page_title: Spanish language in the United States
section_title: Phonology
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish language in the United States / Phonology
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign announcing the progress of the Miami Metrorail Orange Line. Español: Letrero anunciando el progreso de la Linea Naranja del Miami Metrorail
context_page_description: The United States has 41 million people aged five or older who speak Spanish at home, making Spanish by far the second most spoken language of the United States. Spanish is the most studied language other than English in the United States, with about six million students. With over 50 million native speakers, heritage language speakers, and second-language speakers, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico although it is not an official language of the country. About half of all American Spanish speakers also assessed themselves as speaking English "very well" in the 2000 US Census. That increased to 57% in the 2013–2017 American Community Survey. The United States is among the Spanish-speaking countries that has its own Academy of the Spanish Language.
  There are more Spanish-speakers in the United States than speakers of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hawaiian, varieties of Chinese, and Native American languages combined. According to the 2012 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau, Spanish is spoken at home by 38.3 million people aged five or older, more than twice as many as in 1990.
context_section_description: Like in most of Hispanic America, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨c⟩ (before /e/ and /i/) are pronounced as [s], just like ⟨s⟩. However, seseo (not distinguishing /s/ from /θ/) is also typical of the speech of Hispanic Americans of Andalusian and Canarian descent. Also, the English pronunciation of soft c helps to entrench seseo even though /θ/ occurs in English.
  Spanish in Spain, particularly the regions with a distinctive /θ/ phoneme, pronounces /s/ with the tip of tongue against the alveolar ridge. Phonetically, that is an "apico-alveolar" "grave" sibilant [s̺], with a weak "hushing" sound that is reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. In the Americas and in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, both in Spain, Standard European Spanish /s/ may sound similar to [ʃ] like English sh as in she. However, thwt apico-alveolar realization of /s/ is common in some Latin American Spanish dialects which lack [θ]. Some inland Colombian Spanish, particularly Antioquia, and Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia also have an apico-alveolar /s/.
  American Spanish usually features yeísmo, with no distinction between ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩, and both are pronounced [ʝ]. However, yeísmo is an expanding and now a dominant feature of European Spanish, particularly in urban speech (Madrid, Toledo) and especially in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, but [ʎ] has been preserved in some rural areas of northern Spain. Speakers of Rioplatense Spanish pronounce both ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩ as [ʒ] or [ʃ]. The traditional pronunciation of the digraph ⟨ll⟩, [ʎ], is preserved in some dialects along the Andes range, especially in inland Peru and the highlands of Colombia highlands, northern Argentina, and all of Bolivia and Paraguay.
  Most speakers with ancestors born in the coastal regions may debuccalize or aspirate syllable-final /s/ to [h] or entirely drop; this, está [esˈta] ("s/he is") sounds like [ehˈta] or [eˈta], as in southern Spain (Murcia, Castile–La Mancha (except the northeastern part), Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla).
  ⟨g⟩ (before /e/ or /i/) and ⟨j⟩ are usually aspirated to [h] in Caribbean and other coastal dialects as well as in Colombia, southern Mexico, and most of southern Spain. While it may be [x] in other dialects of the Americas and often [χ] in Peru, that is a common feature of Castilian Spanish. It is usually aspirated to [h], like in most of southwestern Spain. Very often, especially in Argentina and Chile, [x] becomes more fronted [ç] before high vowels /e, i/ and then approaches [x] the realization of German ⟨ch⟩ in ich. In other phonological environments, it is realized as either [x] or [h].
  In many Caribbean dialects, the phonemes /l/ and /r/ can be exchanged or sound alike at the end of a syllable: caldo > ca[r]do, cardo > ca[l]do. At the end of words, /r/ becomes silent, which gives Caribbean Spanish a partial non-rhoticity. That occurs left often happens as well in Ecuador and Chile and is a feature brought from Extremadura and westernmost Andalusia, in Spain.
  In many Andean regions, the alveolar trill of rata and carro is realized as an alveolar approximant [ɹ] or even a voiced apico-alveolar [z]. The alveolar approximant is particularly associated with an indigenous substrate and is quite common in Andean regions, especially in inland Ecuador, Peru, most of Bolivia, and parts of northern Argentina and Paraguay.
  In Puerto Rico, besides [ɾ], [r], and [l], syllable-final /r/ can be realized as [ɹ], an influence of American English: "verso"' (verse) can become [ˈbeɹso], besides [ˈbeɾso], [ˈberso], or [ˈbelso]; "invierno" (winter) can become [imˈbjeɹno], aside from [imˈbjeɾno], [imˈbjerno], or [imˈbjelno]; and "escarlata" (scarlet) can become [ehkaɹˈlata], aside from [ehkaɾˈlata], [ehkarˈlata], or [ehkaˈlata]. Word-finally, /r/ is usually one of the following:
  a trill, a tap, approximant, [l], or silent before a consonant or a pause, as in amo[r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l] paterno 'paternal love', and amor [aˈmo],
  a tap, approximant, or [l] before a vowel-initial word, as in amo[ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l] and eterno 'eternal love').
  voiced consonants /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are pronounced as plosives after a
caption: First settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, 19% of Floridians now speak Spanish, which is the most widely taught second language. In Miami, 67% of residents spoke Spanish as their first language in 2000.
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