Transcription of Spanish and
Spanish-Influenced English
Brian Goldstein
Temple University
In the United States alone, almost 9%
22 million individuals-speaks Spanish
of
the
population-
(Grimes, 1996). The
is
population of Hispanics/Latinos predicted to increase to 51
million individuals by the year 2025 (U.S. Bureau of the Census,
1995). Many of these individuals will be native Spanish speakers who will be acquiring English. More than likely, their production of the English phonological system will be influenced by
their pronunciation of Spanish (and vice versa in some cases).
This article provides information on the transcription of Spanish, common dialects of Spanish, Spanish-influenced English,
and English-influenced Spanish.
Spanish is the third most commonly spoken language
in the
world, with approximately 266 million speakers (Grimes,
1996). In the United States alone, there are approximately 22
million Spanish speakers (almost 9% of the population),
than 3 million of whom are younger than age 5
(Grimes, 1996). It is predicted that by the year 2025, more
than 51 million individuals of Hispanic/Latino descent will
reside in the United States (an increase to 15.7% of the U.S.
population), 5 million of whom will be younger than age 5
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995). It is clear that the number
of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who speak a language
other than English is not sufficient to serve Spanish speakers
in the United States. Petrosino, Lieberman, McNeil, and
Shinn (1999) reported that the number of students graduating from master’s and doctoral communication sciences and
disorders programs in the United States who speak a language
more
English is quite small. In the 1997-1998 academic
only 915 of 10,750 graduates spoke a language other
than English. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoother than
year,
ciation (ASHA; 1999) noted that at the end of 1998, 2.3% of
its 97,000 members were Hispanic/Latino, certainly not all of
whom speak Spanish. Thus, the majority of SLPs serving
Spanish speakers will not likely be Spanish speakers themselves, and may not be familiar with the Spanish phonological
system, the influence of Spanish on English (i.e., Spanishinfluenced English), or the influence of English on Spanish
(i.e., English-influenced Spanish). This article provides information on the transcription of Spanish, common dialects of
Spanish, Spanish-influenced English, and English-influenced
Spanish. Using appropriate transcription notation will aid
SLPs in differentiating phonological variation from phonological disorder in individuals who speak Spanish, Spanishinfluenced English, and English-influenced Spanish.
SPANISH PHONOLOGY
To understand Spanish-influenced English and Englishinfluenced Spanish, it is necessary to begin by discussing
Spanish phonology. (For more detailed information on Spanish phonology, see Goldstein, 2000.) The phonemic inventories for Spanish and English are listed in Table 1. The Spanish
phonology described here is not necessarily the version that is
taught in the U.S. school system; thus, there may be differences between that variety and the version of Spanish phonology represented here. It should be noted that the English
phonemic system is not detailed here on the assumption that
54
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55
TABLE 1. Phonemic Inventories of
athe
Spanish and English
phonetic symbol /r/ represents the Spanish trill in the
IPA system. The American
readers will be familiar with it. In addition, allophonic and
dialectal variations of Spanish are described in subsequent
tables.
There are 18 consonant phonemes typically described
for Spanish (Cotton & Sharp, 1988). These phonemes include
the voiceless unaspirated stops, /p/, /t/, and /k/; the voiced
stops, /b/, /d/, and /g/; the voiceless fricatives, /f/, /s/, and /x/
(voiceless velar); the affricate, /tf /; the glides, /w/ and /j/; the
lateral, /1/; the alveolar flap /r/; the alveolar trill /r/; and the
nasals, /m/, /n/, and /P/ (voiced palatal). The three voiced
stops /b, d, g/ are in complementary distribution (i.e., different allophones of the same phoneme that cannot occur in the
same linguistic environment) with the spirants [(3] (voiced
bilabial), [6], and [y] (voiced velar), respectively. The spirant
allophones most generally occur intervocalically both within
and across word boundaries (e.g., /dedo/ (finger) - [de60 ] ;
/la boka/ (the mouth) - [la [3oka] ). There are five monophthong vowels in Spanish: /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/, and /a/. Vowels in
Spanish have relatively the same tongue height and tongue
placement as their counterparts in English, with the exception
of /a/, which in Spanish is usually described as a low, central
vowel (Cotton & Sharp, 1988). The English low, back vowel in
a word such as &dquo;mom&dquo; is typically transcribed as [a].
The phonetic inventory of Spanish differs from that of
English. Spanish contains some sounds that are not part of
the English phonetic system (Cdrdenas, 1960; see Table 2).
