Spanish Phonetics

==About==
The Spanish language has only 5 vowel sounds and 18 consonants.link The language also has 29 possible allophones and 841 theorically possible combinations, requiring only 521 to cover more of  the 99.99% of the concurrences within the language.Jordi Bonada and Xavier Serra - Pompeu Fabra University, Music Technology Group, Ocata, 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain: Synthesis of the Singing Voice by Performance Sampling and Spectral Models
==Notes on Accent==
Spanish is a language that can be impacted by accents at times. For example, the first 3 Vocaloids, all were noted for their accents. However, while it is noteworthy that accents can exist in Spanish Vocaloids, it is not considered currently as problematic as with other languages. Generally, most Spanish Speakers seem able to understand Spanish Vocaloids fairly adeptly enough to use them with little problem.
==Spanish Vocaloids==
The following are a list of Vocaloids that use Spanish.
*Clara
*Bruno
*MAIKA
==Phonetic System's Characteristics==
===Vowels===
The system includes the 5 vowels of Spanish. In comparison to other languages such as English or Korean, the system doesn't includes diphones for the diphthongs. Instead, the system includes the respective glides or semivowels of the "weak" vowels ([i] and [u]) which allows it to perform the diphthongs when combined with the corresponding vowels.
===Glides===
The system includes 4 glides which allows to perform all the diphthongs of the Spanish. There are 2 tyoes of glides:
*The semivowels  [I] and [U], used for the falling diphthongs (vowel+glide).
*The approximants [j] and [w], used for the  raising diphthongs (glide+vowel).
===Consonants===
====Weak Allophones====
 or Weakening, is a kind of sound change that alters the consonants, making them "softer" in some way. Lenition occurs especially often intervocalically (between vowels). In this position, lenition can be seen as a type of of the consonant to the surrounding vowels, in which features of the consonant that are not present in the surrounding vowels (e.g. obstruction, voicelessness) are gradually eliminated.
In the Spanish, the Lenition has been an important phenomena since the evolution from the Latin, and continues affecting some consonants, particularly the voiced plosives /b/, /d/ and /g/. Those ones in intervowel context are realized as "softer" voiced fricative or approximant allophones.
voiced stop	→	continuant (fricative)	↔	approximant (spirant)
[b] 	→	[β] 	↔	[β̞]
[d̪] 	→	[ð] 	↔	[ð̞]
[g] 	→	[ɣ] 	↔	[ɣ˕]
Due this, the Spanish Phonetic system includes individual phonemes for the softer allophones. These ones are differenced of their standard "stronger" counterparts by the uppercase symbol, fitting in that way with their respective X-SAMPA's symbol for the fricatives.
The "harsher" plosives generally appears at the beginning of the words, after a nasal consonant like [m] or [n], and after a pause, while their "softer" allophones appears in all the other context, especially intervowel.
Like in the case of the English's aspirated allophones, both versions can be interchanged without alter the overall word meaning, varying only by the degree of stress and emphasis of the words. The slow speech tends to favor the "harsher" plosives while the fast speech tends to favor their "softer" allophones, as the first one has more pauses and silences that allows a full realization and articulation of the plosives while the later do not.link
====Rhotic Consonants====
The Spanish language is one of the few Indo-European languages which has a clear distinction of the rhotics consonants /ɾ/ alveolar tap (the "flapped D" in the American English, known as "ere" in the Spanish) and /r/ alveolar trill (Rolling R, known as "erre" in the Spanish).
The alveolar trill and the alveolar tap are in phonemic contrast word-internally between vowels but are otherwise in complementary distribution. In the Spansih orthograpy, for distinct a intervowel alveolar trill the double R (or 'rr') notation is used while a single intervowel R always is an alveolar tap. In the Spanish phonetic system, this orthographic notation was used instead the usual notation, as the the alveolar tap is represented as [r] while the alveolar trill is represented as [rr] (not as [4] or [r] how they should be respectively in the X-SAMPA).
==Techniques==
===Phoneme Replacement===
In the Spanish shows a notorious contrast at the beginning of the syllable, however at the end of the syllable (coda position) the contrast of some consonant is much less marked, making them prone to assimilation processes or merging. Knowing these ones it's possible replace some of the phonemes for the respective allophone, allowing change the stress and pronunciation without alter the meaning of the word.
====Voicing Assimilation====
====Nasal Assimilation====
In syllable-final position the nasal consonant are prone to assimilate the place of articulation of following consonant, even across a word boundary. Knowing this, it's possible replace a nasal consonant with another one more appropiate for the context of said phoneme.
: Examples:
*For the word Chancho ('Pig') it may be input as [tS a J][tS o] instead [tS a n][tS o] in the VOCALOID Editor because the /n/ should be palatalized in that context due the influence of the following /tʃ/.
*In the phrase Corazón Confundido ('Confused Heart'), it's possible to replace the [n] at the end of the first word for its velar counterpart [N] if the context allows the assimilation of the nasal consonant.[k o][r a][T o n][k o n][f u n][D i][D o] → [k o][r a][T o N][k o n][f u n][D i][D o]
====Realization of the R====
In coda or syllable-final position the realization of the Spanish R is neutralized, which it means this one can be realized either as flap or trill.
