Help:IPA/Spanish

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 symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show how the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Spanish language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

For terms that are more relevant to regions that have not undergone yeísmo (where words such as haya and halla are pronounced differently), words spelled with ⟨ll⟩ can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʎ⟩. This unmerged pronunciation predominates in the Andes, lowland Bolivia, Paraguay, some rural regions of Spain and some of northern Spain's urban upper class.^[1]

For terms that are more relevant to regions that have 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 in IPA with ⟨s⟩. This pronunciation is most commonly found outside mainland Spain.

In all other cases, if a local pronunciation is made, it should be labeled as "local" (e.g. {{IPA|es|...|local}}).

See Spanish phonology for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Spanish, and Spanish dialects and varieties for regional variation.

Key

Consonants
IPA		Examples	English approximation
EU	LA	Examples	English approximation
b^[2]		bebé, ambos, viva, envío	about
β		bebé, fútbol, viva, apto^[3]	about, but without lips completely closed
d^[2]		dedo, andar, aldea	day
ð		dedo, arde, sed, ritmo^[3]	other
f^[4]		faro, Dafne	face
ɡ^[2]		galgo, lengua, guerra	again
ɣ		galgo, signo, águila, acto^[3]	again, but without the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
ʝ^[2]^[5]		haya, blue jeans, manager	beyond
ɟʝ^[2]^[5]		ya, enyeso, hielo, jet, gin	jet
k		caso, que, kilo, rock	scan
l		luna, hala, ballet	lean
m^[6]		meta, cama, ámbar	mother
ɱ^[6]		inflar	comfort
n^[6]		ni, cana, sin, álbum, parking	need
ɲ^[6]		ñu, caña, cónyuge	canyon
ŋ^[6]		tengo	sing
p		pato, lupa	spin
r^[7]		río, carro, honra, abrogar	Scottish run - trilled r
ɾ^[7]		brío, caro, por	atom (with flapping)
s^[4]^[8]^[9]		saco, casa, está, xenón	between sip and ship (retracted) (EU), sip (LA)
θ^[4]^[9]	s^[4]^[8]^[9]	cera, zoo, caza, juzgar	thing (EU), sip (LA)
ʃ^[10]		show, Rocher, Freixenet, beige	shack
t		tamiz	stand
tʃ		chico, bridge	choose
x^[11]		jarra, gen, México,^[12] hall^[13]	Scottish loch
ʎ^[2]^[5]		lluvia, halla, el yeso	million

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
a	paso	father
e	peso	berry
i	piso, y, jeep	see
o	poso	more
u	puso, look, tour	cool

Semivowels^[14]
IPA	Examples	English approximation
j	Viena, rey	yet
w^[15]	Huila, auto, argüir, web, ouija	wine

Stress and syllabification
IPA	Examples	English approximation
ˈ	ciudad [θjuˈðað]	domain
.	mío [ˈmi.o]	Leo

Notes

^ Penny (2000:120, 132, 147)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f /b, d, ɡ, ɟʝ/ 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 /ɟʝ/, 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 The distinction between /p, t, k/ and /b, d, ɡ/ is lost in word-internal syllable-final positions. The resulting realization varies from [p, t, k] to [b, d, ɡ] to [β, ð, ɣ] to [ɸ, θ, x], with voiced approximants/fricatives (i.e. [β, ð, ɣ]) being the usual form in conversational style (Hualde 2005:146).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d When preceding a voiced consonant, /s, θ, f, ʃ/ may be voiced ([z, ð, v, ʒ]), but since this is variable (Campos-Astorkiza 2018:174), /s, θ, f, ʃ/ are always transcribed with ⟨s, θ, f, ʃ⟩ in this system.
^ ^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 velars, they are [ŋ], and before labials, they are [m]. The labiodental [ɱ] appears before /f/.
^ ^a ^b The rhotic consonants, [r] and [ɾ], only contrast 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 is transcribed with ⟨ɾr⟩ in this key: dar rocas [daɾ ˈrokas], superrápido [supeɾˈrapiðo] (Hualde 2005:184).
^ ^a ^b 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 ^c Northern and Central Spain distinguish between ⟨s⟩ (/s/) and soft ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩ (/θ/). Almost all other dialects treat the two as identical, either pronouncing them as /s/ (seseo) in Latin America and some parts of Andalusia, or as /θ/ (ceceo) in most of Andalusia. In areas with the distinction, the alveolar sibilant is typically more retracted (often perceived as closer to the sound represented by ⟨sh⟩ in ship) than in areas with seseo. Contrary to yeísmo, seseo and ceceo are not phonemic mergers but the outcome of a different evolution of sibilants in southern Spain in comparison with northern and central dialects. See phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives and Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258) for more information.
^ /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 [tʃow]~[sow].
^ /x/ is pronounced as [h] in many accents such as those in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands (Hualde 2005:156). It is pronounced as [χ] in northern Peninsular Spanish (Coloma 2012:3, 17).
^ The letter ⟨x⟩ represents /x/ only in certain proper names like Ximena and some placenames in current or former Mexico (e.g. Oaxaca and Texas).
^ The letter ⟨h⟩ represents /x/ only in loanwords; in native words it is always silent, unless it is a part of the digraph ⟨ch⟩.
^ [j, w] are allophones of /i, u/ that manifest when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Mid vowels /e, o/ may also be realized as semivowels, as in [ˈpo̯eta, ˈmae̯stɾo] (poeta, maestro). Semivocalic realizations of /e, o/ may in addition be raised to [j, w], as in [ˈpweta, ˈmajstɾo], which is common in Latin America, but stigmatized in Spain (Hualde, Simonet & Torreira 2008:1911). Since both these phenomena are optional and predictable, they are not reflected in transcription ([poˈeta, maˈestɾo]).
^ Some speakers may pronounce word-initial [w] with an epenthetic [ɡ] (e.g. Huila [ˈɡwila]~[ˈwila]).