Sounds in Spanish that are not included in the phonetic inventory of English are the voiced palatal nasal [p as in [nip o]
(boy), the voiceless bilabial fricative [~] as in [em~ermo]
(sick), the voiceless velar fricative [x] as in [relox] (watch), the
voiced spirants [~] as in [kla(3o] (nail) and [Y] as in [laYo]
(lake), the alveolar trill [r] as in [pero] (dog), and the voiced
uvular trill [R] as in [roto] (broken). Again, [~] and [Y] are
allophones of the phonemes /b/ and /g/, respectively, and [R]
English prevocalic &dquo;r&dquo; is represented by the IPA symbol /.I/.
is a dialectal variant occurring most commonly in Caribbean
dialects.
English also contains sounds that do not exist in Spanish (see Table 3). Consonant sounds not in the inventory of
Spanish include the following:
. aspirated stops (e.g., [ph] as in [phen] pen),
. velar nasal (e.g., [r]] as in [SIBI)] sung),
. fricatives ([v] as in [vot] vote; [0] as in [mae6]
math; [ J] as in [ ju] shoe; [3] as in Ime3a] mea-
,
.
sure),
’
. affricate
(e.g., [d3] as in [d3AMP] jump), and
. liquid (e.g., [J] as in [Jid] read).
It should be noted that
some of the sounds listed above, [i)],
[v], [8], [J], [3], and [d3], appear in the phonetic inventories
of some Spanish dialects (Nunez-Cedeno & Morales-Front,
1999). English also contains vowel sounds that are not in-
cluded in the Spanish phonetic repertoire. Excluded vowels
include the lax front vowels (e.g., [ae]); the central vowels [ a]
and [n]; the back vowels [u], [ 3 ] , and [a]; and the diphthongs
[I], [QU], and [01].
There are six major dialects typically described for Spanish speakers in the United States: Mexican and southwestern
United States; Central American; Caribbean; Highlandian;
Chilean; and southern Paraguayan, Uruguayan, and Argentinean (Dalbor, 1980). Although all these dialects are spoken
on the mainland United States, the two most prevalent dialects are southwestern United States and Caribbean. The
prevalence of these two dialects is attributable to the large
number of Mexican immigrants, the migration of a large
number of Puerto Ricans, and the immigration of political
refugees from Cuba, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Table 4 lists
the major dialect features of Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto
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.
56
TABLE 2. Sounds in
Spanish That Do Not Occur in English
’Although, technically, spirants are considered fricatives, [p], [0], and [Y]
allophonic variations of the voiced stops /b/, /d/, and /g/, respectively.
have been
’
TABLE 3. Sounds in
English That Do Not Occur in Spanish
’These sounds may appear in the
separated from that class throughout this article to show
°
’
’
I
phonetic inventories of some Spanish dialects.
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their status
as
57
TABLE 4.
Major Dialectal
Note.
typically exhibited in that dialect; 0
-
=
not
Features of Mexican,
=
Cuban, and
Puerto Rican
Spanish
deleted.
from Canfield, 1981; Cotton &
Lombardi
&
de
1988;
Peters, 1981; Navarro-Tomas,
Sharp,
It
should
be
noted
that
not all features listed here are
1966).
munity of Spanish speakers will influence both their Spanish
and English dialects. These influences likely will come from
parents, peers, the dialect promulgated in the school system,
used
and the influence of one phonological system on another
(Wolfram, 1971). Other influencing factors may include
(a) the amount of contact with Spanish and English speakers,
(b) the speaker’s motivation, (c) whether the speaker is learning both languages simultaneously or sequentially, (d) a
speaker’s oral and perceptual abilities, and (e) the prestige associated with the various dialects with which the individual
comes in contact (Iglesias &
Goldstein, 1998; Leather &
James, 1996). Spanish phonology can influence the production of English in terms of both consonants and vowels. Table 5 lists common consonants and vowel characteristics of
Spanish-influenced English (compiled from Iglesias & Goldstein, 1998; Kayser, 1993; MacDonald, 1989; Perez, 1994;
Rican
Spanish (compiled
by all speakers of that particular dialect and not all
speakers will use all features in every context. As can be seen
from the table, these Spanish dialects are very different from
each other. For example, Mexican Spanish speakers tend to
substitute [v] for /b/, pronouncing a word like /boka/ (mouth)
as [voka]. Speakers of the other dialects do not tend to use
this particular feature. However, there are other features that
are shared by all three dialects. For example, /s/ is commonly
deleted by speakers of Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican
Spanish (e.g., /dos/ two - [do]).
