Abstract

It is generally accepted that the vowel system of Spanish consists of five phonological units, two of them /i/ and /u/, and that [j] and [w] are their gliding variants, present in diphthongs. This account faces challenges, however, when the articulation of the orthographic sequences “hi” plus vowel –as in hielo (ice)– and “hu” plus vowel –as in huevo (egg)– are considered. The first phonetic element of these sequences displays a wide range of realizations, which, along with a limited contextual distribution, makes it difficult to determine whether they are best interpreted as phonetic variants from phonological vowels or consonants. This study uses quantitative methods to compare the realizations from the aforementioned orthographic sequences to similar vocalic and consonantal structures. Although alternative analyses are also plausible, we conclude that, for Chilean Spanish, these units are better interpreted as variants from two new independent phonological units /w/ and /j/.