10/15/09

Alejandro E. Brice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

University of South Florida St. Petersburg
Roanne G. Brice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
University of Central Florida
Cecyle K. Carson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
University of Central Florida

English vs. Spanish phoneme place and manner productions (English-in red,
Spanish-in blue)

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Summary

English Spanish
English has 24 Spanish has 19
consonants. consonants.
English has 13 Spanish has 5
vowels. vowels.

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English Spanish
English has many Only /s, n, r, l, d/
consonants can occur in the
occurring in the final position.
final position.
The phonemes /t/ The phonemes /t/
and /d/ are produced and /d/ are
apical and aspirated. produced dentalized
and unaspirated.

English Spanish
English has /s/ Spanish does not
clusters in the have /s/ clusters in
initial position. the initial position.

English has many Final clusters are

final clusters. rarely seen in
Spanish.

English Spanish
English dialects Spanish dialects
are affected by are affected by
vowel consonantal
differences. changes in
fricatives, liquids,
and nasals.

English has many Spanish has very

single syllable few single
words. syllable words.

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English Spanish
English is comprised Spanish is not
of many consonant comprised of many
clusters. consonant clusters.
Final syllable In Spanish, accurate final
syllable productions are
productions are not very important.
important in English, Each syllable has the
due to morphological same duration regardless
makers occurring at of stress (a syllable
the end of the word. timed language).

English Spanish
Consonantal Consonantal
productions in productions in
English are usually Spanish are usually
lax. tense.
In English, /!/ is a In Spanish, /s/ is a
high frequency high frequency
sound. sound.

Phonological variations of Caribbean Spanish (which may

apply to other dialects of Spanish) as noted by Hammond
(1989) include:
1. Syllable final, word final aspiration of /s/.
2. General word final sound deletion
3. /r/ and /l/ substitution in some dialects for Spanish.
4. Vocalization of word final liquids.
5. Word final /n/ verlarization.
6. Alteration of /t"/ and /"/.

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Stress in Spanish can occur on any of the

last 3 syllables. The tendencies of stress
are:
a. Words ending with vowels, /n/, or /s/
stress falls on the penultimate (next to last)
syllable (tóro, computadóra, jóven and zapátos).
b. All other words, the stress falls on
the last syllable (hablar, matador).
c. Preantepenultimate stress rarely
occurs (guar/dán/se/los).

When are English speech sounds learned? (Sanders, 1972)

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When are Spanish speech sounds learned?

Phoneme Jimenez (1987) Acevedo (1989) Average (Jimenez &

90% accuracy 90% accuracy Acevedo) (rounding up)
/p/ 3:3 3:0 3:2
/b/ 3:3 3:0 3:2
/t/ 3;3 3:0 3:2
/k/ 3:7 3:0 3:4
/f/ 3:3 3:0 3:2
/j/ 4:3 3:0 3:7
/w/ 3:7 3:6 3:7
/t!/ 3:3 4:0 3:8
/m/ 3:7 3:6 3:7

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Phoneme Jimenez (1987) Acevedo (1989) Average

90% accuracy 90% accuracy
/n/ 3:11 3.6 3:9
/d/ 3:11 3:6 3:9
/g/ 4:7 4:6 4:7
/s/ 4:3 4:0 4:2
/x/ 4:11 3:6 3:9
/l/ 4:7 3:0 4:0
/r/ (tap) >5:7 4:0 -
/ñ/ 3:11 5.0 4:6
/R/ (trill) 4:7 5:6 5:1

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Phoneme English (Sanders, 1972) Spanish (Acevedo, 1993 &

(Eng; Spn)* Jimenez, 1987 average)

/p/ 3:0 3:2

/m/ 3:0 3:7

/h/; /x/ * 3:0 3:9

/n/ 3:0 3:9

/w/ 3:0 3:7

/b/ 3:0 3:2

/k/ 4:0 3:4

/g/ 4:0 4:7

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Phoneme Spanish (Acevedo,

(Eng; Spn)* English (Sanders, 1972) 1993 & Jimenez, 1987
average)

/d/ 4:0 3:9

/t/ 4:0 3:2

/"/; /ñ/ * 4:0 4:6

/f/ 4:0 3:2

/j/ 4:0 3:7

/#/; /r/ * >7:0 4:0- > 5:7

/l/ 6:0 4:0

/s/ 8:0 4:2

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Phonological Process Studies

Goldstein & Washington,

1. Tap, Trill deficiencies
2001; Martinez, 1986.
Becker, 1982; Goldstein &
2. Consonant sequence Iglesias, 1996; Goldstein &
reduction; Cluster reduction Washington, 2001; Martinez,
1986.
Goldstein & Iglesias, 1996;
3. Final consonant deletion Goldstein & Washington,
2001.
Becker, 1982; Goldstein &
4. Liquids Iglesias, 1996; Goldstein &
Washington, 2001.
Goldstein & Washington,
5. Stopping
2001; Martinez, 1986.
Goldstein & Washington,
6. Affrication, Deaffrication
2001; Martinez, 1986.

Descriptive Analysis: Spanish and English from the Brice,

Carson, & O’Brien, 2009 study.

/b/ /k/ /j/ /w/ /d/ /l/ /s/ /n/

(final) (final) (final) (final)

Spanish 94% 88% 94% 94% 63% 100% 63% 100%

accuracy

English 100% 94% 69% 69% 100% 81% 88% 81%

accuracy

English Only Descriptive Analysis: Spanish and English

from the Brice, Carson, & O’Brien, 2009 study.

Accuracy
Sounds /$, %/ < 75%
Sounds /b, v, &, !/ < 75%

Please note that /$, %, v, !/ do not occur in Spanish.

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Conclusions
•! Bilingual (Spanish-English speakers) display
different types of articulation and phonological
errors than do monolingual (Spanish only vs.
English only speakers).
•! Not all sounds transfer between languages,
accuracy wise and at the same rate.
•! The frequency of occurrence of a sound in a
language can affect production for that
language.

•! The developmental age at which English is acquired can

affect English productions (as compared to Spanish
productions).

•! Spanish vs. English voicing, manner, and place differ and

can affect productions in either language.

•! Dialectal variations of Spanish can affect productions in

Spanish and English.

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 References
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American Preschoolers. Paper presented at the American Speech-Language-
Hearing Association Annual Convention, St. Louis, MO.
Becker, M.C. (1982). Phonological analysis of speech samples of monolingual Mexican
4-year olds. Unpublished master’s thesis, San Diego State University, San Diego,
CA.
Brice, A., Carson, C., & O’Brien, J. (2009). Spanish-English articulation and
phonology of four and five year old preschool children: An initial investigation.
Communication Disorders Quarterly, doi:10.1177/1525740108327447.
Jimenez, B.C. (1987). Acquisition of Spanish consonants in children aged 3-5 years, 7
months. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 18, 357-363.
Goldstein, B., & Iglesias, A. (1996). Phonological patterns in normally developing
Spanish-speaking 3-and 4-year-olds of Puerto Rican descent. Language, Speech,
and Hearing Services in Schools, 27, 82-89.
Goldstein, B., & Washington, P. S. (2001). An initial investigation of phonological
patterns in typically developing 4-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children.
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 153–164.
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Spanish pronunciation (pp. 137-169). Washington, DC: Georgetown University
Press.
Martinez, R. (1986). Phonological analysis of Spanish utterances of normally developing
Mexican-American Spanish speaking 3-year olds. Unpublished master’s project,
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.
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