Help:IPA/Spanish
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 | This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Spanish on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Spanish in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here. Do not change any of the symbols or their values without establishing consensus on the talk page first, so that no discrepancies between the key and transcriptions are made. |
The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Spanish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-es}}, {{IPAc-es}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.
In general, Castilian Spanish is used in IPA transcriptions except for some words with /θ/ and /ʎ/:
- For terms that are more relevant to regions that have undergone yeísmo (where words such as haya and halla are pronounced the same), words spelled with ⟨ll⟩ can be transcribed with [ʝ].
- For terms that are more relevant to regions with seseo (where words such as caza and casa are pronounced the same), words spelled with ⟨z⟩ or ⟨c⟩ (the latter only before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨e⟩) can be transcribed with [s].
In all other cases, if a local pronunciation is made, it should be labeled as "local" (for example, {{IPA-es|...|local}}.
See Spanish phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Spanish, and Spanish dialects and varieties for regional variation.
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Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f /b, d, ɡ, ʝ/ are pronounced as fricatives or approximants [β, ð, ɣ, ʝ] in all places except after a pause, /n/, or /m/, or, in the case of /d/ and /ʝ/, after /l/. In the latter environments, they are stops [b, d, ɡ, ɟʝ] like English b, d, g, j but are fully voiced in all positions, unlike in English. When it is distinct from /ʝ/, /ʎ/ is realized as an approximant [ʎ] in all positions (Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté 2003:257-8).
- ^ a b c Most speakers no longer distinguish /ʎ/ from /ʝ/; the actual realization depends on dialect, however. See yeísmo and Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258) for more information.
- ^ a b c d e Nasals always assimilate their place of articulation to that of the following consonant. Before velar consonants they are [ŋ], and before labial consonants they are [m]; the labiodental [ɱ] appears before /f/.
- ^ a b The rhotic consonants [r] and [ɾ] contrast only word-medially between vowels, where they are usually spelled ⟨rr⟩ and ⟨r⟩, respectively. Otherwise, they are in complementary distribution: Word-initially, stem-initially, and after /l, n, s/, only [r] is found; before a consonant or pause, the two are interchangeable but [ɾ] is more common (hence so represented here); elsewhere, only [ɾ] is found. When two rhotics occur consecutively across a word or prefix boundary, they result in one long trill, which may be transcribed as [ɾr]: dar rocas [daɾ ˈrokas], super-rápido [supeɾˈrapiðo] (Hualde 2005:184).
- ^ a b Northern and Central Spain distinguish between ⟨s⟩ (/s/) and soft ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩ (/θ/). Almost all other dialects treat the two as identical (which is called seseo) and pronounce them as /s/. Contrary to yeísmo, seseo is not a phonemic merger but the outcome of a different evolution of sibilants in southern Spain in comparison with northern and central dialects. There is a small number of speakers, mostly in southern Spain, who pronounce the soft ⟨c⟩, ⟨z⟩ and even ⟨s⟩ as /θ/, a phenomenon called ceceo. See phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives and Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258) for more information.
- ^ In much of Hispanic America and in the southern half of Spain, /s/ in syllable-final positions is either pronounced as [h] or not pronounced at all. In transcriptions linked to this key, however, it is always represented by [s].
- ^ a b [v] and [z] are allophones of /f/ and /s/, respectively, found before voiced consonants.
- ^ /x/ is pronounced as [h] in many accents such as those in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Canary Islands, and Andalusia (Hualde 2005:156).
- ^ The letter ⟨x⟩ represents /x/ only in certain proper names like Ximena and some placenames in current or former Mexico (Oaxaca, Texas).
- ^ The letter ⟨h⟩ represents /x/ only in loanwords; in native words, it is always silent.
- ^ /ʃ/ is used only in loanwords and certain proper nouns. It is nonexistent in many dialects, being realized as [tʃ] or [s]; e.g. show [tʃou]~[sou].
- ^ The semivowels [w] and [j] can be combined with vowels to form rising diphthongs (e.g. cielo, cuatro). Falling diphthongs (e.g. aire, rey, auto) are transcribed with [i] and [u].
- ^ Some speakers may pronounce word-initial [w] with an epenthetic [ɡ]; e.g. Huila [ˈɡwila]~[ˈwila].
References[edit]
- Hualde, José Ignacio (2005), The Sounds of Spanish, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-54538-2
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/s0025100303001373
External links[edit]
- Spanish Phonetic Transcription Converter—Free Online Tool to convert Spanish Text to IPA Phonetic Transcription