SLPs must be vigilant in the accuracy of their transcription to differentiate true errors from dialectal patterns. Phonological patterns delineated as dialect features should not be
scored as errors on phonological assessments. Failing to account for these dialect features in phonological assessment
may either shift the diagnosis from one of &dquo;typically developing&dquo; to one of &dquo;phonological disorder&dquo; or alter the severity
category (e.g., from mild to
children who
are
phonological disorder) for
phonologically disordered.
severe
considered
CHARACTERISTICS OF SPANISHINFLUENCED ENGLISH
When there is contact between speakers representing each of
two languages, a tendency exists for each to influence the
other. The English dialect spoken in the geographical com-
Roseberry-McKibbin, 1995).
Consonants
As indicated in Table 5, there are many ways in which the features of Spanish influence the production of consonants in
English. These influences cut across all sound classes, although the majority of influences will be in the fricative
sound class. Several factors influence the extent to which one
phonological system influences another. First, the influence
may be due to the absence of phonemes or allophones in a
language (Iglesias & Goldstein, 1998). For example, [ph], [th],
and [kh] do not occur in Spanish, and [1], [v], and [d3] do not
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58
TABLE 5.
Segmental Characteristics of Spanish-Influenced English
’General American
English - Spanish-influenced English.
in most dialects of Spanish. In attempting to produce
sounds in English that do not exist in Spanish, a native Spanish speaker might substitute a close relation. Thus, /J/ might
be produced as [tf ]; /Jo/ show - [tfo]. Second, there are differences in the phonotactic constraints of the two languages.
In Spanish, word-initial clusters cannot begin with /s/. Thus,
Spanish speakers attempting to produce English clusters of
that type might exhibit either cluster reduction (e.g., /sta2~z/
stars ~ [ta2~z] ) or epenthesis (or prothesis) (e.g., /sta2Lz/ stars
[esta acz]) (Perez, 1994). Third, there are differences in the
distribution of sounds. In Spanish, for example, the only
word-final consonants are /s/, /n/, /r/, /1/, and /d/.
Dialect-specific constraints within Spanish dialects
might also influence production. For example, in some dialects word-final /s/ is deleted as a dialect feature so the Spanish word for two, /dos/, would be produced as [do]. A Spanish
speaker might also produce English words deleting word-final
/s/. Thus, /bAs/ bus would be produced as [bA]. Fourth, there
are differences in place of articulation for consonants. For exoccur
ample, the English /d/ is produced at the alveolar place of articulation compared with a more dental place of articulation
for /d/ in Spanish (Perez, 1994). Fifth, another influencing
factor is how and when pronunciation is acquired. For some
Spanish speakers learning English as a second language, their
first exposure to English may be the written form. In Spanish, there is a relative one-to-one correspondence between
grapheme and phoneme that does not exist for English (Iglesias & Goldstein, 1998). This lack of one-to-one correspondence may also affect pronunciation. For example, in English,
the grapheme &dquo;s&dquo; is produced as [s] in basin and as [3] in measure. Spanish speakers acquiring English as a second language
may produce both sounds identically. Finally, the individual’s
speech community may be an influence. Wolfram (1971)
found that the English pronunciation of native Spanish
speakers was influenced by African American English spoken
by members of their speech community. For example, in their
English production of word-final /8/, Spanish speakers most
frequently substituted [f] (e.g., /bEe0/ bath - [baef]), an in-
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59
fluence of the African American
English spoken in the their
community. Thus, in transcribing the speech of a speaker acquiring English as a second language, it would be advisable
for SLPs to have some knowledge of the phonological system
of the individual’s peer group.
Vowels
As described
previously, the Spanish vowel system is comof
the
five
posed
monophthong phonemes /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/, and
/a/. In Spanish, there are no phonemic lax vowels (e.g., /c-e/ as
in cat), diphthongs (e.g., laI/ as in bite), schwa (e.g., /a/ as in
around), and r-colored vowels (e.g., /~/ as in water and /3+/ as
in hurt). Thus, in their attempt to produce vowels in English,
speakers of Spanish-influenced English might use Spanish
vowels in close proximity to their English targets (Perez,
1994). Thus, lax vowels will be produced as their tense counterparts /I/ - [i] (e.g., /bit/ bit - [bit]); diphthongs like lOll
become monophthongs like [a], (e.g., /main/ mine -[man];
schwa is lowered to [a] (e.g., /bolun/ balloon - [balun] ) ; and
r-colored vowels are produced as a monophthong vowel and
a flap (e.g., /k3~b/ curb - [kErb] ).
Nonsegmental Features
Phonological acquisition encompasses not only acquiring
segmental features of a language (i.e., consonants and vowels)
but also learning nonsegmental aspects (i.e., stress, pitch, and
intonation). There are also differences in English and Spanish
across these dimensions (noting, of course, that there will be
variations within and across dialects of both languages).
