ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE IPA

Castilian Spanish
Eugenio Martı́nez-Celdrán
Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas
Josefina Carrera-Sabaté
Laboratori de Fonètica, Facultat de Filogia
Universitat de Barcelona
martinezceldran@ub.edu
anamariafernandez@ub.edu
josefinacarrera@teleline.es

Spanish is by far the most widely spoken Romance language, used by about 350 million
people mainly in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. The language variety described
below is formal Spanish spoken in Castile (Central Spain) by educated middle-aged
speakers.

Consonants
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive p b t d k g
Affricate t°S K 2°J
Nasal m n ≠
Tap or flap |
Trill r
Fricative f T s x
Lateral l ¥
approximant

p "pelo pelo ‘hair’ t "topo topo ‘mole’ k "kasa casa ‘house’

b "boka boca ‘mouth’ d "da| dar ‘to give’ g "gato gato ‘cat’
t°S "kot°Se coche ‘car’
 2°J " 2°Jate yate ‘yacht’
m ma)"ma mamá ‘mother’ n "nuka nuca ‘nape’ ≠ "ka≠a caña ‘cane’
r "pero perro ‘dog’
| "pe|o pero ‘but’
f "feo feo ‘ugly’ T "Tona zona ‘zone’ x xa"ron jarrón ‘vase’
s "sola sola ‘alone’
l "luT luz ‘light’ ¥ a"¥i allı́ ‘there’

Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2003) 33/2

C International Phonetic Association
DOI:10.1017/S0025100303001373 Printed in the United Kingdom
256 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

Vowels
Spanish has five vowels, which may occur in both stressed and unstressed syllables: \i\, \e\,
\a\, \o\, \u\. Navarro Tomás (1918) described open variants of \i\, \e\, \o\, \u\ in some contexts.
In the case of the open central vowel, he distinguished palatal and velar variants in certain
contexts. However, later experimental studies do not seem to confirm such variants.
Vowels have nasalized variants when they appear between two nasal consonants or
followed by a nasal consonant in syllabic coda.

Stressed vowels Unstressed vowels

i "piso piso ‘I step’ i pi"so pisó ‘S\he stepped’
e "peso peso ‘I weigh’ e pe"so pesó ‘S\he weighed’
a "paso paso ‘I pass’ a pa"so pasó ‘S\he passed’
o "poso poso ‘I pose’ o po"so posó ‘S\he posed’
u "puso puso ‘S\he placed’ u pu"Xo pujó ‘S\he struggled’

Diphthongs
Spanish has rising diphthongs, formed by the glides [j] or [w] plus a syllabic nucleus, and
falling diphthongs, formed by a syllabic nucleus plus the glides [i8] or [u8]. In fast speech,
sequences of vowels in hiatus reduce so that one becomes [–syllabic]. If both vowels have the
same timbre they fuse: la Alhambra [la "lamb|a]. There are also triphthongs, like buey ‘ox’
["bwei8]. Some examples of diphthongs are:

je "pjel piel ‘skin’ ei8 "pei8ne peine ‘comb’

ja "aTja hacia ‘towards’ ai8 "ai8|e aire ‘air’
jo "raDjo radio ‘radio’ oi8 "soi8 soy ‘I am’
ju "bjuDa viuda ‘widow’

wi "fwimos fuimos ‘we went’

we "bweno bueno ‘good’ eu8 "neu8t|o neutro ‘neutral’
wa "kwaD|o cuadro ‘picture’ au8 "pau8sa pausa ‘break’
wo "kwota cuota ‘quota’ ou8 "bou8 bou ‘seine fishing’
 E. Martı́nez-Celdrán, A. Ma. Fernández-Planas & J. Carrera-Sabaté: Spanish 257

Besides, when two non-close vowels clash in the string, one of them becomes non-syllabic. In
the following examples, theoretical three-syllable words become two-syllable words: poeta
‘poet’ ["po8eta], maestro ‘teacher’ ["mae8st|o].

Prosody
Lexical stress
Lexical stress is distinctive. Stress provides very productive contrasts, such as those between
the first person singular of the present tense and the third person singular of the past in verbs
of the first conjugation, like: amo-amó ‘I love-s\he loved’, lavo-lavó ‘I wash-s\he washed’,
cambio-cambió ‘I change-s\he changed’, etc. It is also possible to contrast three words, a noun
and two verbal forms, such as lı́mite-limite-limité ‘boundary-limit (imperative)-I limited’,
depósito-deposito-depositó ‘deposit-I deposit-he deposited’, etc. In these cases the need for
the written accent is evident so as to mark these differences in the spelling.
Most Spanish words bear the stress on the penultimate syllable but any of the three final
syllables may be stressed. In verb forms with enclitic personal pronouns, even the fourth
syllable, starting from the end, can be stressed, which is the case of cuéntaselo (cuenta-se-lo)
‘tell that to him\her’, acábatelo (acaba-te-lo) ‘finish it off’, etc.

