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Teaching Spanish pronunciation
Teaching Spanish pronunciation

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2.4 Spanish fricatives

Table 2 Spanish fricatives
Phoneme Allophone Orthography Articulation Context
/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 (joven)
  [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