ALLOPHONES

 

PHONEMES

We communicate with the people either by writing a document or by speaking a message. When we write we used alphabet (letters) but when we speak we use sounds. These sounds are called phonemes in English.  Phonemes are the minimal, meaningful and distinctive units of sound.

Minimal: These phonemes cannot be further sub-divided into smaller chunks.  

Meaningful: They give a clear-cut impression of distinct sounds and if change one phoneme from another phoneme it may change the meaning of the word

Distinctive: Each phoneme is distinct (different) from other phonemes.

In English language we have 44 phonemes. Symbols of phonemes are enclosed within slant brackets //. All the phonemes are divided into vowels and consonants. Vowel sounds are 20 in number which are further divided into 12 pure vowel sounds and 8 diphthongs. There are total 24 consonant sounds as mentioned below-

Vowels (Phonemes)	Consonants (Phonemes)
DIPHTHONGS (Phonemes)

 

We know that each phoneme has a distinct sound for example in the words

1.      (word) Pin--------- /pɪn/, ------------- consonant sound is /p/,

2.      (word) Bin -------- /bɪn/, ------------- consonant sound is /b/,

3.      (word) Sit ----------/sɪt/, ------------- consonant sound is /s/,

4.      (word) Kit ----------/kɪt/ ------------- consonant sound is /k/

Consonant sound (phoneme) in the beginning of each word, is completely different from other three consonant sounds. The changed consonant in the given words also bring changes in the meaning of the words.

Look another example in the following words

1.      (Word) fit --------------/fɪt/, ------------vowel sound is ɪ

2.      (Word) fat--------------/fæt/, ------------vowel sound is æ

3.      (word) foot ------------/fʊt/, ------------vowel sound is ʊ

There is the difference of the vowel sound in the middle of each word and this change in vowel brings about a change in the meaning of the given words.

ALLOPHONES

A phoneme can have more than one phonetic realization; these are called allophones. These are the variants of the same phoneme in a language. It does not change the meaning of a word. Allophone sounds are minimal, meaningful but not distinctive in nature. Allophones of a phoneme are phonetically similar sounds and yet different from one another. This difference between them cannot be identified easily. Thes are the sounds which don’t bring about a change in the meaning of a word; hence they are not distinctive. For example

 

 

 

some more examples of allophones

1.