Consonant Allophones

By : Bayu Jaka Magistra180120130006

Phonemes

• Ancient Greek φώνημα (phōnēma), from φωνέω (phōneō), from φωνή (phōnē) = speech sound

• The smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word (www.merriam-webster.com)

• The smallest contrastive linguistic unit which may bring about a change of meaning (Gimson, 2008)

speech sound, one word different from another, meaning

A phoneme is a speech sound that can make one word different from another

in meaning.

Minimal Pairs

Minimal Pairs

• It is somehow considered to be a technique to discover phonemes of a language.

• A minimal pair is a pair of words or phrases in a particular language, which is different in only one phonological element…. (Jones, 1944)

• The different phonological element makes one word different from another in meaning

• Thus the two different phonological elements in the pair of words represent two separate phonemes in the language.

Minimal Pairs in English

/pɪn/ Pin•These words are different only in the

initial sound. Each different initial sound makes a word different from each other in meaning.

•So… /p/ /b/ /t/ /k/ /dʒ/ /tʃ/ /θ/ and /s/ are considered to be different phonemes.

/bɪn/ Bin

/tɪn/ Tin/kɪn/ Kin

/dʒɪn/ Gin

/tʃɪn/ Chin

/θɪn/ Thin

/sɪn/ sin

Minimal Pairs in English

/bæt/ Bat

• These words are different only in the medial sound. Each different medial sound makes a word different from each other in meaning.

• So… /æ/ /ɪ/ /uː/ /e/ and /ɔː/ are considered to be different phonemes.

/bɪt/ Bit/buːt/ Boot/bet/ Bet

/bɔːt/ Bought

English Phonemes*

Vowels /ʌ/ /ɑː//ɪ/ /iː//ʊ/ /uː//e/ /æ//ɒ/ /ɔː//ə/ /ɜː/

Diphthongs/eɪ/ /eə//aɪ/ /ʊə//ɔɪ/ /ɔə//əʊ//aʊ//ɪə/

Consonants

/p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /tʃ/ /h/ /n/ /r/ /w/

/b/ /d/ /g/ /v/ /ð/ /z/ /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /m/ /l/ /ŋ/ /j/

*Based on Received Pronunciation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation)

Allophones

• from the Greek: ἄλλος, állos, "other" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice, sound.“ = Other sound

• An allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme (Jakobson, 1980).

• Allophones do not change the meaning of a word

• Allophones happen because of the position of a phoneme and the phonetic characteristics of neighboring sounds

Allophones

Allophones are phoneme variations that do not cause meaning change and happen because of its position and the phonetic characteristics of neighboring sounds.

Kinds of Allophones

1

Aspiration

3

Elision

2

Assimilation

1. Aspiration

• Characterized by strong explosion of breath or puff.• It happens to voiceless plosive consonants

( /p/ /t/ /k/ ) in the initial position.

[pʰ]

[p]

[p]

[tʰ]

[t]

[t]

[kʰ]

[k]

[k]

• Pen [pʰen] aspirated• Stop [stɒp] un-aspirated

• Top [tʰ ɒp] aspirated• Bat [bæt] un-aspirated

• King [kʰɪŋ] aspirated• Back [bæk] un-aspirated

1. Aspiration

2. Assimilation

• (to) assimilate = incorporate = memasukkan.

• Assimilation is the influence of a sound on a neighboring sound so that the two become similar or the same (Salzmann, 2004)

2. Assimilation

Examples

• White Pepper /waIt 'pepə/. If we pronounce this phrase rapidly, the phoneme /t/ in the word “white” /waIt / becomes /p/, because of the influence of the phoneme /p/ in the word “pepper”/pepə/. So the phrase becomes /waIp'pepə/

• On the house /ɒn ðə 'haʊs/If we pronounce this phrase rapidly, the phoneme /ð/ in the word “the” /ðə/ becomes /n/, because of the influence of the phoneme /n/ in the word “on” /ɒn/ . So the phrase becomes /ɒn nə 'haʊs/

3. Elision

• An elision is the omission of a sound for phonological reasons (Algeo, 1999)

The next day /ðə ‘neks(t) ‘deɪ/ The phoneme /t/ is elided

The last car /ðə ‘lɑ:s(t) kɑ:/ The phoneme /t/ is elided

Hold the dog! /’həʊl(d) ðə ‘dɒg/ The phoneme /d/ is elided

Send Frank a card. /sen(d) ‘fræŋk ə ‘kɑ:d/ The phoneme /d/ is elided

Quiz

peter piper picked a peck of peckled peppers, a peck of pickled peppers peter piper picked, if peter piper picked a peck of peckled pepers, where's the peck of pickled peppers peter piper picked?

Thank You Very Much

Bibliography

Algeo, J. (1999). Vocabulary. In S. Romaine (Ed.), The Cambridge History of the English Language (Vol. IV). Cambridge Univ. Press.

Gimson, A. C. (2008). The Pronunciation of English (7 ed.). London , England: Hodder.

Jakobson, R. (1980). Structure of Language and Its Mathematical Aspects: Proceedings of symposia in applied mathematics. AMS Bookstore.

Jones, D. (1944). Chronemes and Tonemes. Copenhagen: Acta Linguistica.Salzmann, Z. (2004). Language, Culture, and Society: An Introduction to

Linguistic Anthropology. Westview.