The Phoneme
- Phoneme vs. Allophone
- Minimal pair
- Contrastive Distribution
- Complementary Distribution
- Free Variation
Prepared by SABARIAH MD RASHID
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, students are able to:
state the difference between a phoneme
and an allophone
describe the different procedures used to
identify and group phonemes
provide appropriate examples for the different
procedures used to establish phonemes
Phonology (A review)
Deals with the organisation of speech sounds
(phones – at a more abstract level) in a
particular language
- Which sound s are predictable/unpredictable?
- What context allows us to predict the
occurrence of certain sounds?
- Which sounds affect the meaning of words?
Phoneme: the basic unit of contrast in phonology.
It was originally defined shortly before 1900,
but was prominent in phonology from the 1930’s to
the 1950’s (generally called the American Structuralist
period, whereby a great deal of attention was given to
the development of explicit principles & procedures for
identifying the phonemes of a language).
Further developments in the 1960’s challenged the
traditional definition of the phoneme.
A bit of history
Aim of Phonologists
To establish
patterns of organization
within the indefinitely large
range of sounds
heard in languages
Phonological Analysis
A Phonological Analysis consists of the following
elements:
◦ List of the phonemes of a language
◦ Classification system for categorizing the
phonemes
◦ Distribution of speech sounds (phones)
◦ Phonotactics - positional and sequential
occurrences of phonemes within a language
◦ List of the allophonic variations for each of the
phonemes
Traditional phonological theories described it as the
minimal unit in the sound system
An abstract underlying unit of speech sounds; stored
in the memory (a mental entity)
Example: /p/ & /t/ are phonemes; phonemes are
indicated within slashes: / p /
The phoneme / p / can be pronounced in different
ways (can have different realisations);
- in English, the /p/ sounds in pit, spin, lip
correspond to one phoneme
Phoneme
Allophone
Realizations of a phoneme that are predictable
from context; predictable surface elements of speech sounds, e.g., [p] [p] [p ]
Corresponds to something physical produced by a
speaker
Allophones are indicated within square brackets:[p] [p ]
[p] [p ] [p] are 3 allophones of the phoneme /p/
which have specific distributions, e.g. [p] occurs in
the initial position of English words, e.g., in pool [pu:]
A phoneme and its allophones can be illustrated as:
[p] [p ] [ p ]
pit spin lip
/p/
Phoneme (cont’d)
e.g. [ _ u:]
In the above example, one can guess the
allophone of /p/ that goes in the blank if we are
told that the blank must be filled with a p-sound.
Why are allophones predictable?
Consider the following:
We can predict which p-sound will be pronounced
in which context;
In English, the phoneme /p/ is realized as
three allophones:
- [p ] in the word initial position (word initially),
e.g. [pt] pat,
- [ p ] in an initial cluster following [s], e.g. [spin] spin,
- [p ] at the end of a word, e.g. [lip ] lip
To help understand the difference between a
phoneme & an allophone, consider the following:
A phoneme is stored in the memory. It is
represented in slanting brackets / p /.
An allophone is the realization of a phoneme
(something uttered). It is represented in square
brackets [ p ].
To identify a phoneme:
Several procedures were developed by phonologistsfor the purpose of identifying the phonemes of a language or establishing the phonemic status of a sound, e.g. to show contrast between sounds. Terms/concepts established are:
Contrastive distribution
Complementary distribution
Parallel distribution
Minimal pairs
Free variation
Distribution of Speech Sounds
Distribution of a speech sound: the set of
phonetic environments in which a sound
occurs/the range of places within a word which
a given sound may occur
- e.g., in English, aspirated consonants occur
syllable-initially
Types of distribution:
- Complementary distribution
- Contrastive distribution
- Parallel distribution
Complementary Distribution
A case where two sounds do not occur in the same
phonetic environment (the distribution of the pair of
sounds is mutually exclusive)
Complementary distribution explains the number of
allophones grouped within a phoneme; they are
allophones of the same phoneme
- e.g., [p ] & [p] are in complementary distribution
in English
Sounds in complementary distribution occur in non-
overlapping environments
Complementary Distribution (cont’d)
Example:
The allophones of the phoneme /p/ has the following
distribution:
- [p ] is realized at the beginning of words, but not in
clusters following [s], e.g. pan
- [p] is realized in clusters following [s], e.g. spin, &
- [p ] is realized at the end of words but not in initial
position, e.g., tap
CONSIDER:
Aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops in English below:
(to show complementary distribution)
(a) [pu:] ‘pool’ (b) [p] ‘appear’
(c) [sp:t] ‘spurt’ (d) [dspat] ‘despite’
(e) [tp] ‘top’ (f) [tk] ‘attack’
(g) [stp] ‘stop’ (h) [dst] ‘destroy’
(i) [kl] ‘killing’ (j) [ku:] ‘accrue’
(k) [skod] ‘scold’ (l) [dsv] ‘discover’
NB: The diacritic above represents stress at the beginning of a syllable.
• Voiceless stops are
aspirated when they
are at the beginning
of a stressed
syllable, e.g. in pool
& appear.
• Voiceless stops are
unaspirated when
preceded by a
voiceless alveolar
fricative
Complementary Distribution (cont’d)
Sounds which are in complementary distribution
are phonetically similar, i.e. they share the same
characteristics.
For example, [p] & [p] in the English data are both
stops, voiceless & bilabials.
