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 | tʃ | |||||||||||||
| 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 apico-alveolar; 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 is [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]). In Spain is sometimes postulated a very-lightly-voiced [z] allophone before voiced consonants (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. In parts of southern Spain, the only feature defined for /s/ appears to be voiceless, adjusting point and mode of articulation depending on phonetic context (usually assimilating to nearby consonants). This explains the observed realizations of/peskado/ → [pexkao] and /fosforo/ → [fofforo]) in Madrid, and /est̪os/ → [eht̪oh] in southern Spain. |
| /θ/ | voiceless dental fricative | "z" (zorro) or "c" (cielo) | This phoneme is heard only in central and northern Spain, where it has perhaps a slightly voiced allophone [ð] before voiced consonants (juzgado: [xuðˈgao] or [xuðˈgað̞o] - not the same sound as the [ð̞] allophone). In other dialects it merges with /s/. |
| /f/ | voiceless labiodental fricative | "f" (faro) | |
| /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] | Pronounced as a plosive in European Spanish, something like [tʲ]. In South American Spanish, on the other hand, there are mainly [ʧ] or [ʃ] pronunciations - like French /ʃ/ which itself developed from /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). 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. Northern Spain Spanish tends to better preserve the phonemic distinction between nasals 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). | 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. |
| Rhotics | |||
| In Spanish there are two rhotic sounds, but they are in complementary distribution except between vowels (compare caro and carro, pero and perro). The apparent distinction after /b/ is not such; it becomes a trill only in the verbs subrayar and subrogar and, of course, their derived words. | |||
| /ɾ/ | alveolar flap | "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 /ɾ/ 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 front unrounded vowel | "a", "á" | In Andalucia final /as/ becomes [ɑ]. |
| /e/ | close-mid front unrounded vowel | "e", "é" | In Andalucia final /es/ becomes [ɛ]. |
| /i/ | close front unrounded vowel | "i", "í"; "y" | See /j/ above. In Andalucia final /is/ becomes [ɪ]. |
| /o/ | close-mid back rounded vowel | "o", "ó" | In Andalucia final /os/ becomes [ɔ]. |
| /u/ | close back rounded vowel | "u", "ú", "ü" | See semivowel /w/ above. In Andalucia 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/; 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/; tu amigo: [t̪waˈmiɰo], cuanto: /ˈkwant̪o/. |
[edit] Historical sound changes
By the 16th century the consonantal system of "Castilian" Spanish underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from such related Romance languages as Portuguese, Ladino and Catalan:
- The initial [f], which had evolved into a vacillating [h], was lost in most words (although this etymological h- has been preserved in spelling).
- The voiced bilabial fricative [β] (written u or v) merged with the bilabial occlusive [b] (written b). Contemporary Spanish letters b and v do not correspond to different phonemes, nor to medieval-Spanish ones, as the spelling has been modified to reflect the etymological distribution of b and v in Latin.
- The voiced alveolar fricative [z] (written s between vowels) merged with the voiceless [s] (written s, or ss between vowels), now written s everywhere.
- Voiced alveolar affricate [ʣ] (written z) merged with the voiceless [ʦ] (written ç, or c before e and i), and then [ʦ] evolved into the interdental [θ], now written z, or c before e and i. But in Andalucia, the Canary Islands and the Americas these sounds merged with [s] as well. Notice that the ç (c with cedilla) was in its origin a Spanish letter.
- Note that in the Andalucian merger of [s] with [θ], the resulting unitary phoneme could be either. Coastal regions preferred [θ], and are called ceceo dialects. More inland regions preferred [s], and are called seseo dialects. The seseo region included Seville, the major Spanish port at that time (actually on a river, Guadalquivir); and hence most of those who were destined to settle the new worlds stayed for a while in Seville before heading off, and nearby locals supplied many of the seamen and other hands on ship. It should not be surprising, then, that the entire Spanish-speaking new world speaks a language derived, essentially, from the language of Seville.
- The voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ] (written j, or g before e and i) merged with the voiceless [ʃ] (written x, as in Quixote), and then [ʃ] evolved by the 17th century into the modern velar sound [x], now written j, or g before e and i. In much of Latin America, especially in coastal areas of Central America and northern South America, the same letters correspond to a glottal fricative, [h]. In the high lands of Mexico and generally in the southern part of the continent (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) j/g correspond to a velar fricative [x], as in standard European Spanish, but this phoneme has a palatalized allophone [ç] (German "ich" sound) in front of front vowels /i/ and /e/: general [çeneˈral], gitano [çiˈtano].
Later is the merger, in most dialects, of the palatal lateral and non-lateral consonants [ʎ] and (historical) [j] into a single non-lateral consonant, generally a palatal fricative (but also postalveolar and/or affricate in some dialects). This merger is called yeísmo (from the name of the letter y). (Hammond 2001)
[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
- List of phonetics topics
- History of the Spanish language
- Spanish dialects and varieties
