Differences Between Phoneme And Allophones
Phonology, a study of the speech sounds used in a language, is a branch of linguistics which has an intimate connection with its linguistic siblings. There is, however one family member that is closer to it than the others even though they are often distinguished from one another mostly in that they play different roles in this linguistic family. Nevertheless, you can’t have one without the other. they are like buddy-buddy. And the not-so-secret buddy is Phonetics. Without Phonology, surface representations would be cryptic and unexplainable. Without Phonetics, phonological units lose its [plural referent] meaning to exist. However,I am not going to dig [there’s probably a preposition missing here] the differences of these two in a general
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please recall that allophones are in complementary distribution which directly constrains a realization of minimal pairs inside a same phoneme yet in a parallel distribution,where two sounds or two phonemes occur in identical contexts,these units are immuned from this restriction.Moreover,don’t forget that allophones of a same phoneme should be phonetically similar.Although it seems like that the distinction is fairly clear and the definitions of these two units are unassailable.The gods send nuts to those who have no teeth.Here come two notorious units that challenges the existing theories.The velar nasal “ ŋ “ and the voiceless glottal approximates “ h “ are two abnormal units.They are deductively in complementary distribution for “h” can only occur in syllable onsets and “ ŋ “ in syllable rhyme.But it is conspicuous that they have no similarity in phonetic level thus it’s impossible to find a phoneme of their own.Generally,after a failure of aligning with the allophony,we would take it for granted that they must be two different phonemes.However,the inability to contrast also kills that conjecture in the bud.Then what are these two units?Most of the linguists still regard them as phonemes.A so-called “defective distribution” was put forward,trying to blame the phonotactics for this abnormality.Notwithstanding,we can still sense a difference between these two and the other more ordinary phonemes.Apparently,they can not be defined by the theories that we have established for phonemes or allophony and that’s my intention for bringing them
please recall that allophones are in complementary distribution which directly constrains a realization of minimal pairs inside a same phoneme yet in a parallel distribution,where two sounds or two phonemes occur in identical contexts,these units are immuned from this restriction.Moreover,don’t forget that allophones of a same phoneme should be phonetically similar.Although it seems like that the distinction is fairly clear and the definitions of these two units are unassailable.The gods send nuts to those who have no teeth.Here come two notorious units that challenges the existing theories.The velar nasal “ ŋ “ and the voiceless glottal approximates “ h “ are two abnormal units.They are deductively in complementary distribution for “h” can only occur in syllable onsets and “ ŋ “ in syllable rhyme.But it is conspicuous that they have no similarity in phonetic level thus it’s impossible to find a phoneme of their own.Generally,after a failure of aligning with the allophony,we would take it for granted that they must be two different phonemes.However,the inability to contrast also kills that conjecture in the bud.Then what are these two units?Most of the linguists still regard them as phonemes.A so-called “defective distribution” was put forward,trying to blame the phonotactics for this abnormality.Notwithstanding,we can still sense a difference between these two and the other more ordinary phonemes.Apparently,they can not be defined by the theories that we have established for phonemes or allophony and that’s my intention for bringing them