The sounds [p] & [p] belong to a single mental
category, i.e. the phoneme /p/
/p/
[p] [p]
/t/
[t] [t]
/k/
[k] [k]
English voiceless stop phonemes and their
allophones (realizations):
(a) [pul] ‘grass’ (b) [pul] ‘fire’
(c) [tal] ‘mask’ (d) [tal] ‘moon’
(e) [kda] ‘dig’ (f) [kda] ‘fold’
Compare the distribution of English aspirated and
unaspirated voiceless stops with the Korean data below:
The distribution of the aspirated & unaspirated
voiceless stops in Korean is overlapping.
This kind of distribution is called parallel distribution.
Parallel Distribution
In Korean, the distinction between aspirated &
unaspirated voiceless stops is semantically
contrastive, i.e. it makes a difference to the
meaning of 2 words which have the same form
To Koreans:
[p] in grass & [p ] in fire are NOT the same [pul] [ pul]
Semantically contrastive sounds
Contrastive Distribution
A pair of speech sounds (phones) is in
contrastive distribution if interchanging the
two can result in a change in meaning
- e.g., [s] and [ ] are in contrastive
distribution in English as in:
sue - shoe
Are [k] and [b] in contrastive
distribution in English?
To construct this question, construct a
minimal pair
e.g.,
bat [] & cat []
What difference do you notice in this
pair of words?
Minimal pair
Two words which differ only by just one sound in
the same position & have different meanings
e.g.: ‘cat’ // & 'bat’//(difference in ONE sound in initial position),
A contrast that can help establish phonemes
A procedure in phonology to determine which sounds
belong to the same class or phoneme),
that vs. chat // vs. //
shame vs. shave // vs. //
had vs. head /hd/ vs. /hed/
feel vs. fill /f i:l/ vs. /fl/vowel difference
Other examples of minimal pairs:
consonant difference
Minimal pairs
More examples:
bad // vs. mad // - a minimal pair
foot // vs boot // - NOT a minimal pair
judge [] & charge [:] - near minimal pairs
Pairs such as judge [] & charge [:]
are NOT minimal pairs, as there are differences
in 2 sounds, i.e. [] & [] and [] & [:]
Minimal Pair (cont’d)
Minimal pairs rest on contrastive distribution;
e.g. ‘bat’ vs ‘cat’
The contrast in the words can be seen by
substituting one sound for another in the
same position, /b/ vs. //
[b] & [k] are allophones of different phonemes of
/b/ & /k/, respectively.
/p/
[p]
/p/
[p]
/t/
[t]
/t/
[t]
/k/
[k]
/k/
[k]
Some Korean voiceless stop phonemes
CONSIDER:[] and [] in Scottish English and Korean
Scottish English Korean
(a) [lm] lamb (b) [mul] ‘water’
(c) [rm] ram (d) [mulkama] ‘place of water’
(e) [lp] lip (f) [mue] ‘at the water’
(g) [ip] rip (h) [ mal] ‘horse’
(i) [bi] berry (j) [malkama] ‘place for horse’
(k) [bli] belly (l) [mare] ‘at the horse’
The phonemic status of [] and [] in Scottish English
and Korean
Scottish English
speakers
Korean speakers
Phonemic units(perceptual)
Allophonic units(articulatory)
/l/ //
[l] []
/l/
[l] []
• In Scottish English: a phonemic contrast between /l/ & //- 2 distinct mental categories
• In Korean: no such phonemic contrast, only 1 phoneme /l/- an allophonic contrast between [l] & []- a single mental category
For the data on English & Korean that we
looked at, we can say that phonetic differences
are allophonic in English but phonemic in
Korean.
What can we conclude based on the
Phonemic Principle?
Consider:English ‘clear ’ and ‘dark ’
(a) [k] clever
(b) [z] bells
(c) [pn] plain
(d) [] trail
(e) [lk] look
(f) [p] pull
‘Clear l’
occurs immediately before vowels
‘Dark l’
occurs immediately after vowels
English Korean
/l/ realization in English
• /l/ is realized as [] immediately
after a vowel
/l/ realization in Korean
• /l/ is realized as [] between
vowels
/l/
[l] []
/l/
[ l ] []
// realization in English and Korean
The Phonemic Principle (Distribution of sounds)
Make the list of the environments where the sound
occurs
Do the sounds occur in the same environment?
NO
a) The sounds are in
complementary
distribution
b) The sounds are
phonetically similar
The sounds are allophones
(realizations) of the same
phoneme
YES
The sounds are in parallel
distribution (overlapping)
contrastive distribution &
showing semantic contrast or
they are in contrastive
distribution
The sounds are allophones
of different phonemes
Free Variation
A term used to refer to two sounds that occur in
overlapping environments but not changing the
word meaning
Example:
1.Different pronunciations of the word neither
/ni: / or /na /
2. When a speaker articulates a word like ‘lip’
with:
- an unreleased or an aspirated plosive:[ ] or [ ] - lip
- released/unreleased word-final stops/plosives:[] or [] - pot
Free Variation (cont’d)
The different phonetic realizations of a phoneme
are called ‘free variants’
e.g. [i:] & [a] are free variants in /ni: / or /na /
When several phones are in complementary
distribution & in free variation, they are allophones
of a single/the same phoneme.
Other examples:
[ ] or [ ]
[] or [][] or []
When several phones are in complementary distribution & in free variation, they are allophones of a single/the same phoneme. In English, free variation is a very limited phenomenon
Free Variation (cont’d)
Exercise
1. Give 2 examples of minimal pairs which show contrast
in vowels and consonants.
2. Establish at least TWO minimal pairs in English showing
contrast in the following pairs of sounds in two different
positions:
i ) the initial position of a word &
ii) the final position of a word
a. [k] & [g] b. [m] & [n] c. [p] & [f]
d. [s] & [] e. [v] & [b]
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