Foster, David William; Altamiranda, Daniel; de Urioste, Carmen (1999). "Capitalization". The Writer's Reference Guide to Spanish. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 75–77. ISBN978-0-292-72511-9. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
"No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, celebrado en 1994, se acordó adoptar para los diccionarios académicos, a petición de varios organismos internacionales, el orden alfabético latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll no se consideran letras independientes. En consecuencia, estas dos letras pasan a alfabetizarse en los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la C (entre -cg- y -ci-) y dentro de la L (entre -lk- y -lm-), respectivamente." Real Academia Española. ExplanationArchived September 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at spanishpronto.comArchived September 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish and English)
"No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, celebrado en 1994, se acordó adoptar para los diccionarios académicos, a petición de varios organismos internacionales, el orden alfabético latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll no se consideran letras independientes. En consecuencia, estas dos letras pasan a alfabetizarse en los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la C (entre -cg- y -ci-) y dentro de la L (entre -lk- y -lm-), respectivamente." Real Academia Española. ExplanationArchived September 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at spanishpronto.comArchived September 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish and English)
"No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, celebrado en 1994, se acordó adoptar para los diccionarios académicos, a petición de varios organismos internacionales, el orden alfabético latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll no se consideran letras independientes. En consecuencia, estas dos letras pasan a alfabetizarse en los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la C (entre -cg- y -ci-) y dentro de la L (entre -lk- y -lm-), respectivamente." Real Academia Española. ExplanationArchived September 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine at spanishpronto.comArchived September 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish and English)
The distinction is usually preserved in dialects with sheísmo or zheísmo (such as Rioplatense Spanish), in which ⟨y⟩ is pronounced [ʃ] or [ʒ], while ⟨hi⟩ is [j]. Additionally, some speakers pronounce certain ⟨hi-⟩ words with a hiatus, thus making them distinct from ⟨y-⟩ words; for example, hierba can be pronounced with either a diphthong (/ˈʝer.ba/) or a hiatus (/i.ˈer.ba/). However, this varies by region, and does not apply to all ⟨hi-⟩ words (e.g. hierro is never pronounced with a hiatus).
Modern words in which h is derived from Latin f (e.g. hacer, hablar) were spelled with f, pronounced [f], in Old Spanish (e.g. fazer, fablar), and there was a transitional stage pronounced [h] before the sound was entirely lost; hence the modern spelling with h. But in words derived from Latin words with h (e.g. hoy, prohibir), the letter was always silent in Spanish. And words beginning with either of the diphthongs [je] or [we] (e.g. hielo, huevo) were given an initial h in spelling (always silent) to ensure that their initial glide was not read as a consonant (in Old Spanish, the letters i and j were often interchanged, as were u and v).
In the verb subrayar the trilled initial [r] of the root raya is maintained, even with the prefix sub-. The same goes for ciudadrealeño (from Ciudad Real). However, after vowels, the initial ⟨r⟩ of the root becomes ⟨rr⟩ in prefixed or compound words: prorrogar, infrarrojo, autorretrato, arriesgar.
In words with the combination -xs- (e.g., exsenador), the pronunciation is [ks], and the two [s] sounds are merged into one. The same goes for -xc- before e, i (e.g., excelente) in varieties with seseo.
