Phonetics and Phonology in English and Spanish

Posted on Mar 9, 2025 in Justice

Phonemic or Phonetic Transcription?

In ELT, the type most frequently employed is phonemic transcription for different reasons:

It centers on the pronunciation difficulties posed by foreign learners to produce the different phonemes that make up the English phonological system and affect meaning, e.g. the fine distinctions of vowel quality necessary to produce the twelve pure English vowels, which should be our main concern as teachers and learners.
It is more economical; it does not use so many symbols that are not relevant or essential for English learners.
It is the kind of transcription typically found in British publishing:
- In all types of dictionaries (monolingual, bilingual, picture or pronunciation dictionaries)
- In almost all modern works on English pronunciation published in Britain or British areas of influence.
- In all types of teaching materials or resources containing pronunciation tips or information.

But it is important to bear in mind that for a thorough knowledge of English pronunciation, phonemic transcription may be as important as phonetic transcription for English learners, because while the former provides an overall picture of the pronunciation system, the latter gives more precise information on the pronunciation of sounds.

Types of Transcription: Definition and Examples

Transcription is the systematic and consistent use of symbols to show the pronunciation of speech sounds or sound sequences in written form. Transcribing is resorting to symbols from a phonetic alphabet such as, for example, the IPA to represent the pronunciation of a language as accurately as possible in writing. Put simply, we can say it is a way to “hear with your eyes” and produce sounds or sound sequences in any natural language more accurately.

Phonemic, phonological or broad notation: Uses only the phonemes. It does not show the finer or more detailed features of pronunciation and is written within slanting lines, also called slant brackets, oblique lines or obliques, e.g. foot /fʊt/. Phonemic notation may be used for several purposes:
- To provide an overall picture of the sound system of a language.
- For languages which have no writing system of their own.
- For teaching purposes, to show how specific words should be produced in speech and to contrast the different pronunciation of some items, e.g. hat /hæt/ vs. hut /hʌt/.
Phonetic, allophonic or narrow notation: Used to show in detail how sounds are produced and perceived. Here we attempt to include a considerable amount of information concerning both its articulatory and auditory features, regardless of their function in a language. It reflects the allophonic variations of the phonemes in question. They are written within square brackets and, in order to reflect these peculiarities, phonetic transcription makes use of diacritics taken from the IPA in addition to the phonetic symbols. Diacritics are marks placed over, under or through a phoneme to show variations in pronunciation; i.e. to show that the allophone with the mark is slightly different in pronunciation from the one without it, although not in meaning.

Maximal Onsets Principle

Syllabification is the term which refers to the division of a word into syllables. The diacritic used following the recommendations of the IPA is a dot, except where a primary or secondary stress mark occurs as these are also syllable division markers. Different criteria may be used. From a phonological point of view, what is to be applied is the Maximal Onset Principle. This principle states that where two syllables are to be divided, any consonants between them should be attached to the right-hand syllable as far as possible within the restrictions governing syllable onsets and codas.

Rules:

Stressed syllables containing a short vowel (i.e. /ɪ, e, æ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ/) with the exception of schwa and the allophones [i] and [u] need to be followed by one or more consonants to reinforce the prominence of the syllable. Long vowels do not need to be reinforced by consonants and therefore may appear in open syllables. Compare better /ˈbet.ər/ vs heater /ˈhiː.tər/
Unstressed syllables containing short vowels, /ɪ, ʊ, i, u, ə/ do not need a consonant following. For instance, develop /dɪˈvel.əp/.

Notwithstanding the above, words in compounds should not be re-divided syllabically in a way that does not agree with perceived word boundaries. For example, the term hardware could in theory be divided /ˈhɑːd.weər/, but most readers would find this counter-intuitive and would prefer /ˈhɑːd.weər/. This principle applies to open, closed and hyphenated compounds.

Coalescence

Coalescence, a special type of assimilation, is the fusion of phonemes. When the coalescence occurs across words, it mainly affects phrases containing the terms you or your.

