THE VOWEL SYSTEM IN EMILIO ALARCOS LLORACH’S PHONOLOGY

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse Emilio Alarcos Llorach’s phonological treatment of the Spanish vowel system. From a historiographical point of view, the analysis of Alarcos’s work, beyond the four editions of the Fonología Española, confirms that he maintained his ideas regarding the number of phonemes and the consideration of vowels as variants of the phonemes /i/ and /u/, while modi- fying, refining and also rejecting some of the arguments put forward in his early publications.