Rhythm
Spanish can be considered, in general, a syllable-timed language without an outstanding
vowel reduction in unstressed syllables: ‘stresses separated by different numbers of unstressed
syllables will be separated by different intervals of time’ (Abercrombie 1967: 98).

Intonation
The nuclear tone is situated on the last stressed syllable in the intonation group. When the
nuclear syllable is not the last syllable in the group, the nuclear pitch movement is spread
across any following weak syllables.
The low fall is generally the neutral tone for statements and wh-questions, and the high
rise is the tone for yes\no questions.
The most common pre-nuclear pattern found for declarative and interrogative sentences
is the progressively descending pattern. The pitch begins rather high and it progressively steps
down at each peak until it reaches the tonal baseline with the final low fall.
In the pre-nuclear contours, the stressed syllable is frequently low, followed by a high tone
on the subsequent unstressed syllable, even across words and syntactic phrases (Sosa 1999).

Conventions
The stops \t\ and \d\ are laminal denti-alveolar and not purely dental. To represent this faithfully,
the diacritic [ 1] would be necessary, but their place of articulation remains unambiguous
without it.
The sounds \b\, \d\ and \g\ are complete stops only after a pause or after a nasal consonant
and, in the case of \d\, after a lateral too. In other positions they are pronounced as their
approximant variants [B§], [D§] and [V§ ], respectively. The approximant [D§] is interdental.
[V§ ] \ [˜]: the symbol [˜] is not adequate for Spanish because it represents an unrounded
semivowel that requires spread lips. This semivowel does not exist in Spanish. There are plenty
of words in Spanish with a velar approximant as in la gorra ‘the cap’, algo ‘something’, este
258 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

gusano ‘these worm’, el guante ‘the glove’, etc. Before back vowels or the semivowel [w],
the sound is rounded through coarticulation. Therefore it is impossible to pronounce Spanish
algo as *["al˜o], ["alV§ o] being more phonetically feasible because the approximant [V§ ] is not
marked for the rounded\unrounded feature, like the approximants [B§] and [D§].
In Spanish there are two voiced palatal variants of the phoneme \ 2°J\ (which Alarcos (1950)
transcribed as \y\ and Quilis (1993) as \j \# ): an affricate variant [ 2°J§ ], after a nasal, [l] or a pause,
and an approximant [J§ ] in all other contexts: [el∆ " 2°J§ ate] el yate ‘the yacht’, [mi "J§ ate] mi yate
‘my yacht’.
It is possible to suppress the diacritic from approximants in broad transcription because
these consonants do not exist as fricatives.
/p\, \t\ and \k\ are unaspirated. They are fortis in syllabic onset and lenis in syllabic coda
and in this position they can be voiced.
/b\, \d\ and \g\ in syllabic codas have several realisations: absurdo ‘absurd’ [ab9"su|Do]
[aB"su|Do] [a"su|Do].
[T] has an interdental place of articulation. This fricative, like [s], becomes voiced
before a voiced consonant. For instance, rasgo ‘feature’ ["razVo], jazmı́n ‘jasmine’ [xaT3"mi)n].
The alveolar fricative [s], on the other hand, often becomes dental before a denti-alveolar
consonant. The velar fricative [x] can be pronounced uvular before a back vowel and the
semivowel [w]: junio ‘June’ ["Xunjo].
The trill appears in word onset and after [l], [n] and [s] and in intervocalic position where
it contrasts with the tap: caro-carro ‘expensive-car’ ["ka|o]-["karo]. In other contexts, the tap
is usual.
The place of articulation of nasal consonants in syllabic codas is always the same as
that of any following consonant. So we can find labiodental [µ], interdental [n™], dental [n1],
palatalised [n∆], velar [N] and uvular [–] nasals. For instance, ánfora ‘amphora’ ["aµfo|a], encı́a
‘gum’ [en™"Tia], antes ‘before’ ["an1tes], ancha ‘wide’ ["an∆t°Sa], banco ‘bank’\‘bench’ ["baNko],
enjuto ‘dry’ [e–"Xuto].
The place of articulation of the lateral approximant \l\ is typically alveolar but, like the
alveolar nasal, it can become interdentalised, dentalised or palatalised before consonants with
these places of articulation, as in alzar ‘to raise’ [al™"Ta|], alto ‘high\tall’ ["al1to], colcha ‘quilt’
["kol∆t°Sa].

