Wikipedia:IPA for Spanish

Template:IPAkeys The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Spanish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Spanish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Spanish.

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Template:IPAlink	bestia; embuste; vaca; envidia	best
Template:IPAlink	bebé; obtuso; vivir; curva ^[1]	between baby and bevy
Template:IPAlink	dedo; cuando; aldaba	dead
Template:IPAlink	dádiva; arder; admirar ^[1]	this
Template:IPAlink	fase; café	face
Template:IPAlink	gato; lengua; guerra	got
Template:IPAlink	trigo; amargo; sigue; signo ^[1]	between a light go and ahold
Template:IPAlink	ayuno; poyo ^[1]	as in yes or between beige and due in RP English
Template:IPAlink	caña; laca; quise; kilo	scan
Template:IPAlink	lino; alhaja; principal	lean
Template:IPAlink	llave; pollo ^[2]	roughly like million (merged with Template:IPAslink in most dialects)
Template:IPAlink	madre; comer; campo; convertir ^[3]	mother
Template:IPAlink	nido; anillo; anhelo; sin; álbum ^[3]	need
Template:IPAlink	ñandú; cabaña; enyesar ^[3]	roughly like canyon
Template:IPAlink	cinco; venga; conquista ^[3]	sink
Template:IPAlink	pozo; topo	spouse
Template:IPAlink	rumbo; carro; honra; subrayo; amor ^[4]	trilled r
Template:IPAlink	caro; bravo; amor eterno ^[4]	ladder in American English
Template:IPAlink	saco; casa; deshora; espita xenón	sack
Template:IPAlink	cereal; encima; zorro; enzima; paz ^[5]	thing (in Peninsular Spanish only; elsewhere, merged with Template:IPAslink)
Template:IPAlink	tamiz; átomo	stand
Template:IPAlink	chubasco; acechar	choose
Template:IPAlink	jamón; eje; reloj general; México	loch^[6]
Template:IPAlink	isla; mismo; deshuesar ^[7]	prison
Marginal phonemes
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Template:IPAlink	Kirchner; Xelajú; sherpa; show ^[8]	shack
Template:IPAlink	tlapalería; cenzontle; Popocatépetl	somewhat like cattle
Template:IPAlink	Ertzaintza; abertzale; Pátzcuaro	cats

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Template:IPAlink	azahar	father
Template:IPAlink	vehemente	play (Yorkshire dialect)^[9]
Template:IPAlink	dimitir; mío; y	see
Template:IPAlink	boscoso	coat (Yorkshire dialect)^[10]
Template:IPAlink	cucurucho; dúo	food

Semivowels^[11]
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Template:IPAlink	aliada; cielo; amplio; ciudad	you
Template:IPAlink	cuadro; fuego; Huila^[12] arduo	wine

Stress and syllabification
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Template:IPAlink	ciudad [θjuˈðað] / [sjuˈðað]	domain
.	mío [ˈmi.o]	moai

