Phoneme vs. Allophones

1
Phoneme vs. Allophones
2
phoneme vs. allophones

• broad transcription
• abstract segment
• mental unit
• underlying representation
• meaning significance
• distinguish words
• (minimal pair)
• unpredictable

• narrow transcription
• concrete phones
• practical pronunciation
• free variation
• no meaning significance
• non-distinctive
• In complementary distribution
• (mutually exclusive)
• rule-governed

3
phoneme vs. allophones

• p, ph, p
• t, th, t
• k, kh, k

• /p/
• /t/
• /k/

Minimal pairs
allophones pit vs. bit /p/
? p / s___ spoon, speak time vs.
dime /p/ ? ph / ___
picture, pure keep vs. beep /p/
? p / ___ stop, cup
4
Allophonic variations of the phoneme /t/ (????)
(??)

• /t/ ? th / ___
• /t/ ? t / s___
• /t/ ? t? / ___
• /t/ ? tN / ___nasal
• /t/ ? tL / ___lateral
• /t/ ? tG / V___V
• in complementary distribution(??? ??)
• mutually exclusive in their environment
  
• (?? ??? ??)

5

• a. aspirated (??, ???, ???)
• /t/ ? th / ___ Tim, take, time,
  together, terrible
•  
• b. unaspirated (???, ????)
• /t/ ? t / s___ stem, strike, stop,
  stake, stream
•  
• c. unreleased (????, ???)
• /t/ ? t? / ___ spot, pit, foot, hat,
  hot, caught
• d. nasal plosive (?? ???)
• /t/ ? tN / ___nasal bit me, batman,
  statement, button, bottom
•  
• e. lateral plosive (?? ???)
• /t/ ? tL / ___lateral bottle, cattle,
  blatantly, immediately
• f. flap (???)
• /t/ ? tG / V___V Betty, battery, water,
  botany, better, hotter