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# 2.4 Spanish fricatives

## Table 2 Spanish fricatives

Phoneme | Allophone | Orthography | Articulation | Context
/f/ | [f] | f | voiceless labiodental fricative | all
/θ/ | [θ] | z, ce, ci | voiceless dental fricative | all – in Central and Northern Peninsular Spanish only
|  |  | partially voiced | before voiced consonants (hazme)
/s/ | [s] | s, in most dialects also z, ce, ci | voiceless alveolar fricative (might be apical, dorsal, dental, etc.) | all except voiced consonant
| [z] | s, in most dialects also z, ce, ci | Voiced alveolar fricative | before voiced consonants
/x/ | [x] | j, ge, gi (x in archaically spelt words like México, Texas) | voiceless velar fricative | all
| [χ] |  | voiceless uvular fricative | in Northern Peninsular Spanish, especially before back vowel (jo ven)
| [h] |  | voiceless glottal fricative | in vast areas of America and Southern Spain
/ʝ/ | [ʝ] or [j] | y (ll) | voiced palatal fricative | all
| [Ɉ] or [ʤ] |  | voiced palatal affricate | utterance-initially and after a nasal or a lateral

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