==Phonetic List==
Symbol	Classification	IPA's Symbol / Name 	Sample 	Notes 	Related Phonemes
[a] 	vowel 	open central unrounded vowel 	padre 	 	
[e] 	vowel 	mid front unrounded vowel 	enero 	 	[i] (lowered)
[i] 	vowel 	close front unrounded vowel 	finca, mío 	 	
[j] (glide)
[I] (non-syllabic)
[o] 	vowel 	mid back rounded vowel 	foco, oído 	 	[u] (lowered)
[u] 	vowel 	close back rounded vowel 	musa, dúo 	 	
[w] (glide)
[U] (non-syllabic)
[j] 	semivowel 	palatal approximant 	amplio, ciudad 	Used in raising diphthongs (glide+vowel). 	
[i] (syllabic)
[I] (non-syllabic)
[j\] (fortitied)
[w] 	semivowel 	voiced labio-velar approximant 	huevo, buitre 	Used in raising diphthongs (glide+vowel). 	
[u] (syllabic)
[U] (non-syllabic)
[G] (unrounded)
[I] 	semivowel 	i̯ 	aire, muy 	Used in falling diphthongs (vowel+glide). 	
[i] (syllabic)
[j] (glide)
[U] 	semivowel 	u̯ 	pausa, neutro 	Used in falling diphthongs (vowel+glide). 	
[u] (syllabic)
[w] (glide)
[p] 	consonant 	voiceless bilabial plosive 	perro, apto 	 	[b] (voiced)
[t] 	consonant 	voiceless dental plosive 	tuyo, traba 	 	[d] (voiced)
[k] 	consonant 	voiceless velar plosive 	caña, quise, kilo 	 	[g] (voiced)
[b] 	consonant 	voiced bilabial plosive 	bestia, embuste, vaca, envidia 	At the beginning of the word or after a pause or after a nasal consonant. 	
[p] (voiceless)
[B] (lenited)
[B] 	consonant 	~ bilabial spirant 	bebé, obtuso, vivir, curva 	Lenited /b/. In middle of a word, in all the cases where /b/ isn't used. 	[b] (fortited)
[d] 	consonant 	voiced alveolar plosive 	dedo, cuando, aldaba 	At the beginning of the word or after a pause or after a nasal consonant or after /l/. 	
[t] (voiceless)
[D] (lenited)
[D] 	consonant 	~ð̞ dental spirant 	dedo, arder, admirar 	Lenited /d/. In middle of a word, in all the cases where /d/ isn't used. 	[d] (fortited)
[g] 	consonant 	voiced velar plosive 	gato, lengua, guerra 	At the beginning of the word or after a pause or after a nasal consonant. 	
[k] (voiceless)
[G] (lenited)
[G] 	consonant 	~ velar spirant 	trigo, amargo, sigue 	Lenited /g/. In middle of a word, in all the cases where /g/ isn't used 	
[g] (fortited)
[w] (rounded)
[tS] 	consonant 	voiceless postalveolar affricate	chancho 	 	[t] (deaffricated)
[f] 	consonant 	voiceless labiodental fricative 	fase, café 	 	
[T] 	consonant 	voiceless dental fricative 	cerro, cima, zumo, paz 	 	
[D] (voiced)
[s] ( or th-alveolarization)
[t] (th-stopping)
[f] (th-fronting)
[s] 	consonant 	voiceless alveolar silibant 	casa, xilófono 	 	[T] (; dentalized or lisped)
[x] 	consonant 	voiceless velar fricative 	jamón, reloj, genero, México 	 	
[m] 	consonant 	bilabial nasal 	mamá , campo, invertir 	Also an allophone of /n/ in front of labial consonants. 	[n] (delabialized)
[n] 	consonant 	alveolar nasal 	nido, sin 	
Contains various allophones: 
/n/ at the beginning of word or after a pause 
// or /nʲ/ before palatals as /ʎ/, /ʝ/ or /ʧ/ 
// before velars as /x/, /k/, /g/ or /ɣ/ 
// before dentals as /d̪/, /ð/ or /t̪/	
[J] (palatalized)
[m] (labialized)
[J] 	consonant 	palatal nasal 	ñandú, enyesar 	Also an allophone of /n/ in front of a palatals as /ʎ/, /ʝ/ or /ʧ/. 	[n] (depalatalized)
[l] 	consonant 	alveolar lateral approximant 	lana, principal 	 	
[r] 	consonant 	alveolar tap 	caro, bravo, Amor eterno 	 	[rr] (trilled)
[rr] 	consonant 	alveolar trill 	rumbo, carro, honra, alrededor, disruptivo, Azrael	At the beginning of the word or after a nasal consonant, /l/, /s/ or /θ/. Intervowel only if is specified by a double R.	[r] (lenited)
[L] 	consonant 	palatal lateral approximant 	llave, pollo 	 	
[j\] ()
[j]
[j\] 	consonant 	voiced palatal fricative 	ayuno 	 	
[L] ()
[j] (lenited)
===Additional Phonetics===
The following is a list of additional phonemes avaible for MAIKA. Although this phonetic expansion is intended mainly for Catalan, Voctro Labs suggested that with her added phonemes she would be able to achieve a decent imitation of other languages like English, Portuguese and Japanese - although disclaimed that she would not sound like a native speaker.
