Wiktionary:Spanish pronunciation

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Note 1: This guide is intended to provide guidelines for Pronunciation sections in Spanish entries on the English Wiktionary. The main guidelines for Pronunciation section in the English Wiktionary is set forth in Wiktionary:Pronunciation; this page is an addition to that page, not a replacement.

Note 2: If a change occurs in Wiktionary:Pronunciation that affects Spanish entries, then that change should be reflected here.

Dialects

From the standpoint of phonemic distinction, there are only a few major variations in Spanish. For Spanish terms with different phonemes in different regions, the following accent tags can be used to clarify the major variation of Spanish to which a phonemic transcription applies:

• {{a|lleísmo}}: Standard Spanish and many variations maintain a distinction of /ʎ/ (written <ll>) and /ɟʝ/ (written <y> or <i(Vowel)>).
• {{a|yeísmo}}: Many Spanish variations, including most in Latin America lack /ʎ/, merging <ll> into /ɟʝ/.
• {{a|ceseo}}: Standard Spanish and many variations maintain a distinction of /θ/ (written <z> and <c(e/i)>) and /s/ (written <s>).
• {{a|seseo}}: The Spanish variations in Latin America and in some regions of Spain lack /θ/, merging <z> and <c(e/i)> into /s/.
• {{a|ceceo}}: Spanish variations in parts of Andalucia and the vicinity merge <s> into /θ/.
• {{a|Standard Spanish}}: Standard Spanish, the prestige dialect of Spain, is a lleísmo variation (contrasting /ʎ/ with /ɟʝ/) with the ceseo distinction (also contrasting /θ/ with /s/).

Dialects of Spanish with unique variations in pronunciation (e.g., of coda /s/ as [h] or [ː]) may be shown using phonetic transcriptions. The following accent tags can be used with those phonetic transcriptions to distinguish between Spanish dialects:

• Spain: {{a|Northern Spain}}, {{a|Southern Spain}}, {{a|Canarian Spanish}}, ...
• Latin America: {{a|coastal Mexico}}, {{a|Peru}}, {{a|Costa Rica}}, {{a|Puerto Rico}}, {{a|Andean Venezuela}}, {{a|highland Bolivia}}, {{a|Peruvian Sierra}}, ...

Grapheme	Examples	Standard Spanish phoneme	Phones	Notes
<p>	pozo, topo	/p/	[p]
<b>, <v>	bestia; vaca, embarque	/b/	[b]	after a pause, /n/, or /m/
<b>, <v>	bebé, vivir	/b/	[β̞]	in all places except after a pause, /n/, or /m/; or more loosely transcribed as [β]
<t>	tamiz, átomo	/t/	[t]
<d>	dedo, cuando, aldaba	/d/	[d]	after a pause, /n/, /m/, or /l/
<d>	arder, ciudad	/d/	[ð̞]	in all places except after a pause, /n/, /m/, or /l/; or more loosely transcribed as [ð]; may elide between vowels or word-final in some dialects
<y>	yapa, cónyuge	/ʝ/	[ɟʝ]	after a pause, /n/, /m/, or /l/; or more loosely transcribed as [ʝ]
<y>	poyo	/ʝ/	[ʝ˕]	in all places except after a pause, /n/, /m/, or /l/; or more loosely transcribed as [ʝ]
<c>, <qu>	caña, laca, querer	/k/	[k]
<ɡ>	gato, lengua, guerra	/g/	[g]	after a pause, /n/, or /m/
<g>	trigo, Argos	/g/	[ɣ˕]	in all places except after a pause, /n/, or /m/; or more loosely transcribed as [ɣ]
<ch>	chubasco, acechar	/tʃ/	[tʃ]
<f>	fase, café	/f/	[f]
<z>, <c>	cereza, zorro, lacero, paz	/θ/	[θ]	Standard Spanish, excluding seseo dialects of the Canary Islands, Latin America, and some of Andalusia, where it has merged into /s/
<s>	saco, casa, puertas	/s/	[s]	Standard Spanish. In many dialects, including that of Madrid, Andalusia, and many of Latin America, /s/ is realized differently, depending on context, e.g. as [h] or as a vowel modification
<s>	rasgo, mismo	/s/	[z]
<j>, <g>	jamón, general, sujeto, reloj	/x/	[x]
<rr>, <r>	raro, perro	/r/	[r]	Double or initial single r
<r>	pero, bravo, comer	/ɾ/	[ɾ]
<l>	lino, calor, principal	/l/	[l]
<ll>	llave, pollo	/ʎ/	[ʎ]	Only in lleísmo dialects, including Standard Spanish; In yeísmo dialects (e.g. metropolitan areas of the Iberian Peninsula and some South American countries), it has merged into /ʝ/, realized as in various dialects and contexts as [ʝ], [dʒ], (after pause, /n/, or /m/) [ɟ͡ʝ], [ʃ], [t͡ʃ]
<m>	madre, comer	/m/	[m]	only before a vowel
<n>	nido, anillo	/n/	[n]	before a vowel in Standard Spanish
<n>, <m>	encía, anfibio, ambos, cónyuge, cinco, venga, sin	/n/	[m] before /p/ or /b/, [ŋ] before /k/ or /g/, [ɲ] before /ʝ/, [n] elsewhere	The nasal consonants assimilate to the place of articulation of following consonants, even across word boundaries. They are only contrastive before vowels, so noncontrastive nasal realizations elsewhere may be considered part of a nasal archiphoneme. Dialectical variations may nasalize the preceding vowel, if any.
<ñ>	ñoquis, cabaña	/ɲ/	[ɲ]
<i>, <y>	cinco, y	/i/	[i]
<e>	peso	/e/	[e]
<a>	tanque	/a/	[a]
<o>	bosque	/o/	[o]
<u>	publicar	/u/	[u]
<ei>, <ey>	rey, peine	/ei/	[ei]
<ai>, <ay>	hay, aire	/ai/	[ai]
<oi>, <oy>	hoy, boicot	/oi/	[oi]
<eu>	neutro	/eu/	[eu]
<au>	pausa	/au/	[au]
<ou>	bou	/ou/	[ou]
<ie>	tierra	/je/	[je]
<ia>	hacia	/ja/	[ja]
<io>	radio	/jo/	[jo]
<iu>	viuda	/ju/	[ju]
<ui>	fuimos	/wi/	[wi]
<ue>	fuego	/we/	[we]
<ua>	cuadro	/wa/	[wa]
<uo>	cuota	/wo/	[wo]