Spanish (Spain) MFA dictionary v2.0.0a#

Maintainer: Montreal Forced Aligner
Language: Spanish
Dialect: Peninsular Spanish
Phone set: MFA
Number of words: 82,354
Phones: a b c d̪ e f i j k l m n o p r s tʃ t̪ u w x ç ð ŋ ɟ ɟʝ ɡ ɣ ɲ ɾ ʃ ʎ ʝ β θ
License: CC BY 4.0
Compatible MFA version: v2.0.0
Citation:

@techreport{mfa_spanish_spain_mfa_dictionary_2022,
	author={McAuliffe, Michael and Sonderegger, Morgan},
	title={Spanish (Spain) MFA dictionary v2.0.0a},
	address={\url{https://mfa-models.readthedocs.io/pronunciation dictionary/Spanish/Spanish (Spain) MFA dictionary v2_0_0a.html}},
	year={2022},
	month={May},
}

If you have comments or questions about this dictionary or its phone set, you can check previous MFA model discussion posts or create a new one.

G2P models

Spanish (Spain) MFA G2P model v2.0.0a

Installation#

Install from the MFA command line:

mfa model download dictionary spanish_spain_mfa

Or download from the release page.

The dictionary available from the release page and command line installation has pronunciation and silence probabilities estimated as part acoustic model training (see Silence probability format and training pronunciation probabilities for more information. If you would like to use the version of this dictionary without probabilities, please see the plain dictionary.

Intended use#

This dictionary is intended for forced alignment of Spanish transcripts.

This dictionary uses the MFA phone set for Spanish, and was used in training the Spanish MFA acoustic model. Pronunciations can be added on top of the dictionary, as long as no additional phones are introduced.

Performance Factors#

When trying to get better alignment accuracy, adding pronunciations is generally helpful, especially for different styles and dialects. The most impactful improvements will generally be seen when adding reduced variants that involve deleting segments/syllables common in spontaneous speech. Alignment must include all phones specified in the pronunciation of a word, and each phone has a minimum duration (by default 10ms). If a speaker pronounces a multisyllabic word with just a single syllable, it can be hard for MFA to fit all the segments in, so it will lead to alignment errors on adjacent words as well.

Ethical considerations#

Deploying any Speech-to-Text model into any production setting has ethical implications. You should consider these implications before use.

Demographic Bias#

You should assume every machine learning model has demographic bias unless proven otherwise. For pronunciation dictionaries, it is often the case that transcription accuracy and lexicon coverage for the prestige variety modeled in this dictionary compared to other variants. If you are using this dictionary in production, you should acknowledge this as a potential issue.

IPA Charts#

Consonants#

Obstruent symbols to the left of are unvoiced and those to the right are voiced.

Vowels#

Vowel symbols to the left of are unrounded and those to the right are rounded.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i Occurrences: 48,462 Examples: * play: [p l e i] * salí: [s a l i] * pis: [p i s] * estío: [e s t ̪ i o]		u Occurrences: 15,890 Examples: * pude: [p u ð e] * out: [a u t ̪] * zurda: [θ u r ð a] * agudo: [a ɣ u ð o]

Close-Mid	e Occurrences: 65,816 Examples: * estoy: [e s t ̪ o i] * equis: [e c i s] * tests: [t ̪ e s t ̪ s] * late: [l a t ̪ e]		o Occurrences: 66,612 Examples: * bond: [b o n d ̪] * zuko: [θ u k o] * aliso: [a l i s o] * hoces: [o θ e s]

Open-Mid

Open		a Occurrences: 113,987 Examples: * cuita: [k w i t ̪ a] * reach: [r e a k] * saeta: [s a e t ̪ a] * coña: [k o ɲ a]