Stress in Spanish can occur on the final syllable (e.g., rel6x,
&dquo;watch&dquo;), on the penultimate syllable (e.g., bicicleta, &dquo;bicycle&dquo;),
or on the antepenultimate syllable (e.g., público, &dquo;public&dquo;). The
two most common patterns for stress in Spanish are penultimate stress on words ending in vowels and final stress for
words ending in consonants (Hochberg, 1988). Stress in English is much more complicated and depends on a number of
factors, including syntactic category and weight of the syllable
(i.e., whether the vowel is long or short, as well as the number
of
that follow the vowel; Goodluck, 1991). A
Spanish speaker, having acquired a language with relatively
less complex stress rules, may have difficulty placing stress appropriately on newly acquired words in English, a system with
more complex stress rules. A Spanish speaker who tries to
apply Spanish stress rules to words in English may pronounce
words like /bal6/ (below) as [bilo] and /m6kirj/ (making) as
consonants
[mekir] ] .
Pitch also varies as a function of language, modulating
less in Spanish than in English (Hadlich, Holton, & Montes,
1968). That is, the pitch range is smaller for Spanish speakers
than for English speakers. Thus, Spanish speakers acquiring
English may use a pitch pattern that may be perceived as less
rich or more monotone than that used by English speakers.
Finally, intonational contours for statements, questions,
and exclamations are different in English and Spanish. In
English, utterances (statements, questions, and exclamations)
begin at an overall higher pitch than in Spanish, and during
the utterance itself, there is a large pitch change on the most
emphasized word. In Spanish, utterances begin at an overall
lower pitch than in English, and the major pitch change usually takes place on the first stressed syllable (Hadlich et al.,
1968). For example, for an English speaker, the intonational
pattern for the sentence I am going to the store (spoken as
an active, declarative sentence) might be I am going to the
STORE. In this case, the sentence begins at a fairly high pitch
that lowers through the sentence until speaker says the word
with the most emphasis, store (represented in capital letters).
For a Spanish speaker, the intonational pattern for that same
sentence might be I am GOING to the store. The sentence begins with a fairly low pitch that is raised on the word going
(the first stressed syllable of the sentence). Thus, speakers of
Spanish-influenced English may use intonational patterns
that are more characteristic of Spanish than English.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISHINFLUENCED SPANISH
It should be noted that the acquisition of English by native
Spanish speakers might also influence their production of
Spanish. That is, Spanish speakers might display so-called
English-influenced Spanish. For example, vowels in Spanish
tend to be realized as monophthongs and not as diphthongs
as they are in English (Iglesias & Goldstein, 1998). Thus, the
question &dquo;What is your child’s name?&dquo; would be pronounced
by a native Spanish speaker (not influenced by the acquisition
of English) as [komo se jama su nipo] (&dquo;c6mo se llama su
Spanish speaker acquiring English may
of diphthongs and pronounce the sentence as [koumou se jama su nipou]). In another example,
Fantini (1985) found that his son aspirated stops in Spanish
(e.g., /pato/ duck - [phato] ), even though stops in Spanish are
described as unaspirated. Finally, in a group of 4- to 6-yearold bilingual children, Goldstein and Iglesias (1999) found
that the English postvocalic, unstressed r substituted for the
flap in Spanish words (e.g., /r/ [J]; /flor/ flower--> [flo24]).
nino?&dquo;). However,
overgeneralize
the
a
use
-
SUMMARY
Given the demographic changes taking place in the United
States, SLPs likely will need to provide clinical services to individuals who have acquired Spanish as their first language.
Although these individuals probably will have some facility
with English, their production of English may contain features of Spanish (i.e., Spanish-influenced English). These patterns may affect the production of consonants and vowels and
the placement of stress. The use of these features will be dependent on variables such as age of acquisition, length of time
acquiring English, and access to English speakers, to name a
few. As Spanish speakers acquire English, their Spanish
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60
phonology may also be affected by their acquisition of English (i.e., English-influenced Spanish). The ability to provide
least-biased clinical services to native Spanish speakers requires knowledge of Spanish phonology, dialects of Spanish,
and the features of both Spanish-influenced English and
English-influenced Spanish.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Goldstein, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at Temple University. He has
published extensively in the
area of phonological development and
disorders and is the author of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Resource Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists. Address: Brian Goldstein, Temple University, Communication Sciences, 109 Weiss Hall,
Philadelphia, PA 19122; e-mail: [email protected]
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