/t, d/ may be assimilated to /tʃ, dʒ/ when followed by /j/, e.g.: last year /lɑːstʃɪər/ or behind you /bɪˈhaɪndʒu/
/s, z/ may be assimilated to /ʃ, ʒ/ when followed by /j/, e.g.: in case you /ɪŋ keɪʃu/ to please you /tə pliːʒu/

This means that the assimilation of /s, z/ when followed by /j/ renders two alternative versions:

in case you /ɪŋ keɪʃju/ (regressive assimilation)
in case you /ɪŋ keɪʃu/ (coalescence)

There are words which may adopt either an assimilated or dissimilated. The dissimilated forms are considered to reflect a more conservative style of speech:

/tʃ/ vs /tj/: mature, situation
/dʒ/ vs /dj/: education, individual
/ʃ/ vs /sj/: association, appreciation

Main Differences Between English and Spanish

Number of phonemes: The number of phonemes varies from one language to another. English, in particular, is usually considered to have 44 phonemes, 24 consonants and 20 vowels (including both 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs. Some phoneticians, however, consider there are a total of 46 phonemes as they regard /tr/ and /dr/ as consonants as well. As for Spanish, it has 37 phonemes, 19 consonants and 18 vowels.
Distribution: This refers to the position phonemes may occupy in the syllable. The same phoneme may not necessarily be found within the same positions in different languages. For instance, compare the distribution of /t/ in English and Spanish:
As far as distribution is concerned, /t/ shows a difference if we compare what happens in both languages: whereas in English /t/ may occupy the final position within a word, in Spanish it cannot unless the word has been borrowed from another language, e.g. from Catalan.
Graphemes: Different phonemes are sometimes shown through different letters in both languages. Thus, /tʃ/ has <ch> as a grapheme in both languages, e.g. chimenea and chimney. However <t> can sometimes be pronounced as /tʃ/ as well, which never happens in Spanish, e.g. picture /ˈpɪktʃər/.
Another difference already mentioned above is syllabic structure: Whereas English syllables can take up to three consonants before the nucleus and four after it, Spanish syllables can take up to two in both positions.
Kinds of phonemes (I): quality or timbre (also tambre): If we compare English and Spanish phonemes, we can see that some are identical, some others are just similar and that there is a remaining group made up of distinctive sounds that are different. Let us consider the following examples.
Kinds of phonemes (II): length, quantity or duration: Whereas the English vowels show differences in quantity, there being short and long vowels, the Spanish vowels do not have this variation. For instance, when uttered in isolation, English /iː/ is about three times as long as Spanish /i/, but is reduced in duration when followed by voiceless consonants (pre-fortis clipping).
Allophones: The allophones of a certain phoneme in one language may not coincide with those of the same phoneme in another language, e.g. desde may be pronounced as [ˈdezðe], [ˈdɛzðe] or [ˈdeʝðe], with no difference in meaning, so [z] would be an allophone of /s/ in Spanish. In English, however, it is not an allophone but a phoneme.
Clusters: English consonantal phonemes combine in different ways to those of Spanish. The same combinations are not always possible. This gives way to some mispronunciations. A typical example is the onset made up of /s/ plus another consonant. Due to its inexistence in Spanish, learners tend to add an extra syllable before this cluster, which is characteristic of their native tongue. Thus, things like [*esˈpiːk] instead of /spiːk/ are said for speak. An understanding of the basic structures will help learners to become aware of precisely what consonant cluster presents pronunciation problems.
A further difference is the tendency to use weak vowels – /ə/ mostly, and to a lesser extent /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ – in unstressed syllables.
The existence of syllabic consonants in English. Having consonants occupy the central position in a syllable is not possible in Spanish. This is so in English in the cases of /l/, /n/, /m/, /ŋ/ (and /r/ in American English). e.g. people /ˈpiːpļ/, mission /ˈmɪʃn/ and prism /ˈprɪzm/, bacon can /ˈbeɪkŋ kən/.

Uses of English Phonetics and Transcription

Interest in Recording and Describing Pronunciation: Interest in recording and describing pronunciation has a long history. A concern to record dialect pronunciations, for example, was an important factor in the development of modern phonetic transcription.
Language Teaching: Language teaching has contributed to and profited from phonetics and phonology. Many works on English phonetics and phonology have been written for the benefit of foreign learners.
Speech Therapy (called Speech Pathology in the USA): Speech therapy (= logopedia, logoterapia, foniatría) refers to the activities and exercises designed to help to alleviate or cure a language or speech defect (e.g. stuttering) or to help someone regain their use of speech after having suffered speech loss (e.g. aphasia after a stroke).