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Lecture 11 - Descriptive Grammar 2-1

The document discusses the concepts of phonemes, allophones, and allophonic rules in speech sounds, highlighting their definitions and differences. It explains the types of sound distribution, including complementary distribution, free variation, and contrastive distribution, with examples. Additionally, it details the characteristics and variations of English plosive consonants, including aspiration, voicing, and contextual changes.

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Anna Sokala
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5 views3 pages

Lecture 11 - Descriptive Grammar 2-1

The document discusses the concepts of phonemes, allophones, and allophonic rules in speech sounds, highlighting their definitions and differences. It explains the types of sound distribution, including complementary distribution, free variation, and contrastive distribution, with examples. Additionally, it details the characteristics and variations of English plosive consonants, including aspiration, voicing, and contextual changes.

Uploaded by

Anna Sokala
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© © All Rights Reserved
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LECTURE 11

PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES


In communication, each speech sound (phone) produced by the speaker is interpreted as an instance
of a sound category (phoneme) by the listener. The categories (phonemes) share major feature
specifications, but differ in phonetic realisation. Most of phonetic realisations are predictable and can
be described by rules – ALLOPHONIC RULES. The phonetic realisations of phonemes are called
ALLOPHONES.

phone – a speech sound


phoneme – a variant of a sound category; contrastive units of sound which can be used to change meaning
allophone – a phonetic realisation of a sound category; non-distinctive units

Allophonic variability does not have a contrastive function – the change of one allophone for another
allophone of the same phoneme does not change the meaning, although it conveys additional
information about the speaker (e.g., the change of allophones in complementary distribution, as
aspirated vs. unaspirated /t/ in syllable initial position may signal that a speaker is a foreigner; the
choice of a given free variant may results from a dialect or register choice) (Waniek-Klimczak 2002:
42).
Types of distribution in which sounds occur:
The distribution of allophones is based on a COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION (only one
allophone fits a given phonetic environment) or FREE VARIATION (more than one allophone is
acceptable in a given context).
The phonemes and the allophones of different phonemes are in CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION
– the substitution of one allophone of a given phoneme for an allophone of another phoneme may
change the meaning of a word (Waniek-Klimczak 2002: 42).

1. /l/ + vowel or /j/ (onset) → clear [l] → lip [lɪp]


Complementary distribution: clear [l] vs. dark [ɫ] 2. /l/ + consonant/silence (coda) -> dark [ɫ] → bill [bɪɫ]

Free variation: [t] vs. [ʔ] ['brɪtn̩] vs. ['brɪʔn̩]

Contrastive distribution: minimal pairs


(same number of segments,
difference in one segment only, mean /miːn/ vs. bean /biːn/
different meaning)

Classification of sound categories → voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation


Allophonic rules → variability in these features
Allophonic rules → OBLIGATORY or OPTIONAL

linguistic context and free variation, linguistic


position context and position,
speaker-dependent

Narrow (allophonic) transcription – shows more phonetic details


by using more specific symbols and representing allophonic differences.

English consonant allophones – PLOSIVES


/p/ - bilabial, /t/ - alveolar, /k/ - velar
1. Voiceless alveolar plosives /p, t, k/ may be aspirated (ASPIRATION – additional puff of
breath/air) when they are at the beginning of a stressed syllable and followed by a vowel, e.g.:
Diacritic: [pʰ] pit [pʰɪt] potato [pəˈtʰeɪtə] top [tʰɒp] caught [kʰɔːt]

Voiceless alveolar plosives are unaspirated when preceded by /s/, e.g.:


stew [stjuː] span [spæn] stick [stɪk]

2. Voiced plosives /b, d, g/ are fully voiced when they appear in voiced context (between voiced
sounds), e.g.
ladder [ˈlædə] eager [ˈiːɡə]
Voiced plosives /b, d, g/ are partially devoiced when next to a voiceless obstruent or a pause (inside
words and across word boundaries), e.g.
Diacritic: [b̥] website [web̥saɪt] this day [ðɪs d̥eɪ]

3. Plosives have inaudible release (no plosion, no audible release, are unexploded) when:

Diacritic: [b̚]

• in final position (optional), e.g.: rob [rɒb̚]


• before a plosive or an affricate, e.g. stopped [stɒp̚t] lecture [lek̚tʃə]
• in clusters of three plosives, e.g.: stopped quickly [stɒp̚t̚ ˈkwɪkli]

Plosives have a nasal plosion (nasal release) before nasals, e.g.

Diacritic: [dⁿ] sudden [sʌdⁿn̩] a bit nicer [ə bɪtⁿ ˈnaɪsə]

Plosives have a lateral plosion (lateral release) before /l/, e.g.

Diacritic: [tˡ] little [lɪɪtˡl ̩] bad luck [bædˡ lʌk]


4. In many accents of English, /p, t, k/ in syllable final position can be glottally reinforced, e.g.:

Diacritic: [ˀk] kick [kɪˀk] pit [pɪˀt] tip [tɪˀp]

In some accents of English /t/ can be replaced by a glottal stop (usually in intervocalic position,
when followed by a nasal), e.g.:

Diacritic: [ʔ] beaten [biːʔn̩] better [beʔə]

5. Alveolar plosives /t, d/ can become dental before dental consonants /θ, ð/, e.g.:

Diacritic: [d̪] width [wɪd̪θ]

6. Bilabial plosives /p, b/ are labiodental before labiodental sounds /f, v/, e.g.

Diacritic: [b̪] obvious [ˈɒb̪vɪəs]

7. Alveolar plosives /t, d/ are retracted before post-alveolar /r/ and palato-alveolar sounds /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ,
dʒ/, e.g.

Diacritic: [t ̠] try [t ̠raɪ] cold rain [kəʊld̠ reɪn]

8. Velar plosives /k, g/ are advanced when in the neighbourhood of a front vowel /æ, ɪ, e, iː/ and
retracted when in the neighbourhood of a back vowel /uː, ʊ, ɔː, ɒ, ɑː/, e.g.:

Diacritic: [k̠] [k̟] keen [k̟iːn] talk [tɔːk̠]

9. Pre-fortis clipping – shortening of a vowel (monophthongs – long/short; diphthongs) when


followed by a voiceless/fortis obstruent (plosives, affricates, fricatives), within the same syllable,
e.g.

Diacritic: [ɪ ̆] pick [pɪk]


̆ beat [biˑt] boat [bə̆ʊt]

BUT across [əˈkrɒs] → different syllable

→ voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation

Sources:
Giegerich, H. J. (1992). English Phonology: An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP
Gimson A.C. (2008) Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. Hodder Education
Sobkowiak W. (2001). English Phonetics for Poles. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie
Szpyra-Kozłowska, J., Sobkowiak, W. Workbook in English Phonetics
Waniek-Klimczak, E. (2002). Sounds in B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (Ed.) Ways to Language, Łódź: Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

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