Spanish

Español – /espaˈɲol/; Castellano – /kasteˈʝano/

Spanish is a Western Romance language in the Indo-European family of languages. Even though Spanish originated from Europe in what is modern-day Spain, it is Mexico that has the largest number of speakers today (with around 114 million native speakers).

You can also find Spanish speakers throughout North and South America and even in Africa. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages of the world. Around 512 million Spanish speakers exist; 442 million of these are native speakers of Spanish with another 70 million speaking it as a second language.

Quick Facts

*Spanish in not officially recognized in the United States, except in the territory of Puerto Rico. However, around 13% of the United States population speaks Spanish. To put this in perspective, this makes the United States one of the top five Spanish speaking countries in the world. In Belize, over 50% of the population of speaks Spanish.

Because of its multiple codified standard forms, Spanish is considered a “pluricentric language”. Notwithstanding the many different varieties around the world, Latin American Spanish and European Spanish are the two most commonly studied. Thus, we will focus on these two Spanish varieties. Surprisingly, these two varieties are much more similar than they are different.

Writing System

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters and is based on the Latin script. It has all the same letters as the English alphabet plus the letter {ñ}. Latin American Spanish and European Spanish use the same alphabet. The only real differences between the two include the pronunciation of the names of the letters {c} and {z} and the sounds those letters make.

The table below shows each letter of the alphabet, the letter’s name and pronunciation, and the sounds each letter makes. It also shows related letters that are not part of the official Spanish alphabet but are used in writing. The table is listed in alphabetic order and shows the uppercase and lowercase versions of each letter as well. Note that the columns with (LA) in the headings apply to Latin American Spanish whereas the columns with (Eu) in the headings apply to European Spanish.

1. The pronunciation of the names of the letters {c} and {z} and the sounds they make are different in European and Latin American Spanish. In most of Spain, the letters {ce, ci} and {z} make the /θe, θi/ and /θ/ sounds while most countries in Latin America make the /se, si/ and /s/ sounds.
2. Certain letters of the Spanish alphabet go by various names depending on the country or region in question. Alternative names include {b} = be larga, be grande, be alta, be de burro; {i} = i latina; {v} = ve, ve corta, ve chica, ve baja, ve de vaca; {w} = uve doble, doble uve, doble ve, doble u; {y} = i griega.
3. Letters {k} and {w} are typically only used in foreign words.
4. Letters {ch} and {ll} used to be part of the official Spanish alphabet but are no longer. You might see them listed as letters in older material or dictionaries.

Digraphs

The following digraphs are not official letters of the Spanish alphabet. However, they make a unique sound when used together in a word. These letter combinations are all listed in the “Related” column in the alphabet table above.

• {ch} = /tʃ/
• {gu} = /g/
• {gü} = /gw/
• {ll} = /ʝ/ (Latin American), /ʎ/ (European)
• {qu} = /k/
• {rr} = /r/

Diacritics

Spanish uses two diacritic marks. Each of the letters with diacritics are listed in the “Related” column in the alphabet table above.

The first one is the acute mark. It is used on all vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) primarily to indicate word stress. It can also be used to differentiate certain words with the same sound but a different meaning. The accent mark never changes the actual sound of the vowel.

• {á} = /a/
• {é} = /e/
• {í} = /i/
• {ó} = /o/
• {ú} = /u/

The second one is the diaresis mark, and it is only used with the {gü} digraph. This mark specifies that those letters make a /gw/ sound rather than a /g/ sound. This mark is not very common.

• {gü} = /gw/

Sound System

Spanish consists of 32 fundamental sounds (5 vowel and 27 consonant sounds). The standard varieties of Latin American Spanish (Mexico City, Mexico) and of European Spanish (Madrid, Spain) are very similar. The phonetic differences are pointed out in note #1 in the table below. Any information under the (LA) Example column refers to Latin American Spanish while any information under the (Eu) Example column refers to European Spanish.

