Abstract

This study provides first evidence to describe the phonetic nature of the sounds articulated in the orthographic sequences and followed by vowel in Chilean Spanish. In order to do this, instances of these sequences were observed, and some of their acoustic properties were measured. The acoustic data obtained from the orthographic sequences was compared using generalized linear mixed models to those of Spanish opening diphthongs (e.g., [je] and [we]) and of CV syllables (e.g., [de] and [ge]), in order to determine whether the first element of the sequences is more similar to vocalic or consonantal units. The results suggest that the and orthographic sequences are more closely related, at least acoustically, to CV syllables, which poses interesting challenges for the interpretation of this section of the Spanish phonetic and phonemic systems.