Allophones Essay

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Allophonic Variation The allo/eme relationship Eme- denotes the prefix allo-. Allo- refers to 2 or more phonemes allophone- 2 or more contextual changes, different pronunciation of the phoneme. Phoneme- is the abstract form /t/. Allophone is a concrete sound of an abstract form, these means all the different ways of pronunciation of one word by different people. The two allophone criteria A phoneme of a language is identified through a minimal pair, a pair of words that in meaning and in only one sound. The single most important criterion for identifying allophones, then is the absence of a minimal pair. Allophones in free variation. If two or more allophones can replace another, these allophones are said to be free variant or in free variation. The choice of one allophone rather than another may depend on such factors as communicative situation, language, variety, and social class. The expressions free variants and free variation are also, but less commonly, used in the few exceptional cases where two phonemes can replace each other without causing any change of meaning. We know that phonemes usually do cause a change of meaning but in some words, two normally contrasting phonemes are both acceptable. Allophones in complementary distribution. If two or more allophones cannot replace one another, these allophones are said to be contextual variants or in complementary distribution. Complementary distribution is a systematic relationship between two or more allophones, whereby one allophone can only occur in a phonetic environment I which none of the others can: they are mutually exclusive. If allophones in complementary distribution did replace one another for some reason, the resultant pronunciation would merely sound odd, or the articulation would feel awkward, but this would not cause a change of meaning. Devoicing. If an intrinsically voiced or
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