Dialectal differences
The alveolar fricative [s] presents some important dialectal differences. In most of the Iberian
Peninsula it is usually apical. However, in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America it
is laminal. In these areas it usually becomes a glottal fricative in syllabic coda and word-final
position, as in: los hombres ‘the men’ \los+"omb|es\ [lo "Óomb|eÓ]. Sometimes it is lost. On
the other hand, in some areas of Andalusia, in the Canary Islands and in Latin America, the
interdental fricative [T] does not exist, so when it appears in Castilian Spanish, a laminal
alveolar sibilant [s] is pronounced, a phenomenon known as SESEO, for instance zapato
‘shoe’ [sa"pato]. The opposite, the non-existence of the laminal alveolar sibilant [s], is found
in some other areas of Andalusia, where only [T] occurs. This phenomenon is known as
CECEO.
The velar fricative [x] usually becomes glottal [h] in some areas of Andalusia, the Canary
Islands and Latin America, as in jarrón ‘vase’ [Óa"ron].
Finally, it is necessary to point out that the lateral palatal [¥] is usually changed to a
central palatal in all the large cities in the Iberian Peninsula: pollo ‘chicken’ ["poJo]. In some
countries of South America [¥], [ 2°J] and [J§ ] become a postalveolar fricative: ["poZo].
 E. Martı́nez-Celdrán, A. Ma. Fernández-Planas & J. Carrera-Sabaté: Spanish 259

Transcription of the recorded passage

Semi-narrow transcription
[el "Bjen1to "no|te J el "sol po|"fjaBan soB|e "kwal1 "de¥o"s e|a e8l "mas "fwe|te ñ kwan1do8
aTe|"to a8 pa"sa| um bja"xe|o8 em"bwel1to8 e"n a)n∆t°Sa "kapaÑ kombi"nje|on e)N ke kje
"n a)n1tez lo"V|a|a o8Bli"Va| al Bja"xe|o8 a ki"ta|se la "kapa ñ se"|ia konsiDe"|aDo "mas
poDe"|oso Ñ el "Bjen1to "no|te so"plo koN g|aµ "fu|ja ñ "pe|o kwan1to "ma so"plaBa ñ
"ma se8 areBu"xaBa e8n su "kapa e8l Bja"xe|o Ñ po| "fin ñ el "Bjen1to "no|te8 aBan1do"no la
e8m"p|esa Ñ e)n1"ton™Tez B|i"¥o e8l "sol kon a|"Do| ñ e i8n meÆDjata"me)n1te se Despo"Xo De
su "kapa e8l Bja"xe|o Ñ po| lo ke l "Bjen1to "no|te "uBo De rekono"Te| la supe|jo|i"Da
Del "sol].
We also offer, under ‘Broad transcription’ below, one of the versions published by Jones &
Dahl (1944: 16) for Spanish of Buenos Aires.

Broad transcription
el bjento norte j el sol porfjaban sobre kwal de eZos era el mah fwerte, kwando
aser"to a pa"sar um bjaxero embwelto en anca kapa. kombinje|on en ke kjen
anteh lograra obli"gar al bjaxero a kitarse la kapa seria konsiderado mah
poderoso, el bjento norte so"plo kon gram furja, pero kwanto mas soplaba,
mas se arrebuxaba en su kapa el bjaxero; por fin el bjento norte abando"no la
empresa. entonseh bri"Zo el sol kon ar"dor, e immedjatamente se dehpo"xo de su
kapa el bjaxero; por lo ke l bjento norte ubo de rrekono"ser la superjori"dad del
sol.

Orthographic version
El viento norte y el sol porfiaban sobre cuál de ellos era el más fuerte, cuando acertó a pasar
un viajero envuelto en ancha capa. Convinieron en que quien antes lograra obligar al viajero
a quitarse la capa serı́a considerado más poderoso. El viento norte sopló con gran furia, pero
cuanto más soplaba, más se arrebujaba en su capa el viajero; por fin el viento norte abandonó
la empresa. Entonces brilló el sol con ardor, e inmediatamente se despojó de su capa el viajero;
por lo que el viento norte hubo de reconocer la superioridad del sol.
The Spanish text and words contained in this paper can be listened to at www.ub.es\labfon\
princip.htm

References
ABERCROMBIE, D. (1967). Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
ALARCOS, E. (1950). Fonologı́a española. Madrid: Gredos (Biblioteca Románica Hispánica,
Manuales 1). [4th edn. 1965.]
JONES, D. & DAHL, I. (1944). Fundamentos de escritura fonética según el sistema de la Asociación
Fonética Internacional, 16–17. Secretarı́a de la Asociación Fonética Internacional. London: University
College.
NAVARRO TOMÁS, T. (1918). Manual de pronunciación española. Madrid: CSIC. [19th edn. 1977.]
QUILIS, A. (1993). Tratado de fonologı́a y fonética españolas. Madrid: Gredos (Biblioteca Románica
Hispánica, Manuales 74).
SOSA, J. (1999). La entonación del español. Su estructura fónica, variabilidad y dialectologı́a. Madrid:
Cátedra (Lingüı́stica).