Spanish phonology
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| Spanish language |
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| Names for the language History Pronunciation Dialects Writing system Grammar: |
This article is about the phonology of the Spanish language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants (for details, see the articles on History of the Spanish language and Spanish dialects and varieties).
Spanish has many allophones, so it is important here to distinguish phonemes (written in slashes / /) and corresponding allophones (written in brackets [ ]).
Contents |
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- Dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | |||||||||||
| Fricatives | f | θ | s | ʝ | x | |||||||||
| Affricates | ʧ | |||||||||||||
| Approximants | j | |||||||||||||
| Trills | r | |||||||||||||
| Taps | ɾ | |||||||||||||
| Laterals | l | ʎ | ||||||||||||
| Phoneme | Sound | Spelling | Allophones |
| /p/ | voiceless bilabial plosive | "p" (pipa) | |
| /b/ | voiced bilabial plosive | "b" (burro) or "v" (vaca) | [b] appears initially (in some accents) and after nasals (bomba, envidia), approximant [β̞] elsewhere (nube, la bodega). In rapid speech, [β̞] can replace [b] in the initial position. After /l/, there is variation among speakers (el burro can be either [elˈburo] or [elˈβ̞uro]). |
| /t/ | voiceless dental plosive | "t" (tomate) | |
| /d/ | voiced dental plosive | "d" (dedo) | [d̪] appears initially, after nasals (donde), and after /l/ (maldito), approximant [ð̞] elsewhere (nido, la deuda). In most or all of Spain and the Caribbean it is usually omitted in the endings -ado and -ados, in Southern Spain also in the endings -ada and -adas (manadas: [maˈnaːs]), and less frequently in endings -ido and -idos. In Venezuela it is omitted in intervocalic position on the last syllable: peludo is pronounced as [peˈl̪uo]. In Latin America and also in Spain it is often omitted in final position: usted = [usˈt̪e] or [usˈt̪eð̞]. In Madrid this phoneme in final position suffers devoicing, merging with /θ/. |
| /k/ | voiceless velar plosive | "c" (casa), "qu" (queso), "k" (kiosko) | |
| /g/ | voiced velar plosive | "g" (gato), "gu" (guerra). | [g] appears initially or after nasals (ganga), approximant [ɰ] elsewhere (lago, la garganta). After /l/, there is variation among speakers (el gato can be either [elˈgat̪o] or [elˈɰat̪o]). |
| Fricatives | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /s/ | voiceless alveolar fricative | "s" (sapo) | In Northern/Central Spain and Antioquia, Colombia it is apicoalveolar; in Southern Spain and most of Latin America it is lamino-alveolar (often called "dental") [s].
It becomes the approximant [ɹ] before a rhotic (israelita: [iɹraeˈlit̪a]). In many places it debuccalizes to [h] in final position (niños), or before another consonant (fósforo) - in other words, the change occurs in the coda position in a syllable. In the Colombian Caribe produces gemination before /k/ or /f/ consonants (pescado: [peˈkːað̞o] or [peˈkːao], fósforo: [ˈfofːoro]). Before voiced consonants, /s/ is sometimes lightly voiced or a fully voiced [z] (desde). From an autosegmental point of view, the /s/ phoneme in Madrid is defined only by its voiceless and fricative features. This means that the point of articulation is not defined and is determined from the sounds following it in the word or sentence. Thus in Madrid the following realizations are found: /peskado/ → [pexkao] and /fosforo/ → [fofforo]). 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 ([obihpo] or [obippo] from /obispo/ 'bishop'). |
| /θ/ | voiceless interdental fricative | "z" (zorro) or "c" (cielo) | This phoneme is used only in central and northern Spain (the Castilian dialect). The main realization is [θ̟], and has a slightly voiced allophone [θ̟̬] before voiced consonants, as in juzgado [xuθ̟̬ˈgað̞o]; note this voiced allophone (which is a tense interdental fricative) is not the same sound as the [ð̞] allophone of "d" (which is a dental approximant). In other dialects, this phoneme is not used and merged with /s/. |
| /f/ | voiceless labiodental fricative | "f" (faro) | The main realization is a voiceless [f], but before voiced consonants it becomes voiced [v], as in afgano. |
| /x/ | voiceless velar fricative | "j" (jarro), "g" (general). | In parts of Latin America and southern Spain it is [h]. In parts of South America and Southern Spain it is dropped in final position (/relox/: [relo]) |
| /ʝ/ | voiced palatal fricative | "y" (yo, yerro, yerba); See also /ʎ/ below | Initially and after /n/ it is realised as an affricate.
