The Spanish phonemes

Contents
1. What is a phoneme?
2. Minimal pairs
3. The vowel phonemes of Spanish
4. The consonant phonemes of Spanish


1. What is a phoneme?
The phonemes of a language are its speech sounds viewed as units in a functioning system. In some cases, e.g. that of Spanish /tʃ/, a phoneme is always pronounced or ‘realized’ in the same way, while in others a phoneme’s realization may vary according to the phonetic context. As a rule, two or more sounds that are similar to one another and which never occur in the same phonetic context – hence are said to be in complementary distribution – can be viewed as different realizations of the same underlying phoneme. For example, standard British English (so-called Received Pronunciation) has two L-sounds, known as clear L (phonetic symbol: [l]) and dark L (phonetic symbol: [ɫ]), which are normally analysed as being different realizations of a single phoneme. This analysis follows from the following facts: (i) the light and dark L are phonetically similar to one another, both being lateral consonants with the same primary place of articulation; (ii) they are in complementary distribution, clear L occurring in the syllable onset (e.g. let or elated) and dark L occurring in the syllable coda (e.g. wheel or belt).

It follows from the complementary or mutually exclusive distributions of [l] and [ɫ] in English that there are no words in that language which are differentiated from each other solely on the basis of whether they have [l] as opposed to [ɫ], or vice versa, in a given position. This in turn means that the contrast between [l] and [ɫ] is not significant in terms of expressing meaning in English. For example, if you pronounce let as [ɫɛt], i.e. with an initial dark L as opposed to the clear L that is more ‘normal’ in that position, you run no risk of being misunderstood. And the same applies if you use a clear L instead of a dark one in belt; the pronunciation would sound non-standard but it would not cause the person hearing you to think you were using a different word. It turns out, in fact, that some varieties of northern British English employ dark L where the standard variety uses the light L and, conversely, speakers of varieties such as Welsh English or Caribbean English may well use a clear L in contexts in which the Received Pronunciation requires a dark L. Neither tendency results in any confusion over what words are actually being used.

2. Minimal pairs
The basic method for establishing the phonemic inventory of a language involves identifying minimal pairs, i.e. pairs of words whose component sounds match in all positions except one. For example, Spanish casa ‘house’ and caza ‘hunt’ are exactly identical except in their third segment, where [s] contrasts with [θ] (in the Castilian variety of the language, although not in Andalusian and Latin American varieties). Minimal contrasts like this demonstrate that the distinction between the sounds [s] and [θ] is functional or relevant to the expression of meaning. That is to say, the distinction between [s] and [θ] is needed to differentiate phonetically between certain words and, if you obliterate the distinction, these words become homophones. For this reason, we can say that [s] and [θ] are (or, more accurately, belong to) two different phonemes. These, in accordance with the standard convention whereby phonemes are represented using slashes, are written as /s/ and /θ/ respectively.

Using the minimal pairs technique, five vowel phonemes and nineteen consonant phonemes can be identified in (Castilian) Spanish, implying that the standard European form of the language has a phonemic inventory comprising twenty-four separate phonemes. These are discussed in Sections 3 and 4 below, the latter being the most important one, given that Spanish, unlike English, has a very simple vowel system.

3. The vowel phonemes of Spanish
The five Spanish vowel phonemes are shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1    The Spanish vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High
i
u
Mid
e
o
Low
a

The separate phonemic status of the five sounds shown in Table 1 can be established by the following five-way minimal contrast:

paso ‘step’
peso ‘weight’
piso ‘apartment’
poso ‘sediment’
puso ‘he/she put’

4. The consonant phonemes of Spanish
Identifying the Spanish consonant phonemes is not quite as straightforward as is the identification of the vowel phonemes, although it is still a routine matter. In the first place, the sixteen-way minimal contrast shown in Table 2 below establishes the separate phonemic status of /p, t, k, b, d, g, θ, s, tʃ, x, m, n, ɲ, l, ʎ ɾ/.

Table 2    Minimal contrasts for sixteen Spanish consonant phonemes
Word
Phoneme identified
Word
Phoneme identified
capa ‘cape’ /p/ cacha ‘butt’ /tʃ/
cata ‘tasting’ /t/ caja ‘box’ /x/
caca ‘shit’ /k/ cama ‘bed’ /m/
cava (= sparkling wine) /b/ cana ‘grey hair’ /n/
cada ‘each’ /d/ caña ‘cane’ /ɲ/
caga ‘shits’ /g/ cala ‘cove’ /l/
caza ‘hunt’ /θ/ calla ‘be quiet’ /ʎ/
casa ‘house’ /s/ cara ‘face’ /ɾ/

The remaining consonantal phonemes are /f/, /ʝ/ and the trill /r/. It would be tedious to list all the minimal pairs required to establish functional distinctions between these phonemes and each of the sixteen shown in Table 2. Suffice it to say that /f/ occurs most frequently at the beginning of a word, hence enters into a number of minimal contrasts in that position (e.g. forro ‘lining’ versus zorro ‘fox’), while /ʝ/ and /r/ contrast with one another and with many of the above phonemes in the frame ca__o, as is illustrated below:
cayo [ˈkaʝo] ‘cay/key’
carro [ˈkaro] ‘cart’
caro [ˈkaɾo] ‘expensive’
callo [ˈkaʎo] ‘callus’
The full inventory of the Spanish consonantal phonemes is given in tabular format in Table 3 below. In presenting phonemic inventories, there is no need to provide an exhaustive phonetic characterization of each phoneme. All that needs to be mentioned are the distinctive features, i.e. a set of minimal features that are sufficient to distinguish each phoneme from all the others. In the case of Spanish, there is no need, for example, to distinguish between the bilabial and the labiodental places of articulation or between the palato-alveolar and the palatal places of articulation. Thus in Table 3 these four places of articulation are merged into labial and palatal respectively.

In addition, it can be useful to group types of phonemes into larger categories. For example, given that they do not involve a full blockage of the airstream and hence are being capable of being sustained until you run out of breath, fricatives and approximants can be referred to jointly as continuants. Similarly, taps and trills can be grouped together as vibrants, and these, together with the laterals, form the class of liquids. Liquids can in turn be grouped with nasals in the category of sonorants (although this latter term is not used in Table 3).

A final point to note about Table 3 is that in some cases a phoneme occupies two rows, implying that it has two different manners of articulation depending on the phonetic context in which it occurs. This is the case, for example, with /b/, which is pronounced as a stop [b] at the beginning of a word or after a nasal consonant and as an approximant [β] in all other contexts. The different pronunciations of those Spanish phonemes that have more than one realization is discussed in more detail on the allophones page.

Table 3    The Spanish consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stops
p
b
t
d
k
g
Continuants
f
θ
s
ʝ
x
Affricates
tʃ
Liquids
Laterals
l
ʎ
Vibrants
Tap
ɾ
Trill
r
Nasals
m
n
ɲ