References

Campos-Astorkiza, Rebeka (2018), "Consonants", in Geeslin, Kimberly L. (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, pp. 165–189, doi:10.1017/9781316779194.009, ISBN 978-1-107-17482-5
Coloma, Germán (2012). "The importance of ten phonetic characteristics to define dialect areas in Spanish" (PDF). Dialectologia. 9. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona: 1–26. ISSN 2013-2247.
Hualde, José Ignacio (2005), The Sounds of Spanish, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-54538-2
Hualde, José Ignacio; Simonet, Miquel; Torreira, Francisco (2008), "Postlexical contraction of nonhigh vowels in Spanish", Lingua, 118 (12): 1906–1925, doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2007.10.004
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
Penny, Ralph J. (2000). Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139164566. ISBN 0521780454. Retrieved 21 June 2022.

[1] Penny (2000:120, 132, 147)

[approximants-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f /b, d, ɡ, ɟʝ/ 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 /ɟʝ/, 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).

[coda-3] The distinction between /p, t, k/ and /b, d, ɡ/ is lost in word-internal syllable-final positions. The resulting realization varies from [p, t, k] to [b, d, ɡ] to [β, ð, ɣ] to [ɸ, θ, x], with voiced approximants/fricatives (i.e. [β, ð, ɣ]) being the usual form in conversational style (Hualde 2005:146).

[voicing-4] When preceding a voiced consonant, /s, θ, f, ʃ/ may be voiced ([z, ð, v, ʒ]), but since this is variable (Campos-Astorkiza 2018:174), /s, θ, f, ʃ/ are always transcribed with ⟨s, θ, f, ʃ⟩ in this system.

[yeísmo-5] 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.

[nasals-6] Nasals always assimilate their place of articulation to that of the following consonant. Before velars, they are [ŋ], and before labials, they are [m]. The labiodental [ɱ] appears before /f/.

[rhotics-7] The rhotic consonants, [r] and [ɾ], only contrast 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 is transcribed with ⟨ɾr⟩ in this key: dar rocas [daɾ ˈrokas], superrápido [supeɾˈrapiðo] (Hualde 2005:184).

[aspiration-8] 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⟩.

[seseo-9] Northern and Central Spain distinguish between ⟨s⟩ (/s/) and soft ⟨c⟩ or ⟨z⟩ (/θ/). Almost all other dialects treat the two as identical, either pronouncing them as /s/ (seseo) in Latin America and some parts of Andalusia, or as /θ/ (ceceo) in most of Andalusia. In areas with the distinction, the alveolar sibilant is typically more retracted (often perceived as closer to the sound represented by ⟨sh⟩ in ship) than in areas with seseo. Contrary to yeísmo, seseo and ceceo are not phonemic mergers but the outcome of a different evolution of sibilants in southern Spain in comparison with northern and central dialects. See phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives and Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258) for more information.

[10] /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 [tʃow]~[sow].

[11] /x/ is pronounced as [h] in many accents such as those in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands (Hualde 2005:156). It is pronounced as [χ] in northern Peninsular Spanish (Coloma 2012:3, 17).

[12] The letter ⟨x⟩ represents /x/ only in certain proper names like Ximena and some placenames in current or former Mexico (e.g. Oaxaca and Texas).

[13] The letter ⟨h⟩ represents /x/ only in loanwords; in native words it is always silent, unless it is a part of the digraph ⟨ch⟩.

[14] [j, w] are allophones of /i, u/ that manifest when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Mid vowels /e, o/ may also be realized as semivowels, as in [ˈpo̯eta, ˈmae̯stɾo] (poeta, maestro). Semivocalic realizations of /e, o/ may in addition be raised to [j, w], as in [ˈpweta, ˈmajstɾo], which is common in Latin America, but stigmatized in Spain (Hualde, Simonet & Torreira 2008:1911). Since both these phenomena are optional and predictable, they are not reflected in transcription ([poˈeta, maˈestɾo]).

[15] Some speakers may pronounce word-initial [w] with an epenthetic [ɡ] (e.g. Huila [ˈɡwila]~[ˈwila]).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

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Key

See also

Notes

References