Isolated Position PDF Lipski John M 1994 Latin American Spanish London Longman Lipski John M 1997 En busca de las normas foneticas del espanol PDF In Colombi M Cecilia Alarconi Francisco X eds La ensenanza del espanol a hispanohablantes praxis y teoria in Spanish Boston Houghton Mifflin pp 121 132 ISBN 9780669398441 Lipski John M 2016 Spanish vocalic epenthesis the phonetics of sonority and the mora PDF In Nunez Cedeno Rafael A ed The Syllable and Stress De Gruyter Mouton pp 245 269 doi 10 1515 9781614515975 010 ISBN 9781614517368 Lleo Conxita 2003 Prosodic Licensing of Codas in the Acquisition of Spanish PDF Probus 15 2 257 281 doi 10 1515 prbs 2003 010 Lloret Maria Rosa 2007 On the Nature of Vowel Harmony Spreading with a Purpose PDF in Bisetto Antonietta Barbieri Francesco eds Proceedings of the XXXIII Incontro di Grammatica Generativa pp 15 35 Lope Blanch Juan M 2004 Cuestiones de filologia mexicana Mexico editorial Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico ISBN 978 970 32 0976 7 Lyons John 1981 Language and Linguistics An Introduction Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 54088 9 MacDonald Marguerite 1989 The Influence of Spanish Phonology on the English Spoken by United States Hispanics in Bjarkman Peter Hammond Robert eds American Spanish Pronunciation Theoretical and Applied Perspectives Washington DC Georgetown University Press pp 215 236 ISBN 9780878400997 Macken Marlys A Barton David 1980a The Acquisition of the Voicing Contrast in English A Study of Voice Onset Time in Word Initial Stop Consonants Journal of Child Language 7 1 41 74 doi 10 1017 S0305000900007029 PMID 7372738 S2CID 252612 Macken Marlys A Barton David 1980b The Acquisition of the Voicing Contrast in Spanish A Phonetic and Phonological Study of Word Initial Stop Consonants Journal of Child Language 7 3 433 458 doi 10 1017 S0305000900002774 PMID 6969264 S2CID 29944336 Macpherson Ian R 1975 Spanish Phonology Descriptive and Historical Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0 7190 0788 0 Martinez Celdran Eugenio 1984 Fonetica Con especial referencia a la lengua castellana Barcelona Editorial Teide Martinez Celdran Eugenio Fernandez Planas Ana Ma Carrera Sabate Josefina 2003 Castilian Spanish Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 2 255 259 doi 10 1017 S0025100303001373 Martinez Celdran Eugenio 2004 Problems in the Classification of Approximants Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 2 201 210 doi 10 1017 S0025100304001732 S2CID 144568679 Mott Brian Leonard 2011 Semantics and Translation for Spanish Learners of English Publicacions i Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona ISBN 978 84 475 3548 4 Navarro Tomas Tomas 1916 Cantidad de las vocales acentuadas Revista de Filologia Espanola 3 387 408 Navarro Tomas Tomas 1917 Cantidad de las vocales inacentuadas Revista de Filologia Espanola 4 371 388 Navarro Tomas Tomas 1918 Manual de pronunciacion espanola PDF 21st 1982 ed Madrid CSIC archived from the original PDF on 19 June 2018 Navarro Tomas Tomas 1961 Manual de pronunciacion espanola Publicaciones de la revista de filologia Espanola Madrid 3 Nowikow Wiaczeslaw 2012 First published 1992 Fonetyka hiszpanska 3rd ed Warszawa Wydawnictwo naukowe PWN ISBN 978 83 01 16856 8 Obaid Antonio H 1973 The Vagaries of the Spanish S Hispania 56 1 60 67 doi 10 2307 339038 JSTOR 339038 Ohala John Lorentz James 1977 The Story of w An Exercise in the Phonetic Explanation for Sound Patterns PDF in Whistler Kenneth Chiarelloet Chris van Vahn Robert Jr eds Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society Berkeley Berkeley Linguistic Society pp 577 599Penny Ralph 1991 A History of the Spanish Language Cambridge Cambridge University PressPenny Ralph 2000 Variation and Change in Spanish Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 78045 2 Pensado Carmen 1997 On the Spanish Depalatalization of ɲ and ʎ in Rhymes in Martinez Gil Fernando Morales Front Alfonso eds Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages Georgetown University Press pp 595 618 Quilis Antonio 1971 Caracterizacion fonetica del acento en espanol Travaux de Linguistique et de Litterature 9 53 72 Recasens Daniel 2004 The Effect of Syllable Position on Consonant Reduction Evidence from Catalan Consonant Clusters PDF Journal of Phonetics 32 3 435 453 doi 10 1016 j wocn 2004 02 001 Saporta Sol 1956 A Note on Spanish Semivowels Language 32 2 287 290 doi 10 2307 411006 JSTOR 411006 Scarpace Daniel Beery David Hualde Jose Ignacio 2015 Allophony of ʝ in Peninsular Spanish Phonetica 72 2 3 76 97 doi 10 1159 000381067 Scipione Ruth Sayahi Lotfi 2005 Consonantal Variation of Spanish in Northern Morocco PDF in Sayahi Lotfi Westmoreland Maurice eds Selected Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics Somerville MA Cascadilla Proceedings Project Sorbet Piotr 2018 Consideraciones acerca de las consonantes roticas Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature 42 1 66 80 doi 10 17951 lsmll 2018 42 1 66 Trager George 1942 The Phonemic Treatment of Semivowels Language 18 3 220 223 doi 10 2307 409556 JSTOR 409556 Ulsh Jack Lee 1971 From Spanish to Portuguese Foreign Service Institute archived from the original on 18 November 2022 Wetzels W Leo Mascaro Joan 2001 The Typology of Voicing and Devoicing PDF Language 77 2 207 244 doi 10 1353 lan 2001 0123 S2CID 28948663 Whitley M Stanley 2002 Spanish English Contrasts A Course in Spanish Linguistics 2nd ed Georgetown University Press ISBN 978 0 87840 381 3 Zamora Vicente Alonso 1967 Dialectologia espanola 2nd ed Biblioteca Romanica Hispanica Editorial Gredos ISBN 9788424911157 Zapata Arellano Rodrigo 1975 Nota sobre la articulacion del fonema f en el espanol de Chile Signos 8 131 133Further reading editAvelino Heriberto 2018 Mexico City Spanish PDF Journal of the International Phonetic Association 48 2 223 230 doi 10 1017 S0025100316000232 Bongiovanni Silvina 2019 An acoustical analysis of the merger of ɲ and nj in Buenos Aires Spanish Journal of the International Phonetic Association doi 10 1017 S0025100318000440 S2CID 151047029 Colantoni Laura Marinescu Irina 2010 Ortega Llebaria Marta ed The Scope of Stop Weakening in Argentine Spanish PDF Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology Somerville Massachusetts Cascadilla Proceedings pp 100 114 ISBN 978 1 57473 438 6 Herrero de Haro Alfredo Hajek John 2020 Eastern Andalusian Spanish Journal of the International Phonetic Association 52 1 22 doi 10 1017 S0025100320000146 S2CID 229484009 Monroy Rafael Hernandez Campoy Juan Manuel 2015 Murcian Spanish PDF Journal of the International Phonetic Association 45 2 229 240 doi 10 1017 S0025100314000231 Otero Carlos P 1986 A unified metrical account of Spanish stress in Contreras Heles Newmeyer Frederick J eds A Festschrift for Sol Saporta Seattle Noit Amrofer pp 299 332 Roca Iggy 1990a Diachrony and synchrony in word stress Journal of Linguistics 26 1 133 164 doi 10 1017 S0022226700014456 S2CID 146651226 Roca Iggy 1990b Morphology and verbal stress in Spanish Probus 2 3 321 350 doi 10 1515 prbs 1990 2 3 321 S2CID 170933483 Roca Iggy 1992 On the sources of word prosody Phonology 9 2 267 287 doi 10 1017 S0952675700001615 JSTOR 4420057 S2CID 57072569 Simonet Miquel Rohena Madrazo Marcos Paz Mercedes 2008 Colantoni Laura Steele Jeffrey eds Preliminary Evidence for Incomplete Neutralization of Coda Liquids in Puerto Rican Spanish PDF Selected Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology pp 72 86 ISBN 978 1 57473 424 9External links editHandbook of the International Phonetic Association Castilian Spanish audio samples Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Spanish phonology amp oldid 1194996412, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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