Aside it's potentional for imitate other languages, it's important to point out this phonetic extension also can be used for complement the Spanish language, as many of the additional sounds are allophones or variants existent in other dialects or variations of said language.
Symbol	Classification	IPA's Symbol / Name 	Sample 	Notes 	Related Phonemes
[@] 	vowel 	schwa 	
amb (CAT)
the (ENG)	Reduced vowel. 	[a] (fronted)
[E] 	vowel 	open-mid front unrounded vowel 	
mel (CAT)
egg (ENG)	It may be considered a more open and lax counterpart of /e/. 	[e] (tense)
[I0] 	vowel 	near-close near-front unrounded vowel	
it (ENG)	English KIT vowel. It may be considered a more open and lax counterpart of /i/.	[i] (tense)
[Q] 	vowel 	open back rounded vowel 	
soc (CAT)
lot (ENG)	It may be considered a more rounded and back counterpart of /a/. 	
[a] (open, centralized)
[O] (closed)
[O] 	vowel 	open-mid back rounded vowel 	
iode (CAT)
taught (ENG)	It may be considered a more open and lax counterpart of /o/. 	
[o] (tense)
[Q] (open)
[r\] 	consonant 	alveolar approximant 	
red (ENG)	English R. 	
[r] (approximant)
[w]
[L0] 	consonant 	Alveolo-palatal lateral approximant 	ull (CAT)	A more lateralized variant of /ʎ/. 	[L]
[N] 	consonant 	velar nasal 	
sang (CAT)
king (ENG)	 	
[n]
[ts] 	consonant 	voiceless alveolar affricate 	
potser (CAT)
metsu (JPN)	 	
[dz] (voiced)
[dz] 	consonant 	voiced alveolar affricate 	
metzines (CAT)
tsudzuku (JPN)	 	[ts] (voiceless)
[dZ] 	consonant 	~  voiced postalveolar affricate 	
metge (CAT)
jeans (ENG)
jishin (JPN)	Allophone of of /ʝ/ and /ʎ/ in some dialects. 	
[tS] (voiceless)
[j\], [L] (allophone)
[S] 	consonant 	~  voiceless postalveolar sibilant 	
caixa (CAT)
share (ENG)
shio (JPN)	Deaffricated variation of /tʃ/ in some dialects.
Allophone of /ʝ/ and /ʎ/ in .	
[tS] (affricated)
[Z] (voiced)
[j\], [L] (allophone)
[z] 	consonant 	voiced alveolar sibilant 	
onze (CAT)
zoo (ENG)	 	[s] (voiceless)
[Z] 	consonant 	~  voiced postalveolar sibilant 	
ajut (CAT)
vision (ENG)
kaji (JPN)	Allophone of /ʝ/ and /ʎ/ in . 	
[S] (voiceless)
[j\], [L] (allophone)
[v] 	consonant 	voiced labiodental fricative 	
viu (CAT)
vote (ENG)	 	
[f] (voiceless)
[B] (bilabial)
[h] 	consonant 	voiceless glottal fricative 	
hot (ENG)	Allophone of /s/ or /x/ in some dialects () 	
[s]
[x]
==Continued Development==
The Spanish language is currently the least popular language of VOCALOID, seeing no known new developments since 2016 and no new releases since 2013. Only two mentioned projects are known. The first was mentioned by Wat from Crypton Future Media, Inc. in June 2016, who stated they were interested in producing a Spanish and English project in the future, though details of this project were not given.https://www.excelsior.com.mx/hacker/2016/06/06/1097104 VocaTone had also expressed an interest in producing a English and Spanish VOCALOID in 2016.https://vocatoneofficial.tumblr.com/post/145077501357/itd-be-cool-to-hear-a-dual-voicebank-engloid-and 
Two of its 3 voicebanks, Bruno and Clara repeatedly fallen in last place in terms of popularity and usage among all VOCALOIDs, though its third voicebank MAIKA has at times seen itself on par with the more popular English voicebanks and lesser popular Japanese voicebanks. 
It is currently unknown what the overall state of development is for this language as a result and no voicebanks have been announced to be in development as of 2019. It is the only language VOCALOID provides which has become stagnated and this has greatly impacted the development of Spanish VOCALOID as a language within VOCALOID, as well as its voicebanks.
It offers the second least selection of vocals, beating Korean VOCALOID by just 1 voicebank release.
==See also==
;Conversion Lists
:*Japanese - Spanish
;Interwiki articles
:* (Wikipedia)
:* (Wikipedia)
==References==
==External links==
*Spanish Phoneme Chart (Phoneme List  provided by Voctro Labs)
==Navigation==
Category:Tutorials