Palatal approximant

Phonetic ambiguity and transcription usage

Some languages, however, have a palatal approximant that is unspecified for rounding and so cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either [i] or its rounded counterpart, [y], which would normally correspond to [ɥ]. An example is Spanish, which distinguishes two palatal approximants: a semivowel approximant [j], which is always unrounded (and is a phonological vowel - an allophone of /i/), and a spirant approximant unspecified for rounding, [ʝ̞] (which is a phonological consonant). Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the difference between them as follows (with audio examples added):