In Argentina and Uruguay is realized as [ʒ], [ʤ] or [ʃ]. |
| Affricates | |||
| /ʧ/ | voiceless postalveolar affricate | "ch" (chino). In words of English origin it may be spelled "sh": show = [ʧow] | Castilian Spanish has laminal/dorsal affricate realizations in the alveolo-palatal to pre-palatal area ([ʨ], [ʨ̠], [c̟͡ç]); plosive variants ([t̠ʲ], [c̟]) can be recognized as allophones but are seldom pronounced that way. In contrast, other dialects have apical domed palato-alveolar realizations, either affricate [ʧ] or fricative [ʃ] (similarly, French /ʃ/ developed from deaffrication of /ʧ/). |
| Nasals | |||
| There are three nasal phonemes in most varieties of Spanish, distributed across five (or so) allophones. In general, these phonemes are distinguished only before vowels (e.g. como, cono, coño); elsewhere there is one single nasal archiphoneme, which is pronounced homorganically according to the following consonant and spelled m or n depending on the following consonant (that is, as m before b and p, and as n elsewhere). In parts of Latin America, there are only two phonemes, as the palatal nasal /ɲ/ has dissolved into a sequence /nj/; elsewhere, these two are pronounced differently (/nj/ spelled "ni" before a vowel) and speakers can distinguish minimal pairs (e.g., Ñetas vs. nietas, año vs. hahnio, de moños vs. demonios). Castilian Spanish tends to preserve the phonemic distinction between nasals better than Latin American Spanish, at least in careful speech. | |||
| /m/ | bilabial nasal | "m" (mano) | (1) It occurs only before vowels. Before consonants the [m] sound is part of the /N/ archiphoneme
álbum: [ˈalbun]; réquiem: [ˈrɛkjen] |
| /n/ | alveolar nasal | "n" (noche, anterior), "m" (compadre). | (2) Positional allophones: [ŋ] before /k/ (blanco, un queso), /g/ (angustia, un gato); /x/ (enjambre, un jarro) or the semivowel /w/ (enhuesar, un huevo, but not nuevo); [ɱ] before /f/ (enfermo, un faro); [m] before /m/ (inmerecido, un mono), /p/ (only on separate words, like in un perro), /b/ ("v", like in envolver, or "b" on separate words, like in un burro); [ɲ] before /ʝ/ (cónyuge, un yeso), /ʎ/ (conllevar, un llavero); [n̪] before /t/ (entrar, internacional), /d/ (onda, agenda).