1. The /ʎ/ sound is mostly only used in the northern and rural areas of Spain and minimally in highland areas of South America. The /θ/ sound is found in most Spanish varieties used in Spain (including those prevalent in media) but not in Latin America.
2. The realization of the /d/ and /t/ sounds are dentalized in Spanish. This means the tip of the tongue is placed behind the upper teeth when articulating these sounds (which is different from English). To indicate this, these sounds could be written in narrow transcription as [ d̪ ] and [ t̪ ] respectively.
3. The /ʝ/ sound can be realized as the [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟʝ] sounds in standard varieties of Spanish. It can even be realized as the [ʃ ~ ʒ] sounds in the prominent Rioplatense accent (of Argentina and Uruguay). The /x/ sound can be realized as the [h ~ x] sounds.
4. The following sounds are allophones of other phonemes. /ð/ = allophone of /d/ (and of /θ/ in European Spanish) , /z/ = allophone of /s/, /ŋ/ = allophone of /n/, /β/ = allophone of /b/, /ɟʝ/ = allophone of /ʝ/, and /ɣ/ = allophone of /g/.

Sound Summary

Latin American Spanish

In Latin American Spanish, there are 30 total sounds (5 vowels and 25 consonants). Of the 30 sounds, 14 are the same as English and 9 are similar to English. Thus, there are seven sounds that are truly foreign.

European Spanish

European Spanish has 32 total sounds (5 vowels and 27 consonants). Of the 32 sounds, 15 are the same as English and 10 are similar to English. In other words, there are only seven sounds that are truly foreign.

Diphthongs

A diphthong is when two vowel sounds are combined into one sound. All Spanish diphthongs are created by combining the /j/ and /w/ sounds with other vowels. They fall into one of two categories: “rising” diphthongs (the shorter sound comes first) and “falling” diphthongs (the shorter sound comes second). The /j, w/ sounds are always the shorter sounds.

• Rising = /ja, je, jo, ju, wa, we, wo, wi/
• Falling = /aj, ej, oj, aw, ew/

Spanish diphthongs are always written using {i} and word-final {y} for the /j/ sound and {u} for the /w/ sound. If the letters {i, u} are part of the same diphthong it will always be a “rising” diphthong. Thus, the first letter will be the short sound (/j/ or /w/). For example: {iu} = /ju/ and {ui} = /wi/.

Stress

Stress in Spanish is “word-based”. This means that each word has a specific syllable that is stressed. The rules for stress are very predicable in Spanish. In fact, they built into the writing system. See the following rules to guide you.

• Rule 1 – words ending in a vowel, {n}, or {s} will be stressed on the second-to-last syllable. This rule accounts for about 80% of all Spanish words.
• Rule 2 – words that don’t end in a vowel, {n}, or {s} will be stressed on the last syllable.
• Rule 3 – words that do not conform to Rule 1 or Rule 2 will be marked with an accent mark and that syllable with the accent mark is stressed.

Rhythm

Both Latin American and European Spanish can be classified as “syllable-timed” languages. This means all syllables are fully articulated (even though stressed syllables are a little longer that non-stressed syllables). In other words, Spanish syllables are never reduced. Enunciating vowel sounds is very important to speaking Spanish more naturally. This is different from English rhythm which is considered to use stress timing and may present some difficulty for native English speakers.

Spanish Sample

Below is a sampling of Spanish audio along with a transcription from the Defense Language Insititute (DLI). This should give you a feel for spoken and written Spanish of Latin America and Europe.

Latin American Spanish

The following is a small excerpt from a news report about the “Dry Corridor” in Central America. You can reference the Spanish text as well as the translation below.

La destrucción de las cosechas significa hambre para los agricultores que luchan diariamente por alimentar a sus familias. Más de 2 millones de personas en Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador y Nicaragua han sido afectadas, y 1,4 millones necesitan ayuda urgente.

The destruction of crops means hunger for farmers who struggle daily to feed their families. More than 2 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua have been affected, and 1.4 million need urgent help.

European Spanish

The following is a small excerpt from weather forecast in Spain. You can reference the Spanish text as well as the translation below.

En estos próximos días las temperaturas van a seguir bajando y además prácticamente en todo el país. Van a descender las diurnas y también las nocturnas aunque de momento, durante esta pasada madrugada, tan sólo bajaron los valores mínimos en puntos de Galicia y en el noroeste de Castilla y León.

In the coming days temperatures are going to continue to fall in most of the country. Day and nighttime temperatures are going to drop, even though at the moment, early this morning, they dropped just a few degrees in Galicia and in the northwest of Castilla and Leon.