Manner	Labial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m Occurrences: 22,296 Examples: * tomar: [t ̪ o m a ɾ] * maní: [m a n i] * muela: [m w e l a] * mason: [m a s o n]			n Occurrences: 37,632 Examples: * andré: [a n d ̪ ɾ e] * única: [u n i k a] * bloom: [b l u n] * mine: [m i n e]		ɲ Occurrences: 2,400 Examples: * sueña: [s w e ɲ a] * paño: [p a ɲ o] * pañil: [p a ɲ i l] * goñi: [ɡ o ɲ i]	ŋ Occurrences: 2,615 Examples: * yunco: [ɟ ʝ u ŋ k o] * fango: [f a ŋ ɡ o] * ing: [i ŋ] * vengo: [b e ŋ ɡ o]
Stop	p Occurrences: 16,350 Examples: * pasó: [p a s o] * pego: [p e ɣ o] * síp: [s i p] * capas: [k a p a s] b Occurrences: 6,900 Examples: * braun: [b ɾ a u n] * batió: [b a t ̪ j o] * borra: [b o r a] * botín: [b o t ̪ i n]		t̪ Occurrences: 35,977 Examples: * cauta: [k a u t ̪ a] * yates: [ɟ ʝ a t ̪ e s] * monta: [m o n t ̪ a] * batán: [b a t ̪ a n] d̪ Occurrences: 10,206 Examples: * vende: [b e n d ̪ e] * andi: [a n d ̪ i] * bland: [b l a n d ̪] * dile: [d ̪ i l e]			c Occurrences: 2,331 Examples: * caqui: [k a c i] * equis: [e c i s] * akira: [a c i ɾ a] * gorki: [ɡ o r c i] ɟ Occurrences: 194 Examples: * yale: [ɟ ʝ a l] * yurí: [ɟ ʝ u ɾ i] * yves: [ɟ ʝ β e s] * yesca: [ɟ ʝ e s k a]	k Occurrences: 23,545 Examples: * naco: [n a k o] * sacó: [s a k o] * clube: [k l u β e] * zueco: [θ w e k o] ɡ Occurrences: 2,478 Examples: * goncz: [ɡ o n t ʃ a s] * greco: [ɡ ɾ e k o] * game: [ɡ a m e] * song: [s o ŋ ɡ]
Affricate					tʃ Occurrences: 2,595 Examples: * chigi: [t ʃ i ʝ i] * char: [t ʃ a ɾ] * eche: [e t ʃ e] * chef: [t ʃ e f]	ɟʝ Occurrences: 399 Examples: * yaya: [ɟ ʝ a ʝ a] * yuan: [ɟ ʝ w a n] * yines: [ɟ ʝ i n e s] * yembe: [ɟ ʝ e m b e]
Sibilant				s Occurrences: 54,606 Examples: * antes: [a n t ̪ e s] * samos: [s a m o s] * sajá: [s a x a] * isler: [i s l e ɾ]	ʃ Occurrences: 280 Examples: * hacha: [a t ʃ a] * chivo: [t ʃ i β o] * smash: [s m a ʃ] * chapa: [t ʃ a p a]
Fricative		f Occurrences: 7,766 Examples: * fire: [f a ʝ e ɾ] * fiada: [f j a ð a] * furia: [f u ɾ j a] * draft: [d ̪ ɾ a f t ̪]	θ Occurrences: 14,861 Examples: * cindy: [θ i n d ̪ i] * acial: [a θ j a l] * razor: [r a θ o ɾ] * decía: [d ̪ e θ i a] ð Occurrences: 33,090 Examples: * acid: [a θ i ð] * odre: [o ð ɾ e] * budín: [b u ð i n] * adán: [a ð a n]			ç Occurrences: 3,138 Examples: * georg: [ç e o r ɣ] * jemer: [ç e m e ɾ] * meiji: [m e i ç i] * argel: [a r ç e l] ʝ Occurrences: 1,271 Examples: * yak: [ɟ ʝ a k] * iowa: [ɟ ʝ o w a] * shogi: [s o ʝ i] * yines: [ɟ ʝ i n e s]
Approximant	w Occurrences: 3,594 Examples: * padua: [p a ð w a] * fuese: [f w e s e] * pues: [p w e s] * wey: [w e i]					j Occurrences: 12,012 Examples: * lucie: [l u θ j e] * rubio: [r u β j o] * osmio: [o s m j o] * katie: [k a t ̪ j e]
Tap				ɾ Occurrences: 37,943 Examples: * siria: [s i ɾ j a] * aimar: [a i m a ɾ] * sidra: [s i ð ɾ a] * ungir: [u ɲ ç i ɾ]
Trill				r Occurrences: 17,275 Examples: * parta: [p a r t ̪ a] * avery: [a β e r i] * cerda: [θ e r ð a] * arpón: [a r p o n]
Lateral				l Occurrences: 24,810 Examples: * molar: [m o l a ɾ] * bucle: [b u k l e] * bolis: [b o l i s] * herzl: [e r θ l]		ʎ Occurrences: 2,149 Examples: * pulla: [p u ʎ a] * ellen: [e ʎ e n] * lloyd: [ʎ o ʝ ð] * bell: [b e ʎ]