Spanish
Spanish (also Castilian) is a Romance language, native to Spain but spoken throughout Central and South America, and the United States. Worldwide its native speakers number comparably to English; by most accounts, Spanish-speakers outnumber English-speakers.
Phonology
Spanish has six plosive phonemes:
| bilabial | dental | velar | |
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ |
The voiced plosives generally are articulated as plosives under certain conditions, such as initially, or after certain other phonemes. Under other circumstances they are fricatives [β ð ɣ] or even approximants.
There are either three or four voiceless fricatives, depending on dialect:
In most dialects, /θ/ is merged into /s/. Actually, /θ/ is only conserved in some areas in Spain. /x/ is often pronounced as [h], though it still acts phonemically velar by turning a preceding /n/ into [ŋ]. In some dialects final /s/ weakens to [h].
SAMPA lists two affricates:
- /ʧ ɟʝ/
/ʧ/ is usually pronounced as palatal [cç]. /ɟʝ/ can be pronounced as lightly as [j] and as strongly as [ɟʝ].
There are three phonemic nasals:
[ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ before velars, and word-finally in some dialects. tengo would be [t̪e̞ŋgo̞]
The liquids are:
In some dialects, mainly American ones, /ʎ/ has merged into /jj/.
The semivowels are /j w/, and the vowels are the basic five-vowel set /a e i o u/.
The /a/, /e/ and /o/ vowels aren't described in IPA within the standard vowels. Diacritcs must be used as the following to represent them correctly: [ä], [e̞], [o̞].
Orthography
Spanish orthography is regular in the sense that the pronunciation of a word can always be correctly divined from the spelling. However, silent letters and the falling together of some original phonemes mean that it is sometimes not possible to know the spelling of a word knowing only the pronunciation.
The accute accent is used to note stress in words of two or more syllables following certain rules. Additionaly, monosyllabic minimal pairs, one of the words have an accent to differentiate from the other one.
In measured poetry, an umlaut or diaeresis is used to mark a hiatus in words that otherwise would normally create a diphthong: la risa süave. The umlaut is also used in combinations of or <g> before a spoken <u>,as most words with <qu> have the <u> unpronounced.
Notable features of Spanish
Languages based on Spanish
Creoles and natural descendants
Ladino. Spoken by descendants of Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century. It's spoken in certain areas around the world, mainly in Israel.
Portuñol. A mix of Spanish and Portuguese spoken in some southern Brazil areas.
Constructed languages
External links
SAMPA for Spanish [www.ling.northwestern.edu/~abradlow/bradlow-jasa95.pdf] Comment about Spanish vowels.
