Allophone

Information about Allophone

In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. A phone is a sound that has a definite shape as a sound wave, while a phoneme is a basic group of sounds that can distinguish words (i.e. changing one phoneme in a word can produce another word); speakers of a particular language perceive a phoneme as a single distinctive sound in that language. Thus an allophone is a phone considered as a member of one phoneme.

We may distinguish complementary allophones, which are distributed regularly within the idiolect of the same speaker according to phonetic environment, from free variants, which are a matter of personal habit or regional accent.

In the case of complementary allophones, each allophone is used in a specific phonetic context and many times there is some sort of phonological process. Not all phonemes have significantly different allophones, but there are always minor differences in articulation from one piece of speech to the next.

Examples in English

For example, [pʰ] as in pin and [p] as in spin are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the English language because they occur in complementary distribution. English speakers generally treat these as the same sound, but they are different; the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated (plain). Plain [p] also occurs as the p in cap [kʰæp], or the second p in paper [pʰeɪ.pɚ]. In contexts where plain p appears in English (e.g. spin, cap, paper), speakers may hear it as b since the p in these contexts lacks the burst of air found with the p in pin. Besides, there are many different allophones in English, like lack of plosion, nasal plosion, partial devoicing of sonorants, complete devoicing of sonorants, partial devoicing of obstruents, lengthening and shortening vowels, dentalisation and retruction.

Aspiration – strong explosion of breath. In English a voiceless plosive that is p, t or k is aspirated whenever it stands as the only consonant at the beginning of the stressed syllable.


Lack of plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g) has no plosion when it is followed by another plosive or an affricate inside words or across word boundary.


Nasal plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g) has nasal plosion when it’s followed by nasal, inside a word or across word boundary.


Partial devoicing of sonorants – In English a non vocalic sonorant that is not a vowel (j, w, l, r, m, n, ŋ) is partially devoiced when it follows a voiceless sound within the same way inside a word.


Complete devoicing of sonorants – In English a non vocalic sonorant is completely devoiced in the position of aspiration, when they follow a voiceless plosives (p, t, k) standing as the first consonant at the beginning of the stressed syllable.


Partial devoicing of obstruents – in English language a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next to a pause or next to a voiceless sound, inside a word or across it’s boundary.


Dentalisation – in English t, d, n, l are becoming dental before voiced and voiceless English ‘th’ sound.


Retruction – in English t, d, n, l are retructed before r.


Certain Chinese languages treat these two phones differently, for example in Mandarin, [p] is always written b in pinyin; thus, they are not allophones.

English-speaking people may become aware of the difference between two allophones of the phoneme t when they consider the pronunciations of the following phrases:
  • Night rate: IPA [naɪtˀ.ɹeɪtˀ]
  • Nitrate: IPA [ˈnaɪˌtɹeɪtˀ]

"Elsewhere" condition

When there are two allophones for one phoneme in a given language, linguists use the "elsewhere condition" to determine which is the original allophone and which is the variation. For example, to determine when oral and nasalized vowels occur in English, the pattern is noted that all vowels are oral, except when the vowel comes before a nasal within the same syllable. Therefore, according to the "elsewhere condition", nasalized vowels are allophones of their oral counterparts.

References

See also

Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning 'sound, voice') is the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), and their production, audition and perception, while phonology, which
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Within phonetics, a phone is:
  • a speech sound or gesture considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the phonology of a language
  • a speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties

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phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes meaning. Phonemes are not the physical segments themselves, but abstractions of them. An example of a phoneme would be the /t/ found in words like tip,
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An idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of word selection and grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual.
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Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers.
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For the journal, see .
Phonology (Greek φωνή (phōnē), voice, sound + λόγος (lógos), word, speech, subject of discussion), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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Complementary distribution in linguistics is the relationship between two different elements, where one element is found in a particular environment and the other element is found in the opposite environment.
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Aspiration may refer to:
  • Aspiration (phonetics), the release of a strong burst of air after some obstruents
  • Engine aspiration method:

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In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of his or
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Spoken Chinese (or Chinese dialects) comprises many regional variants. Although the English word dialect is often used to translate the Chinese term fangyan (Chinese: 方言
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  • **
Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; Traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音
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International Phonetic Alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The International
Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English The
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An allophonic rule is a phonological rule that says which allophone realizes a phoneme in a given phonemic environment. In other words, an allophonic rule is a rule that converts the phonemes in a phonemic transcription into the allophones of the corresponding phonetic
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allomorph is a linguistics term for a variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound (phonologically) without changing meaning. It is used in linguistics to explain the comprehension of variations in sound for a specific morpheme.
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In linguistics, an alternation is the phenomenon of a phoneme or morpheme exhibiting variation in its phonological realization. Each of the various realizations is called an alternate.
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Complementary distribution in linguistics is the relationship between two different elements, where one element is found in a particular environment and the other element is found in the opposite environment.
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phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes meaning. Phonemes are not the physical segments themselves, but abstractions of them. An example of a phoneme would be the /t/ found in words like tip,
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A

  • Acoustic phonetics
  • Active articulator
  • Affricate
  • Airstream mechanism
  • Alfred C. Gimson
  • Allophone
  • Alveolar approximant
  • Alveolar consonant
  • Alveolar ejective fricative
  • Alveolar ejective
  • Alveolar flap
  • Alveolar nasal

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Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers.
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