Last updated: 2019-08-28
Background
Language family: Indo-European / Italic / Romance / Italo-Western / Western / Gallo-Iberian / Ibero-Romance / West Iberian / Asturo-Leonese
- Asturian is spoken in northwestern Spain.
Phonology
Consonants
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Dental
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Alveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Stops
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p b
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t̪ d̪
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k ɡ
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Affricates
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tʃ
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Fricatives
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f
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θ
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s
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ʃ
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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Trills
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r
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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l
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j ʎ
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. Both palatal approximants are voiced, but the one on the right is lateral.
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Vowels
- /i/ and /u/ become glides [j] and [w] respectively when unstressed, forming diphthongs and triphthongs with adjoining vowels (Muñiz-Cachón 2018, 6).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
- In some dialects the digraphs ⟨ḷḷ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩, ⟨ts⟩, ⟨yy⟩ appear, corresponding to a variety of different phonemes (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 15).
- ⟨j⟩, ⟨k⟩, and ⟨w⟩ appear in loanwords (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 15).
- Stress is denoted by accented vowels; however, we do not account for stress, so accented vowels will be transcribed to their plain counterparts.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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c
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/k/; /θ/
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/k/: preceding back vowels; /θ/: preceding front vowels
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d
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/d̪/
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e
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/e/
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ɡ/
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h
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∅
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i
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/i/
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l
|
/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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ñ
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/ɲ/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/r/; /ɾ/
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/r/: word-initially
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t̪/
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u
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/u/
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ü
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/u/
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v
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/b/
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x
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/ʃ/
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y
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/j/
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z
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/θ/
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Digraph
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ch
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/tʃ/
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gu
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/ɡ/
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preceding front vowels
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ll
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/ʎ/
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qu
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/k/
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preceding front vowels
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rr
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/r/
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Lenition Rules
- Fricatives /θ/, /s/, and /ʃ/ tend to become voiced in coda positions (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 39–40).
- /d/ spirantizes intervocalically and followed by /r/ (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 38).
- /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ become approximates word-medially, following obstruents (Muñiz-Cachón 2018, 3).
- In addition to approximating, /ɡ/ often spirantizes to /ɣ/ (ibid.).
Misc. Rules
- An apostrophe indicates a sound is missing - synonymous with a contraction (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 18).
- Dashes are used to separate sounds that would otherwise be altered due to specified digraphs (e.g. retention of pronouns) (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana 2001, 18).
- /r/ and /ɾ/ are contrastive word-medially. Otherwise, /r/ occurs word-initially and /ɾ/ occurs word-finally (Muñiz-Cachón 2018, 3).
References
Academia de la Llingua Asturiana. 2001. Gramática de La Llingua Asturiana. Uviéu: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana.
Muñiz-Cachón, Carmen. 2018. “Asturian.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 48 (2): 231–41. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000202.