Notes

Other than in loanwords (e.g. hámster; hachís; hawaiano), the letter ‹h› is always silent in Spanish except in a few dialects that retain it as Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink (halar / jalar; Sáhara).^[13]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ and /ʝ/ are fricatives or approximants ([β̞, ð̞, ɣ̞, ʝ̞]; represented here without the undertacks) in all places except after a pausa, after an /n/ or /m/, or—in the case of /d/ and /ʝ/—after an /l/, in which contexts they are stops [b, d, ɡ, ɟʝ], not dissimilar from English b, d, g, j, except that they are fully voiced in all positions, unlike their English counterparts Template:Harvcol.
↑ In metropolitan areas of the Iberian Peninsula and some Central American countries, /ʎ/ has merged into Template:IPAslink; the actual realization depends on dialect. In Rioplatense Spanish, it has become Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink. See yeísmo and Template:Harvcoltxt for more information.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 The nasal consonants /n, m, ɲ/ only contrast before vowels. Before consonants, they assimilate to the consonant's place of articulation. This is partially reflected in the orthography. Word-finally, only /n/ occurs.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 The rhotic consonants /ɾ/ ‹r› and /r/ ‹rr› only contrast between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ‹r›, with Template:IPAblink occurring word-initially, after /l/, /n/, and /s/, before consonants, and word-finally; Template:IPAblink is found elsewhere.
↑ In Latin America, Canary Islands and some regions in Andalusia /θ/ has merged into Template:IPAslink. See seseo and Template:Harvcoltxt for more information.
↑ [x] is pronounced Template:IPAblink in many dialects, in Andalusia, Canary Islands, and most of Latin America; like ham.
↑ Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants.
↑ In many dialects, /ʃ/ is replaced by Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink; e.g. show [tʃou]~[sou].
↑ The Spanish /e/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of play (for most English dialects) and the vowel of bed; the Spanish vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.
↑ The Spanish /o/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of coat (for most English dialects) and the vowel of raw; the Spanish vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.
↑ In Spanish, the semivowels Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink can be combined with vowels to form rising diphthongs (e.g. cielo, cuadro). Falling diphthongs though; e.g. aire, rey, auto, are transcribed with Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink.
↑ Some speakers may pronounce word initial [w] with an epenthetic /ɡ/; e.g. Huila [ˈɡwila]~[ˈwila].
↑ "Grapheme h". Diccionario panhispánico de dudas. Real Academia Española.

References

Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259

External links

Template:External links

Animations and video demonstrations of the IPA for Spanish by The Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, German, Speech Pathology and Audiology, and Academic Technologies at the University of Iowa.

[Approximant-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ and /ʝ/ are fricatives or approximants ([β̞, ð̞, ɣ̞, ʝ̞]; represented here without the undertacks) in all places except after a pausa, after an /n/ or /m/, or—in the case of /d/ and /ʝ/—after an /l/, in which contexts they are stops [b, d, ɡ, ɟʝ], not dissimilar from English b, d, g, j, except that they are fully voiced in all positions, unlike their English counterparts Template:Harvcol.

[2] In metropolitan areas of the Iberian Peninsula and some Central American countries, /ʎ/ has merged into Template:IPAslink; the actual realization depends on dialect. In Rioplatense Spanish, it has become Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink. See yeísmo and Template:Harvcoltxt for more information.

[nasal-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 The nasal consonants /n, m, ɲ/ only contrast before vowels. Before consonants, they assimilate to the consonant's place of articulation. This is partially reflected in the orthography. Word-finally, only /n/ occurs.

[rhotic-4] 4.0 ^4.1 The rhotic consonants /ɾ/ ‹r› and /r/ ‹rr› only contrast between vowels. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution as ‹r›, with Template:IPAblink occurring word-initially, after /l/, /n/, and /s/, before consonants, and word-finally; Template:IPAblink is found elsewhere.

[5] In Latin America, Canary Islands and some regions in Andalusia /θ/ has merged into Template:IPAslink. See seseo and Template:Harvcoltxt for more information.

[6] [x] is pronounced Template:IPAblink in many dialects, in Andalusia, Canary Islands, and most of Latin America; like ham.

[7] Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants.

[8] In many dialects, /ʃ/ is replaced by Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink; e.g. show [tʃou]~[sou].

[9] The Spanish /e/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of play (for most English dialects) and the vowel of bed; the Spanish vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.

[10] The Spanish /o/ doesn't quite line up with any English vowel, though the nearest equivalents are the vowel of coat (for most English dialects) and the vowel of raw; the Spanish vowel is usually articulated at a point between the two.

[Semivowel-11] In Spanish, the semivowels Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink can be combined with vowels to form rising diphthongs (e.g. cielo, cuadro). Falling diphthongs though; e.g. aire, rey, auto, are transcribed with Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink.

[12] Some speakers may pronounce word initial [w] with an epenthetic /ɡ/; e.g. Huila [ˈɡwila]~[ˈwila].

[13] "Grapheme h". Diccionario panhispánico de dudas. Real Academia Española.

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Notes

See also

References

External links