Latin script, A–Z plus Ñ. K and W appear only in loanwords (mainly foreign names and technical terms).
Vowels (5) — no length distinction, but stress is marked orthographically.
Glyph
Latin Chain
Phoneme (IPA)
Notes
A
a
/a/
open front vowel
E
e
/e/
close-mid front vowel
I
i
/i/
close front vowel
O
o
/o/
close-mid back vowel
U
u
/u/
close back vowel
Consonants (22 native letters + Ñ)
Glyph
Latin Chain
Phoneme (IPA)
Notes
B
b
/b ~ β/
[b] after pause or nasal; [β] intervocalic
C
c
/k/ before a, o, u; /θ/ (Castilian) or /s/ (Latin American) before e, i
D
d
/d ~ ð/
[d] after pause or nasal/lateral; [ð] intervocalic
F
f
/f/
G
g
/ɡ ~ ɣ/ before a, o, u; /x/ before e, i; [ɣ] intervocalic
H
h
silent
marks orthographic position
J
j
/x/
velar/uvular fricative; stronger in Spain
K
k
/k/
loans only
L
l
/l/
M
m
/m/
N
n
/n/
assimilates to place of articulation before consonants
Ñ
n + tilde
/ɲ/
palatal nasal
P
p
/p/
Q
q
/k/
always with u (qu) before e, i; u silent unless with dieresis
R
r
/r/
trilled r in initial position or rr medial
RR
r + r
/r/
trilled; written only between vowels
S
s
/s/
T
t
/t/
V
v
/b ~ β/
identical to b in pronunciation in most dialects
W
w
/w/
loans only
X
x
/ks/ in most words; /x/ in some Mexican toponyms (México)
Y
y
/ʝ ~ ʒ/
varies by dialect; in some regions merged with ll
Z
z
/θ/ (Castilian) or /s/ (Latin American)
Diacritics and Orthographic Marks
Acute accent (´) — marks stressed syllable when it breaks normal stress rules (camión, sofá).
Diaeresis (¨) over U in gue/gui — indicates U is pronounced (vergüenza /berˈɡwensa/).
Key Digraphs (phoneme units)
Ch → /t͡ʃ/ (considered a separate letter historically)
Ll → /ʎ/ (traditional) or /ʝ/ (yeísmo; modern common)
Qu → /k/ before e, i (u silent unless diaeresis)
Gu → /ɡ/ before e, i (u silent unless diaeresis)
Rr → /r/ trill (only between vowels)
System Integration Notes
Spanish orthography is largely phonemic, with predictable consonant/vowel correspondence.
Variations like /θ/ vs /s/ (distinción vs seseo) and /ʎ/ vs /ʝ/ (lleísmo vs yeísmo) are dialectal features — in our lattice, these get feature flags for dialect.
B/V merger means these letters map to the same phoneme node in most dialect modules.