From an autosegmental point of view, /n/, at least in Spain, has no defined point of articulation, as it assimilates to the following consonant. |
| /ɲ/ | palatal nasal | "ñ" (niño) | (3) In parts of Latin America it is pronounced as [nʲ] or [nj] (mañana: [maˈnjanʲa] or /maˈnʲana/). It occurs only before vowels. Before consonants it is part of the /n/ archiphoneme. |
| Laterals | |||
| /l/ | alveolar lateral approximant | "l" (largo). | |
| /ʎ/ | palatal lateral approximant | "ll" (lluvia). | While /ʎ/ exists in a formal or careful delivery, this phoneme is dying out in present-day Spanish and /ʝ/, also realized [ʒ] and [ʤ], has taken its place. /ʎ/ survives mainly in areas of bilingualism with Catalan, Quechua, Guaraní or other languages that have this phoneme in their inventories. This is the case of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and, especially, Paraguay. It also survives in isolated places such as Chiloé, in Chile, and in non-bilingual regions, mostly rural areas, of northern and central Spain (including some rural areas in the south: parts of Murcia and isolated areas around Seville, Huelva and the Canary islands). In the Philippines, it is invariably pronounced [ʎ], regardless of ethnolinguistic affiliation. Note that, /ʎ/ contrasts with the sequence /lj/, which in Spanish is spelled "li" before a vowel and contrasts with /ʎ/, even distinguishing a few minimal pairs (e.g., ello vs. helio, hallado vs. aliado). |
| Rhotics | |||
| In Spanish there are two rhotic sounds, but they are in complementary distribution except between vowels (compare caro and carro, pero and perro), so other than intervocalically there is just one single rhotic archiphoneme. The apparent distinction after /b/ is actually due to a distinction of syllabication, and the difference in sound is due to the different realization of the rhotic archiphoneme used in initial and in intra-cluster positions. After b, the r is pronounced with a trill only in the verbs subrayar and subrogar (the syllabification of which is sub-ra-yar and sub-ro-gar, because they are formed with the prefix sub- + rayar and rogar), as well as in their derived words. | |||
| /ɾ/ | alveolar tap | "r" (loro, abrazar, ratón, enredo). | (4) Positional allophones: A trill ([r]) in initial position (ratón: [raˈt̪on]), after /n/ (enredo: [enˈreð̞o]), /l/ (alrededor: [alreð̞eˈð̞or]), or /s/ (israelita: [iɹraeˈlit̪a], see /s/ above).
(5) In Chile in colloquial speech it produces gemination before /t/ (carta: [ˈkat̪ːa]), /n/ (carne: [ˈkanːe]) and /l/ (perla: [ˈpelːa]). In the Colombian Caribe, it produces gemination before almost every consonant (barco: [ˈbakːo], árbol: [ˈabːol], arde: [ˈad̪ːe], etc.), and is replaced by [ʔ] in final position (saber: [saˈβ̞eʔ]). In Cuba and Puerto Rico it is replaced by [l] (puerco: [ˈpwelko]). |
| /r/ | alveolar trill | "rr" (cerro) | It occurs only between vowels; in all other positions it is part of the /R/ archiphoneme.
(6) In some parts of Latin America, mainly in Ecuador and northern Argentina, it is pronounced similar to [ʒ] (arriba: [aˈʒiβ̞a]). |
[edit] Vowels and semivowels
| Phoneme | Sound | Spelling | Allophones |
| Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | open central unrounded vowel | "a", "á" | The main realization is [ä]). In Andalusia, final /as/ becomes [ɑ]. |
| /e/ | mid front unrounded vowel | "e", "é" | The main realization is [e̞]. In Andalucia final /es/ becomes [ɛ]. |
| /i/ | close front unrounded vowel | "i", "í"; "y" | The main realization is [i]. See also /j/ below. In Andalucia final /is/ becomes [ɪ]. |
| /o/ | mid back rounded vowel | "o", "ó" | The main realization is [o̞]. In Andalucia final /os/ becomes [ɔ]. |
| /u/ | close back rounded vowel | "u", "ú", "ü" | The main realization is [u]. See also /w/ below. In Andalusia, final /us/ becomes [ʊ]. |
| Semivowels and/or Semiconsonants | |||
| /j/ | palatal approximant | "y" (muy), "i" (pieza, hierba, hierro) | It can be considered an allophone of /i/ in the syllable onset; mi amigo: [mjaˈmiɰo], pierna: [ˈpjerna] |
| /w/ | labio-velar approximant | "u" (cuatro, guardia), "ü" (agüero), but destruir: /destruˈir/, not /desˈtrwir/. | It can be considered an allophone of /u/ in the syllable onset; tu amigo: [t̪waˈmiɰo], cuanto: /ˈkwant̪o/. |
[edit] References
- Robert M. Hammond (2001). The Sounds of Spanish: Analysis and Application. Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Press. ISBN 1-57473-018-5.
[edit] See also
- (Spanish) How to use IPA characters properly when transcribing Spanish texts , link to the Spanish wikipedia where you can also find some sound samples
- Spanish dialects and varieties
- History of the Spanish language
- List of phonetics topics
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